WABF has adopted JVC's GY-HD250 camcorders for its high definition news production.BATON ROUGE, LA.
WAFB has a long been part of the fabric here, as it was the second television station to go on the air in Louisiana. During the past 50-plus years, the station has created a news organization that's second to none in south Louisiana, providing complete coverage of local, state, and regional news events.
We're the winner of numerous awards from the Associated Press and the Louisiana Association of Broadcasters and we now present our viewers with 25 hours of news programming each week.
We're also the only network affiliate in this market to air a complete rebroadcast of every locally produced newscast, in addition to both a live weekend morning news program and a noon news product on our cable television outlet, News Channel 9.
When our parent company, Raycom Media, decided to convert more than 30 of its news production studios to high-definition operation, the company sought a solution that would neither break the budget nor compromise our picture quality. After all, what really counts in this business is the picture that you're providing to your viewers.
ENGINEERING COMMITTEE DID ITS HOMEWORK
A variety of manufacturers' cameras were evaluated by a Raycom Media Engineering committee and that group settled on JVC's ProHD line as a very cost-effective solution for HD conversion of its news studio operations.
That Raycom group specifically selected the JVC GY-HD250 camera based on its excellent image quality, range of professional features, numerous lens options and the camera's ability to be easily configured for use as a true studio camera. (This is accomplished by the use of JVC's optional KA-HD250 studio adapter, which incorporates an industry-standard 26-pin multi-core connection.)
JVC STUDIO PACKAGE OMITS NOTHING
The complete camera studio package (JVC's designation for this is GYHD250CSTNL) includes a studio viewfinder, tripod adapter, camera control unit and all the other elements necessary for bridging between field and studio configurations. This makes the choice of the JVC GY-HD250 an ideal configuration for the news studio.
Here at WAFB, we're using Canon KT20x5BKRS lenses with our GY-HD250 cameras and are very pleased with the results of this combination. The JVC product is a very versatile camera that truly meets the requirements of high-end studio production.
We currently have four JVC GY-HD250s installed now at WAFB and we have been using these as our primary studio cameras for high-definition news broadcasts since December 2007. The new JVC HD cameras and camera control units were combined with Snell and Wilcox's Kahuna production switcher and this made the station's transition to high-definition news origination very smooth and seamless.
OPERATORS PLEASED WITH NEW CAMERAS
Our operators are happy with the choice to go with JVC cameras, as they've found that the GY-HD250s are quite user-friendly. The camera configuration is easy to set up and operate with a very minimal amount of training and learning curve involved. Also they are quite proud of the excellent quality high-definition pictures that our station is now producing.
Raycom is now making plans to upgrade additional stations in its group for high-definition operation with JVC's ProHD line.
Dale Russell has been the chief engineer at WAFB television for 20 years. He may be contacted atdrussell@wafb.com.
For additional information, contact JVC at 800-582-5825 or visitwww.pro.jvc.com.
