WBNS-TV extends HD infrastructure
Jan 19, 2010 10:52 AM
With the addition of a second Kahuna multiformat production switcher, WBNS in Columbus, OH, is implementing the next phase of its plan that ultimately will complete its transition to HD, says station director of engineering Pat Ingram.
Since February 2007, WBNS-TV, the Dispatch Broadcast Group-owned CBS affiliate in Columbus, OH, has broadcast its local newscasts in HD. But lately, the HD footprint around the building has gotten a little bigger.
WBNS recently added a second Snell Kahuna multiformat production switcher as part of its HD infrastructure build out to support HD local productions done by 10TV Productions, its in-house production arm, as well as to integrate operations at the Ohio News Network (ONN), the broadcast group’s statewide 24/7 cable news channel, with WBNS.
According to WBNS director of engineering Pat Ingram, the upgrade of ONN and TV10 Productions was part of the broadcast group’s original, long-term plan for HD. In this Sound Off interview, Ingram discusses the station’s original HD upgrade, the latest phase of the project encompassing 10TV Productions and ONN as well as how the broadcaster is balancing bit allocation to maintain a high level of quality with its HD image while making way for one SD multicast channel and a newly launched mobile DTV channel.
HD Technology Update: You’ve been quoted as saying the Columbus, OH, market is one of the most competitive news markets in the country and that the only way to remain competitive is to operate as efficiently as possible. How did the desire to maximize news workflow efficiency influence the design of your HD plant?
Pat Ingram: I think one thing for WBNS itself is accuracy, and being first to air is of the utmost importance. I think it is impossible today to be competitive if you are using a tape-based workflow. All the stations in Columbus are either all P2 or mostly P2 now, so everybody is on a file-based workflow now. Everyone kind of plays tag keeping up with each other and trying to get ahead of each other technologically so they can have that edge when it comes to getting that news accurately on the air.
We switched to file-based nonlinear editing over seven years ago, and we just completed the acquisition side when we switched to all P2.
This all started with a total overhaul of everything in house, starting with our network. One of the first things we did was totally rebuild the network infrastructure in house to a total GigE network, and something that is expandable and has plenty of bandwidth capacity to transfer files between not only the newsroom and newsroom computer and editing systems, but between promotions an programming, so everybody could share video files wherever they need to be shared. Promotions can pull a news story so they can do a real quick promo and get it on the air.
Getting that file-based network system up and running where it should have been for this was very important.
Previously, we were on a 10Base100 network for a number of years. There were a lot of things that initiated this. First off, we were going to Omneon Spectrum servers. We went to an Omneon MediaGrid for an editing SAN for our Final Cut Pro people. All of this required high-speed transfer of files since it was all HD. Before we started those projects, the first thing we did was build out our network because we’ve known for a long time that we were going to a file-based system with a five-year plan for getting everything file-based.
The news people wanted instant access to their stories — not just from an edit suite, but from their desktops — and they wanted to be able to pull things out into the field and to send things in from the field. Our promotions people wanted to have that same access to news stories to build their promos and then send their product to our play-to-air servers. All of this can be done with file-based transfer now. It’s all part of our infrastructure plan to have a total file-based workflow.
To take it one step further, our routing system now is totally embedded. Although this has its good and bad points for a lot of stations, I think down the road it will pay dividends for us as more and more gear goes fully embedded. Then we can do our linear stuff through the routing system without having the issues of lip-synch problems and things that get stripped off video and don’t get added back. Everything stays intact as it passes through the station that way.
HD Technology Update: Could you outline the technology involved in upgrading the news studio, control room, weather and field acquisition for HD?
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