WAVE Television has become the first broadcaster to air high-definition newscasts in the Louisville, Ky., market. The Raycom Media-owned station started the local HD broadcasts with its 5:00 p.m. news block on June 30.
WAVE, an NBC affiliate, installed a Snell & Wilcox Kahuna production switcher to make the HD programming possible.
“In our highly competitive market, time is of the essence with new product offerings,” said Daniel Foos, operations manager at WAVE. “We had a 30-day window in which to roll out our new HD newscast and we needed a medium that could seamlessly handle both SD and HD signals. The Kahuna made it possible by allowing us to go live in HD without having to convert SD content from our archive.”
Raycom Media has standardized on Snell & Wilcox switchers for taking its entire group of stations to high-definition broadcasting. Foos reports that the production team at his station is pleased with the performance of the switcher’s performance and the ease with which his staff was able to transition operations to the new switcher
“The key today when introducing any new technology is to make sure you leave plenty of room for people to be creative,” Foos said. “With the Kahuna, our directors are thinking outside the box and doing things that simply weren’t possible before, such as animated effects on transitions. And thanks to the excellent training and support we received from Snell & Wilcox, our directors were able to get up to speed very quickly on the new system.”
WAVE is Louisville’s oldest television station, having initially signed on in 1948.
