Drewry Communications Group has decided to standardize on Utah Scientific's routing and master control equipment. As part of that decision, it has completed a major upgrade at its Amarillo, Texas-based CBS-affiliate KFDA to Utah Scientific routing and master control equipment.
The upgrade is the first of five installations for Drewry's, which will use the equipment at all of its stations.
KFDA has installed a master control system that includes four Utah Scientific MC-4000 units, an MCP-2020 panel, four master control MC-GUI systems and software options on the MC-4000 for integrated DVE, logo and EAS insertion.
The Utah Scientific routing systems include a UTAH-400 3G HD/SD video router loaded 88x64, an SC-4 control system, multiple router SoftPanel-2 GUIs and various control panels, UTAH-100 3G digital distribution amplifiers and a TSG-490 sync generator.
The new equipment enables KFDA to broadcast HD-originated content rather than upconverting from SD. In addition, because of the tight integration between the master control switcher and the routing switcher, operators have easier access to all sources connected to the router.
As a result of the upgrade, KFDA and its four subchannels can consolidate their assets, and operators can manage everything from one place, making the system more flexible, compact and easier to use.
"Previously, we had four different routers that really didn't talk to each other, and none of the on-air switchers could share resources," said Tim Winn, chief engineer at KFDA. "That made it difficult to do things that are important to us -- like weather cut-ins, which we need to do frequently in this part of the country. The new system handles that sort of thing with ease -- and on any combination of channels we want."
Winn also cited Utah Scientific's 10-year warranty and customer service as key factors in selecting the vendor.
