WFAA-TV/DT became the first Dallas-Fort Worth market station to begin regularly scheduled broadcasting of local HD newscasts in February with a unique twist: the station's new HD news set is in the heart of a high-visibility portion of the city with its production control room about a mile away.
Using Thomson Grass Valley LDK 4000 HD cameras and a Kayak HD video production switcher, the Belo-owned station is broadcasting its news in 1080i HD. To broadcast in HD, WFAA built a new 4000sq-ft studio with new cameras and a new news set. It also continues to produce content from its existing facilities located about a mile away. The station is using four of Grass Valley LDK 4000 HD cameras in the new facility and another four in its existing Dallas studio. The station also has active newsrooms facilities in Fort Worth and Frisco.
The new glass-walled production facility is a few steps away from the American Airlines Center, home to the NBA's Dallas Mavericks and the NHL's Stanley Cup Champions, the Dallas Stars. It provides visitors with a storefront view of WFAA's live morning newscasts, "Good Morning Texas," its noon and 5 p.m. newscasts and other weekly sports, news and entertainment programs. The new set was designed by New York's PDG.
WFAA's new Victory Park facility opened Jan. 8 and began full HD broadcasting Feb. 2. The new facility does not include a production control room. All of the individual LDK 4000 camera feeds are sent back to the station via fiber optics, where they are input into the Kayak switcher before going to air. The Grass Valley HD cameras and the output of the remote Kayak switcher also feed a large HD screen located outside above the south wall of the WFAA studio.
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