Germany's TV Skyline, a television production company and provider of broadcast solutions to the European market, is using a Snell & Wilcox Kahuna SD/HD multiformat production switcher to deliver HD coverage of the 2006 FIFA World Cup for pay-TV provider Premiere.
Installed in TV Skyline's HD production truck, Ü5HD, the Kahuna switcher is being used to integrate sources from as many as 12 external HD services, six additional cameras from the truck and a variety of other SD and HD sources in the production of both an SD and a 16:9 HD 1080i broadcast signal.
In multiformat SD/HD mode, Kahuna users can mix existing SD camera feeds, graphics, handheld shots and archive footage directly into an HD production with no need HD upconversion equipment. A Snell & Wilcox technology called FormatFusion allows SD sources to be integrated seamlessly into HD productions, and vice versa, without the need for conversion.
Switcher operators in Ü5HD can allocate the Kahuna's M/E banks to output either in SD or HD and then mix any of the inputs, regardless of format, to produce a seamless HD or SD result. This operational flexibility extends Kahuna's ability to network multiple control surfaces to different mainframes, to allocate one mainframe to separate control panels, or to operate in SD or HD as required, making maximum use of all available M/Es.
TV Skyline's Kahuna system features 60 inputs and is equipped with four M/E banks, each with four-channel 3D DVE and a RAM recorder to enable high-quality slow-motion playback. In addition to the main control interface, which is operated by the technical director, the system features a second smaller panel, equipped with two M/E banks and 24 signals per key bank for direct access by a second director.
For more information, please visit www.snellwilcox.com.
