New Mexico PBS, located at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, is using a Snell Kahuna SD/HD multiformat production switcher in its new HD production control room and studio. Integrated with other best-of-breed broadcast products, the Kahuna provides the reliability, ease of use and image quality that New Mexico PBS required for its state-of-the-art video production facilities. By improving the efficiency of the overall broadcast workflow, the flexibility of the Kahuna system also saves New Mexico PBS time and money.
New Mexico PBS produces both public affairs programs and documentaries with live studio content, so video production values are critical. After a thorough evaluation of video switchers, it selected the Kahuna multiformat production switcher.
Kahuna's internal resizing engine allows it to handle any format or aspect ratio on the fly, and Snell's FormatFusion technology enables simultaneous SD and HD operations in the same mainframe and on the same control panel. This flexibility vastly simplifies the HD transition by eliminating the need for external up/down/crossconverters in the live production environment, as well as the cost and signal-path delay associated with these products. Kahuna's three M/E banks, with four tiers of effects per bank, make 12 keys possible, and staff at New Mexico PBS rely heavily on Kahuna's chroma key and on the four two-channel DVEs built into the system to bring complex effects and sophisticated elements to their productions.
