Independent station owner Griffin Communications is putting the finishing touches on a new, all HD broadcast facility in Tulsa, OK — as the home of News On 6, KOTV, the local CBS affiliate and The Tulsa CW, KQCW, the local CW affiliate.
The broadcaster is equipping the facility with several high-definition (HD) cameras, a new HD video production switcher and several of the latest generation of HD media servers from Grass Valley.
Griffin Communications has been a long-time user of Grass Valley broadcast technology at its existing facility, where it began broadcasting in 1949.
The Grass Valley multiformat production equipment will help News On 6 streamline its production operations by enabling the file-based recording of incoming feeds, clip management, and playout of a variety of network-supplied and locally produced programming.
The new broadcast facility, built from the ground, is set to be fully operational in January 2013. Construction began in October 2011. It will originate News On 6 and Tulsa CW, as well as two digital subchannels (“News on 6 Now”, and “ThisTV”). Master control and the new Grass Valley servers will begin operations in the new building December 2012.
“News On 6 will now have much more space for its staff and equipment and will be able to do so much more with the Grass Valley technologies being installed,” said News On 6 chief engineer Gerald Weaver.
News On 6 will use its new Grass Valley Kayenne switcher to produce 39.5 hours of local news as well as other programming each week, Weaver said. The broadcaster has used Grass Valley production switchers for many years, starting with a Grass Valley 300 and most recently moving on to a Kalypso switcher. For the new facility, the station has added a new Grass Valley Kayenne Video Production Center switcher. The switcher will handle the signals from four Grass Valley LDK 4000 Elite HD cameras, currently in use in the station’s existing news studio.
News On 6 also has added two K2 Summit 3G server frames and several terabytes of storage capacity to its existing complement of Grass Valley K2 Summit servers, which have been in use for several years. The new K2 Summit 3G servers will be used in tandem with a Harris automation system to handle incoming and outgoing programming and news feeds as digital files.
