Independent station owner Griffin Communications is putting the finishing touches on a brand new, all HD broadcast facility in Tulsa, OK — the home of News On 6, KOTV (the local CBS affiliate), and The Tulsa CW, KQCW (the local CW affiliate) — and equipping it with several HD cameras, a new HD video production switcher and several of the latest generation of HD media servers from Grass Valley.
The multiformat production equipment will help News On 6 streamline its production operations by enabling file-based recording of incoming feeds, clip management and playout of a variety of network-supplied and locally produced programming.
The new broadcast facility, which was built from the ground up beginning in October 2011, is set to be fully operational in January, 2013; originating News On 6 and Tulsa CW, plus two digital subchannels (“News on 6 Now," and “ThisTV”). Master Control and the new Grass Valley servers will begin operations in the new building December 2012.
News On 6 has used Grass Valley production switchers for many years — starting with a Grass Valley 300 switcher. For the new facility, the station has added a new Grass Valley Kayenne Video Production Center switcher. The switcher will handle the signals from four Grass Valley LDK 4000 Elite HD cameras, currently in use in the station’s existing news studio.
News On 6 has also added two next-generation K2 Summit 3G server frames and several terabytes of storage capacity to its existing complement of Grass Valley K2 Summit servers that have been in use for several years. The new K2 Summit 3G servers will be used in tandem with a Harris automation system to handle incoming and outgoing programming and news feeds as digital files.