WOIO, the Raycom Media Group-owned CBS affiliate serving the Cleveland market, is switching its new HD newscast with the Snell & Wilcox Kahuna multiformat SD/HD production switcher.
Raycom Media Group has standardized on Snell & Wilcox Kahuna switchers to support its groupwide transition to HDTV operations.
WOIO initiated SD operations with the Kahuna four months before the launch of its HD operations, which enabled a smooth transition to full multiformat mode when the HD newscast went live.
According to WOIO chief engineer Bob Maupin, the station will continue to work with SD material, such as camera feeds or archived footage, integrating it into its new HD newscasts. The Kahuna will allow the station to mix SD and HD material seamlessly without requiring upconversion, he said.
The Kahuna's distributed architecture and robust functionality have been well received by the WOIO operations staff. "The team appreciates the ability to build a wide variety of macros and assign them to different buttons with custom labels. Also, the modular, distributed nature of the Kahuna architecture means we can easily expand the switcher as we grow — and since the functionality is distributed across the entire mainframe, we aren't out of commission if we lose a single mix effects bank," Maupin said.
For more information, visit www.snellwilcox.com.
