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WGSR 47-1 to be testing HD transmissions

M

Matt

For those of you that enjoy watching unusual things on TV, WGSR will be doing HD program tests over the next two weeks, in anticipation of fulltime HD programming on our 47.1 subchannel in early March.

The tests will likely occur between midnight and 3am, possibly during the week but more likely on the weekends. The 47.1 subchannel will eventually broadcast with 720p in a 16x9 format. SD program material will be upconverted from 480i to 720p. Live studio production and on-location material will be in 720p, while recorded studio productions will remain 480i and upconverted for the time being.

We will be aligning equipment and adjusting the internal components of our transport stream to accommodate the HD transmissions. Bars and a "test card" will be transmitted with tone immediately prior to and following our HD tests.

If you watch us on cable, transmission may be interrupted for the duration of the test.

If you are watching over-the-air and see the test card, but do not hear the tone, you probably will need to rescan your receiver to watch our test. We welcome your comments on our test by e-mail at [email protected] .

Later. . . .
 
Matt, i'm glad your station is making efforts to upgrade, not many "low-digital" stations are doing that, but
if they are going to continue existing, sooner or later LDTV owners should upgrade to HD, it's well worth the
quality of the sound and picture.
 
The first phase of our test has gone well...in fact, so well that we have left the High-Definition encoding on-air. If you look at our signal on TWC, the difference is there, but it's not earth-shaking. Our OTA signal, though, is much better in 720p.

For the next week or so, we will be transmitting WGSR 47-1 in 720p, but our programming is up-converted from 480i while we wait on arrival of our HD switcher. When it arrives, hopefully early next week, our newscasts will be transmitted live in true 720p.

Meanwhile, if you have a chance to look, let me know if you can see the difference.

Thanks!
 
WGSR 47.1 is looking and sounding good. The audio is back where it should be. I added a good broadband audio leveler/peak limiter to the chain, and things sound sweet. It's no Optimod or Aphex, but it does well for what it is.

There's a little delay on us going true 720p with our newscasts. I purchased an SDI switcher that only handles 480i. Sooo...another model of switcher is on the way and will be here within a week. Fortunately, the 480i switcher is returnable.

In the meantime, our analog transmitter that goes back to the origins of the station (as W14AU)...the old Acrodyne...will be released from its anchors and carted out of the station early next week. Anyone need an analog transmitter on Channel 39? We'll sell you one cheap!. The 39 antenna will be coming off the studio tower in about a month, and it's for sale too!

Fiber from AT&T should be installed in the next week to ten days, which gives us plenty of time to test and promote our appearance on U-Verse.

Later . . . Matt Smith
WGSR/WMDV
 
Yesterday, WGSR made its first broadcast in true 720p High-Definition. The picture looked stunning, and received many favorable comments from viewers watching OTA.

Cable viewers commented on the clarity of the picture, although our signal on
cable is center-cut and down-converted to 480i. Getting this to air was a tricky proposition, as our SDI switcher and associated gear has not arrived yet. We managed to get the HD on-air by routing the commercial delivery computer through the Tri-Caster and using it as the master-control switcher. All in all we technicians pulled off the broadcast without major glitches.

Next in the process will be upgrading our NLE computers to Final Cut Pro HD and up-converting all of the legacy production. Following that, we will upgrade the automation to handle a 720p output. Finally, we will probably upgrade WMDV, the Danville station, to HD since they handle a good bit of our news content. Those upgrades will likely happen late 2011 or early 2012.

In the meantime, I can rest easy for a day...if something doesn't blow up!
 
Yesterday we installed our HD-SDI digital switcher, which allows us to work both
our old ntsc operations and the Tri-Caster at 720p. Both old and new production
look great in high definition now.

We started this project with digital transmitter on air in 2009 and our encoder
simply converting our analog programming to 480i. To get us from that point to
this one, our investment in equipment has been about $24K including two HD
cameras suitable for both studio and field production...much less than we
anticipated in 2009.

Most importantly, this has been an improvement our viewers have noticed from the
start. Although our cable carriage remains in 480i, OTA and Cable viewers have
complimented us on the improved picture quality. The station's owners have been
equally impressed.

Our next task is to upgrade production. One of our workstations has been
outfitted with Final Cut Pro HD, and we are looking for a video card for the
automation computer that will output in 720p HD-SDI, so we can incorporate it
directly in the switcher.

It has been an interesting, and educational, journey through the HD
universe...and so the journey continues!
 
Matt,

Yes I have noticed the improved picture quality, and now 47.1 fills the entire screen some of the time.

However... 47.3 still has some technical issues. Need a volunteer re-booter?

Mark.
 
Mark,

You are correct that 47.3 has its share of technical glitches. It has to do with the method by which we transport video from Martinsville, and the equipment isn't remote-controllable so designing a fail-safe is difficult. Thanks though for the offer.

Matt
 
Matt, FYI, I am down in Burlington. Just put up a 4 bay bow tie antenna up about 36 feet with a rotator. I get the signal very well. Who knew!
 
It's a Slingbox logo. When it loses network connection it puts that weirdness on screen.

Later....
 
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