As part of a nine-month upgrade to a high
definition infrastructure, New Vision TV's Portland, Ore., CBS affiliate KOIN
has installed a number of Utah Scientific equipment, including a routing system
based on UTAH-400 144- and 288-frame routers, two MC-400 master control
switchers, sync generation equipment and a SC-4/MX-Lator control system.
KOIN Chief Engineer Dave Bird cited the reliability
of Utah Scientific equipment as a key reason for their decision to use the
vendor during the HD upgrade. "Having reliable Utah Scientific equipment and
the accompanying 10-year no-fee warranty means you make the purchase once and
avoid budgets surprises in the future," Bird said in a prepared statement.
KOIN faced several challenges in making the HD
upgrade, including the large number of sources it uses for its news programming
and the fact that it was working out of a 25-year old building where space,
cooling and electrical capacity was limited.
The nine-month upgrade involved using an existing
space, but bringing in new racks and equipment, moving master control to a new
room and upgrading and converting almost all sources.
During this process, the UTAH-400 routing switcher
made it possible to significantly reduce rack space and power requirements and
to handle the large number of sources KOIN has for its news programming.
The master control switcher from Utah operates on a
GUI-only control panel, which helps keep the station's glass-walled, modern
control room cool and quiet.
The Utah Scientific MX-Lator also enables the switcher to control
existing external routers.
