Allbritton Communications, owner and operator of eight ABC affiliates, combined the studios of WJLA and Cable NewsChannel 8 into a new 76,000 square foot facility in Arlington, Va. last September and selected Wheatstone's TV-80 audio console to deliver audio for the new studio.
Wheatstone's TV-80 was installed in a phased-in approach: NewsChannel 8 moved in first and bought a new TV-80, followed by WJLA and their two-year old TV-80 two weeks later. The facility was designed with separate studios for each operation and individual control rooms housing similar equipment.
The audio console features electronic switching, modular construction permitting component level maintenance, LED switch illumination, an operator-intuitive eight bus mix-minus system with external confidence feeds and talkback and a master confidence IFB panel that can link to external tallies.
The stations share a fleet of seven ENG and three satellite trucks. The IFB mix-minus busses provide streamlining operations and enable one truck and one reporter to cover the same story consecutively for both stations. Wheatstone claims that crews can move between the two studios with no loss in audio transmission.
