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WCCO Phases into HD with Ross

Gary Kroger
Director of Engineering and Operations
WCCO - TV
Minneapolis, MN

WCCO–TV is a CBS owned and operated television station that serves the Minneapolis – St. Paul area of Minnesota.

As Director of Engineering and Operations for WCCO-TV I am responsible for the planning, maintenance and operations of our technical broadcast facilities. Our IT, communications and security systems are also managed under the Engineering branch.

For WCCO-TV the path to HD production has included a balance of factors, such as picture quality, infrastructure demands, capital costs and any future production needs. While the phasing–in approach to HD has proven to be challenging, we realized it also has offered significant cost savings. This is why we chose to go with Ross Video’s Vision 4 QMD-X Multi-Definition Switcher. Vision offered us the flexibility during implementation and it will also offer it down the road.

With Vision’s easy startup and straightforward operation, WCCO was able to air our local annual Minneapolis Holidazzle Parade in HD weeks ahead of schedule and before official commissioning and formal training. The transition turned out to be quite smooth, even with the significant amount of 4x3 content. This also gave our operators and engineers more time to explore the new HD workflows and requirements.

We use a significant amount of automation control with our production devices. The Vision 4 gives us great options for GPI, serial and Ethernet control. As we update or replace our robotic control systems and audio consoles we will continue to include additional Ross switcher automation control.

Every year WCCO packs up most of its set and heads to the Minnesota State Fair and broadcasts its noon, 5, 6 and 10pm newscasts in Carousel Park at the fairgrounds. This year we brought with us a Ross compact CrossOver Multi-Definition Switcher for the “We Power” campaign. The campaign is meant to foster awareness to the public about how much energy it takes to power things around us and the possibilities of alternate sources for that power.

The WCCO State Fair newscast production equipment including production truck, lights, cameras and monitors draw approximately 10,000 watts. Powering that equipment for the 30 minute newscast gave us the need for 5 kilowatt-hours of electricity.

We used 24 twelve-volt batteries connected in series to the main UPS (uninterruptible power supply), and charged them in banks of 8. We then had eight bicycles and generators, each connected to a single battery and a fuel-gauge processor. There was a display program that showed the amount of current that each bicycle/generator was creating as well as the accumulated energy in watt-minutes that each rider added to the charge in the battery to which it was connected.

For five half-hour HD newscasts, electrical power for the CrossOver Switcher, remote production truck and all equipment was generated by fairgoers who were pedaling bicycles in our third annual “We Power” event. CrossOver drew 120 watts of power which was less then 2% of the total electrical load. In total just over 30 kW hours of electrical power was generated by 10,000 inspired “We Power” fans over the 12 day Minnesota State Fair event.

WCCO is very happy with the Ross Switchers. The transition to HD production went smoothly with Vision and CrossOver was a great addition to the Minnesota State Fair. Many inspired cyclists enjoyed participating in WCCO’s human powered newscasts making our event and campaign a “Go Green” success.