Media General, owner of 18 network-affiliated TV stations across the southeastern United States, will upgrade the newscasts at three of its SD broadcast properties to the latest version of the Grass Valley Ignite HD integrated production system.
The move brings the total number of Ignite systems installed at Media General stations to 13. The comprehensive file-based system will provide a high degree of production control and efficiency at the stations and improve their on-air look.
The Media General stations making the switch to Ignite are WKRG, the CBS affiliate in Mobile, AL; WSAV, the NBC affiliate in Savannah, GA; and WJHL, the CBS affiliate in Johnson City, TN. Once installed later this year, a single operator at all three stations will produce daily newscasts in HD using a 2M/E, semi-redundant Ignite HD system with Grass Valley HDC robotic HD cameras.
WKRG is replacing an existing ParkerVision system and also will add a new Grass Valley K2 storage area network (SAN) play-to-air server platform with eight channels (four HD and four SD) networked to a redundant, 5.4TB HD storage array (336 hours at 8Mb/s or 87 hours at 50 Mb/s).
In addition to its new Ignite HD system, WJHL will receive a four-channel K2 Summit HD production client server with dedicated internal storage.
