ABC Affiliate in Tulsa Upgrades Newscasts to HD with JVC

JVC Professional Products Company, a division of JVC Americas Corp., announced that KTUL, the ABC affiliate in Tulsa, OK, has purchased 18 GY-HM790 ProHD cameras, as well as two GY-HM750Us, to produce its local newscasts in HD. The new cameras were first used in SD mode when they were delivered in March, but the station transitioned to full HD for ENG and studio production on Aug. 22.

Richard Powell, KTUL commercial production, shows off one of the station’s new ProHD cameras, which are being used to produce local newscasts in HD. Photo by Boyd Murphy.

KTUL is affiliated with Allbritton Communications Company, which is based in Arlington, VA, and recently standardized on JVC ProHD cameras at six of its stations. The new cameras are part of an overall transition to local HD news production for all stations in the group.

KTUL uses four of its new GY-HM790 cameras in the studio, along with a GY-HM250 on a jib. Roger Herring, KTUL director of broadcast operations, said the picture quality is a “huge improvement from where we were.” The studio cameras are connected via fiber optic cable, which allows the station to send all signals over a single cable – no triax or additional cable bundles necessary.

Herring said the station’s ENG shooters are pleased with the quality and weight of the ProHD cameras. KTUL uses Adobe Premiere Pro CS5 and Apple Final Cut Pro editing systems, and recording ready-to-edit footage on non-proprietary SDHC cards has improved the station’s workflow. “Native file recording makes moving from camera to editor extremely quick,” Herring explained. “It allows us to edit quickly in the field as well.”

A solution for multicore or fiber-based studios, the GY-HM790 offers a modular design and a redesigned studio adapter sled. Its three, 1/3-inch progressive scan CCDs produce 1280×720 and 1920×1080 images, and its proprietary MPEG-2 encoder supports 1080i, 720p, and even SD (480i) for operations that have not yet made the move to HD. The compact, shoulder-mount camera can be used for ENG use, with a dual card slot design that records to low-cost, non-proprietary SDHC solid-state media cards in ready-to-edit file formats (.MOV and .MP4) for major NLE systems.

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