On Monday, Dec. 18, KREN-DT, the CW affiliate in Reno, NV, went live with a one-hour newscast, using Canon HDV (1080i) camcorders.
It’s the first HD newscast for a CW affiliate and the first locally produced 10 p.m. newscast for the Reno DMA. Pappas Telecasting spent about $1 million on the HD news production capabilities and about $2 million on the entire facility.
The station is using Canopus EDIUS NLE systems from Grass Valley to edit content captured on camera-mounted FireStore hard drives. Additional production systems include an ENPS (Electronic News Production System) newsroom computer system, Vizrt graphics software and a Ross Synergy production switcher.
With new local HD newscasts at WNBC, New York, and WSB, Atlanta, industry estimates are that roughly 25 stations now offer some type of HD newscast. Reno is the smallest market thus far.
