Raycom Media's newest NBC affiliate, WMBF-TV serving Myrtle Beach and Florence, SC, has gone on-air with the Snell Kahuna multiformat SD/HD production switcher. Raycom Media stations are standardizing on the Kahuna, and the Snell system is at the heart of the station’s state-of-the-art digital facility.
"The launch of a full-power digital station, built from the ground up, is a significant and unusual challenge, but one that gave us the freedom to incorporate best-of-breed systems for digital broadcasting," said Bob Thurber, Raycom director of engineering.
Signing on-air Aug. 8, 2008, the new full-power digital station is the first station in the area to offer local news in HD. The eight counties covered by WMBF include 280,000 TV households, making it the 103rd-largest TV market in the country, according to Nielsen Media Research.
The Kahuna production switcher offers the station flexibility in handling SD and HD content. It provides the tools needed to build dynamic broadcasts, including powerful effects, he said.
WMBF-TV is the Myrtle Beach-Florence market's first local NBC affiliate, and its Kahuna production switcher allows the station to deliver high-demand HD content and to take advantage of new advertising revenues in the market. The entirely digital station is equipped to provide HD local programming with the Kahuna providing seamless upconversion of SD content for transparent integration into HD productions.
