Caracol Television Makes the Switch to HD with Grass Valley

by Brian Smith,

Leading Colombian broadcasting network, Caracol Television, has recently completed a transition of its main Bogotá facility control rooms to full HD production and content distribution with the installation of six Kayak HD production switchers.

This portion of the multi-phase migration from standard definition is valued at over $1 million (US).

Grass Valley Kayak HD

"Caracol Television is a pioneering broadcaster that knows the value of moving to HD operations ahead of its competitors, and is doing so in a cost-effective way," said Grass Valley Senior Vice President Jeff Rosica. "As the entire country of Colombia migrates to digital television, we expect many other broadcasters in the region to follow Caracol's lead and Grass Valley, along with our local dealer network, is ready to support them."

Caracol Television's six Kayak HD switchers (five with 1.5 M/E channels, one with 2 M/Es) are accompanied by a new Maestro master control and branding system and several audio and video conversion modules from the GeckoFlex signal equipment family. A Grass Valley Indigo A/V Mixer was also purchased for production activities.

Existing Grass Valley equipment includes over a dozen SD switchers, a Jupiter control system and Saturn control switcher.

"Our staff has become very productive with the Grass Valley Kayak SD switcher, so we knew we wanted to stay with the same look and feel for our new HD switchers and also get the same performance," said Caracol Technical Director Yesid Guerra. "Grass Valley technology has always been extremely reliable for us and the company supports it very well; so when we decided to upgrade our production facilities to HD operation, Grass Valley was the clear choice."

Caracol Television started in 1954 when Caracol Radio ventured into television broadcasting by offering to sell advertising spots to afford operating costs, then an exclusively nationalized venture. Rights were shared with the state-run broadcasting company. In 1967 operation of the station was awarded to Caracol Radio through a public bidding, and it became Caracol Television.

Over half of Caracol's original programming is dedicated to soap operas — dramatic and youth series, comedy and reality television. Affiliates include Caracol TV Internacional and the American network Telemundo.




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