Central Texas ABC Affil Upgrade to Digital with Utah Scientfic Gear

Central Texas ABC affiliate KXXV has upgraded its plant from analog to digital with Utah Scientific routing and master control equipment. The move is part of a group-wide upgrade for owner Drewry Communications Group, which has standardized all of its facilities on Utah Scientific.

The Utah Scientific equipment provides complete HD-SDI routing for both KXXV and its sister channel, KRHD-CD, creating a more flexible workflow and enabling the station to compete in an all-HD market. Thanks to the new equipment, KXXV delivered the market’s first HD broadcast of local segments of Jerry Lewis’ MDA Labor Day Telethon.

“Our Utah Scientific equipment is the heart and soul of the TV station,” says Randy Lee, KXXV chief engineer. “Everything — commercials, newscasts, programming — runs through master control now, and because it’s integrated with routing, we can get to any source in the router via master control. The master control panels make it very easy to switch both channels simultaneously. And when we need to do a squeezeback for breaking news or some other unscripted event, we can now do it all in master control without having to go through production.”

KXXV installed an MCP-2020 multichannel master control panel; an MC-GUI; two MC-4000 master control processors with DVE, logo, and EAS capabilities; a UTAH-400 routing switcher V-144R frame loaded 88×56 for 3G HD/SD and V-32R frame loaded 8×8 for AES; an SC-4 control system; UTAH-100/3 Series 3G HD/SD distribution amplifiers; a TSG-490 sync generator; a SoftPanel-2 GUI; and various control panels.

“KXXV had to keep its analog operation going even as it built out the digital setup, which was no small feat,” says Tom Harmon, president and CEO of Utah Scientific. “We worked closely with Randy and his team at KXXV to get them the solid infrastructure of master control and routing that would not only usher them into the digital world, but also be there for them to count on well into the future.”

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