"The impact of our new HD production center and studio was immediately apparent to viewers, and Wohler's monitoring products play a key role in enabling delivery of this high-quality programming from our studios," said Jeff Halapin, director of engineering at WBAL-TV. "At stations around the facility, Wohler systems fit neatly into our consoles to provide straightforward monitoring appropriate to specific applications within the production workflow."
The HD upgrade at WBAL-TV expanded the broadcaster's existing facilities through the design and construction of a new HD video control room, audio control room, HD news production studio, a core equipment room, and a video control area. A Wohler RM-2440 LCD video monitor, which provides four 4-inch displays in just 2 RU, was installed in the camera control area to provide a view of robotic camera positions on the studio floor. Two MON4-2W/HR high-resolution video monitors provide camera confidence monitoring over four 4.3-inch LCD screens in 2 RU. Mounted within a cylinder, both monitoring products allow operators to adjust the viewing angle as desired.
Installed at five director and producer positions, Wohler's VMDA-4 audio monitor supports selectable monitoring of analog or AES sources, with excellent full-range fidelity far exceeding that of an ordinary monitor in 1 RU. With this tool, each operator can independently monitor a signal on the monitor wall display. Audio operators use two of Wohler's eight-channel AMP2-S8MDA audio monitors with Dolby® E decoding to verify the validity and availability of Dolby processing. Two AMP2A units are being used by the WBAL audio staff as cue speakers.
Newington, Va.-based Communications Engineering Inc. (CEI) supplied and installed the Wohler gear for WBAL-TV. "Wohler's monitoring products were a perfect fit for this project, thanks to their convenient combination of size and functionality," said Herman Reynolds, project manager at CEI. "We have worked with Wohler equipment in many projects and have been very pleased with their performance. Because the company offers a complete range of monitoring solutions, we were able to go to one vendor to address a wide range of monitoring needs at WBAL-TV."
More information about Wohler and the company's product line is available at www.wohler.com.
# # #
About WBAL-TV
WBAL-TV 11, a Hearst-Argyle station, is the NBC affiliate in Baltimore, Md. The station's broadcasts reach about 1 million households. Over the years, the station has been awarded the Edward R. Murrow Award for outstanding overall news coverage and presentation as well as the George Polk Award and American Bar Association Gavel Award, both for excellence in reporting and journalism. Both the Associated Press and United Press International have named WBAL-TV 11 as the outstanding television news operation in Baltimore. More information is available at www.wbaltv.com.
About Wohler Technologies Inc. and PANORAMAdtv
Wohler Technologies and PANORAMAdtv offer a comprehensive range of products that simplify analog and digital source monitoring in facilities of all sizes and complexity. Wohler Technologies was founded in 1987 and, through constant innovation, continues to be a world leader in providing in-rack audio monitoring solutions for the broadcast, motion picture, and professional audio/visual markets. With the 1997 launch of Wohler's video products division, PANORAMAdtv, the company expanded its offering to include a range of advanced video monitoring solutions, as well. Today, Wohler provides a complete range of monitors and closed-captioning solutions that supports the entire broadcast transmission chain. Wohler is based in the San Francisco Bay Area with an Asia-Pacific division in Hong Kong. More information about the company and its technologies is available at www.wohler.com.
ENDS