KVBC-TV, the NBC affiliate in Las Vegas, is transitioning from SD to HD broadcasting, which is scheduled to begin before the end of the year. As part of the conversion, the station has replaced the existing analog audio board supporting its news production studio with a Studer OnAir 3000 digital broadcast console.
Owned by Sunbelt Communications, KVBC-TV currently broadcasts a total of six hours of live news coverage per weekday, including a two-hour morning drive-time program, an hour at noon, followed by half-hour news segments at 4, 5, 6 and 11 p.m. The station also provides a 10 p.m. news program to the local CW affiliate.
Mark Guranik, KVBC-TV’s chief engineer, said the newscasts involve a variety of external sources and in-studio talent. The OnAir 3000’s ability to store and recall console setups and I/O configurations is used extensively and allows operators to instantly recall a specific layout.
The new OnAir 3000 features 24 on-surface faders and support for 16 mic/line sources, eight line-level sources and 24 AES-format digital sources, routing to 16 analog and 24 digital output ports. The console's mix-minus busses are essential for developing clean feeds to talent and outside contributors.
Current playback sources include a Grass Valley Profile server for digitized video and audio files — an Omneon Spectrum server is planned for the new HD operation. News clips are replayed from a BitCentral Oasis server system. The station will access about 35 sources from the production switcher, plus eight that are routable to the Studer console from remote news reporters.
For more information, visit www.studer.ch.
