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Fujinon Lenses Capture Daily HD Local Newscasts for WFAA’s Remote Studio Broadcasts in Dallas

Apr 10, 2007 12:00 AM

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Belo-owned WFAA-TV/DT produces daily local newscasts in HD with Fujinon studio lenses from its new 4,000-sq.-ft remote studio facility at Victory Park, adjacent to the American Airlines Center on the north end of downtown Dallas. The new facility has no control room and is fiber-optically connected to the station’s facility located next door to The Dallas Morning News on Young Street in downtown Dallas. The four Grass Valley LDK 4000 HD studio cameras at the Victory Park facility, as well as at WFAA’s existing studio, are each equipped with Fujinon’s HA18X5.5BERD and HA13X4.5BERD HD lenses.

The entire studio at Victory Park was conceived with HD production in mind; however WFAA did not want to build another control room there. It’s a busy area and a popular place to live and work. WFAA wanted to be able to broadcast local news from this location, but the station knew that building an HD control room onsite could consume significant time and resources. So, the station installed fiber optics at Victory Park connecting its headquarters and control room to the new studio. Since January 2007, WFAA has been broadcasting morning, noon, and evening newscasts in HD from its Victory Park location, as well as a variety of specials and weekly entertainment programming—both live and on tape.

One of the great strengths of WFAA’s HD broadcast is the way it looks on the air. Many local newscasts have seen ratings increase considerably since the HD launch. WFAA executives credit their equipment—from the cameras and lenses to the lighting and set design—as contributing factors in a successful launch of HD local news.

“At the end of the day it all gets down to content,” says Dave Muscari, WFAA’s VP/product development. “However, we are all mindful of the nature of a visual medium such as television.”

A massive HD screen positioned above the south wall of the WFAA studio at Victory Park displays the WFAA news broadcasts to pedestrian traffic below.

For more information about Fujinon, visit www.fujinonbroadcast.com.

© 2008 Penton Media, Inc.