Chicago-based station Weigel Broadcasting Co. has selected Pro-Bel's Sirius routers for its digital upgrade.
Weigel, a family owned company, operates stations in Chicago, Milwaukee and South Bend, Ind. The Chicago operation controls the South Bend station from a technical standpoint with all the on-air switching processing handled via microwave from the central master control facility. The company said the Sirius router is central to the operation's move to digital and is equipped 128 x 128 for both video (16 x 16 is HD/SDI, 24 x 24 analog, the rest SDI) and audio (88 x 88 AES and the remainder analog).
Kyle Walker, director of engineering with Weigel, said the clean onboard A/D conversion is a key reason for the purchase of the router technology, as well as the ability to upgrade it in increments of eight inputs or outputs.
During the station upgrade, Wiegel discovered some complex audio sync issues, so theyalso purchased the new Vaild8 video/audio sync test tool from Pro-Bel's Vistek product line to figure out where the sync issues were occurring.
Walker said, "Valid8 was a godsend. ...It is well worth the money and I would recommend it to anybody, even in small stations where it can be a 'set and forget' situation."
