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South Dakota Public Broadcasting Selects Utah
Scientific Routing and Master Control for HD Upgrade
August 7, 2007
Salt Lake City, Utah
Utah Scientific announced today that South Dakota
Public Broadcasting (SDPB) has chosen a UTAH-400 series
SD/HD routing switcher along with an SC-4 routing
control system and MC-2020 master control switcher
as part of a master control room upgrade to HD at
its statewide broadcast facility, located on the campus
of the University of South Dakota in Vermillion.
“If we were buying a disposable product, Utah
would not be the right vendor,” said Mike Johnson,
senior studio engineer at SDPB. “We plan to
have the UTAH-400 router for 10 or even 20 years.
We know that’s realistic because we had an analog
router from Utah for 20 years, and it was completely
reliable. When we were ready to upgrade, we looked
at several vendors, but we felt the highest comfort
level with the folks at Utah. They have the best support
for us, not to mention the best service option, with
their 10-year, no-fee warranty. Over time, that was
a significant savings compared to the service contracts
offered elsewhere.”
Utah Scientific also displayed its trademark customer
responsiveness in the sale to SDPB. The small station
wanted a compact 1-RU panel to provide full X-Y control
because rack space was at a premium, but at the time
the sale first was being discussed, Utah didn’t
offer one. Recognizing that other broadcasters might
have a similar need, Utah engineers went to their
drawing boards and designed the UCP-1 full-matrix
control panel, which debuted at NAB2007.
Besides the UCP-1 panel and the UTAH-400 router (V-144
frame loaded 88x88 SDI and 16x16 HD), SDPB purchased
Utah’s MC-2020 master control switcher with
two SD and HD processor channels and an SC-4 control
system. The control system will interface with a Q-Alert
system from Quest Research & Development, which
automatically generates storm alerts and other bulletins
that appear during regularly scheduled programming
as on-air data crawls and compressed video. The Q-Alert
system uses both text crawls and single- and dual-compression
DVEs to display maps and radar images without obstructing
regular programming. Q-Alert interfaces with a variety
of graphics platforms including Utah Scientific’s
GPI-controlled MC-2020 master control switcher.
SDPB provides public television and radio for South
Dakota, serving 97 percent of the state’s population,
or about 680,000 viewers. Unique in public broadcast,
SDPB covers all statewide high school championship
sporting events — including football, basketball,
and rodeo — streaming programming live online.
This generates unusually high interest in the Web
site because so many native South Dakotans live out
of state. Once the Utah multichannel master control
system goes live, SDPB plans to use it to help simulcast
the sports programming on a digital broadcast subchannel.
SDPB took delivery of its new equipment from Utah
Scientific in June 2007. The full upgrade to digital
is scheduled to be completed by June 2008.
# # #
About South Dakota Public Broadcasting
South Dakota Public Broadcasting is a network of PBS
television and NPR radio stations serving the state
of South Dakota. The stations are operated by the
South Dakota Bureau of Information and Telecommunication,
a state agency. The flagship television station is
KUSD Channel 2 in Vermillion, which signed on the
air in 1961 as the state’s first educational
station. Besides PBS programming, SDPB produces original
programming including “Dakota Life,” “Kids’
Quest,” and “South Dakota Focus.”
# # #
About Utah Scientific, Inc.
Utah Scientific, Inc. is a leading manufacturer of
analog, digital, and HDTV routing switchers, master
control switchers, and related products including
a full range of software for controlling and managing
switching systems. The company has been serving the
broadcast industry for 30 years with industry-leading
products and best-in-class service and support as
recognized by Frost & Sullivan with its 2005 Customer
Service Leadership Award and demonstrated by the industry's
first 10-year warranty. |
