Testimonials - Synergy 4

KOKI Chooses Ross Again and Again... for their Control Room and Mobile

Sonny Hollingshead, News Engineer
Joel McDonald, Director / Technical Director
KOKI Fox 23
Tulsa, OK

I joined Clear Channel of Tulsa in January of 2002. I handle installation and maintenance of all contribution, editing, and production equipment involved in our two - and soon to be three - daily newscasts.

Clear Channel Tulsa is the most state-of-the-art facility in our part of the country. With two television stations (Fox and UPN affiliates) and six radio stations in the market, Clear Channel sought and constructed the perfect location to house all of its stations under one roof.

We officially kicked off our news operation following the Super Bowl in February 2002. The news operation airs programs on the Fox station, KOKI Fox 23. Right now, we're the spoiler in the market - the new news kids on the block - taking viewers from the traditional network affiliates for our 5:30pm and 9pm newscasts.

Since we are still the "new" news entry in the market, we are able to experiment and find the best way to reach our viewers and serve our clients. Recently, we completed our digital transmission facilities, which are co-located at our analog transmission site about 15 miles southeast of Tulsa. This new facility compliments our fully digital studio facility.

On any given day the engineering staff is installing equipment - an ongoing job, and/or repairing equipment that magically acts up just after its warranty runs out.

With a news start-up set to debut in the first quarter of 2002, as well as a complete transition to digital in the new facility, a replacement for our Ross RVS 630 switcher was in order. We were using the analog RVS 630 for commercial production and news breaks in our old facility. And, given our success with it as well as the historically excellent customer support from Ross, the purchase of a Synergy 4 digital production switcher was a no-brainer.

In this business, it's important to partner with vendors who support their product - and remember those who don't. Ross has always been quick to respond to any issue... even when the issue is ultimately our own.

From an engineering perspective, the Ross Synergy is a good fit. The panel makes good use of space, the chassis doesn't take up much space either, the boards are easy to get to, and everything is well engineered. Our technical directors have worked with other switchers and find the Ross easy to operate.

We find the Squeeze & Tease DVE very useful for pre-production when wanting to fly text. When used in conjunction with a Custom Control, complex on-air moves with both PST PAT and FLY KEY are made simple.

Another feature we enjoy is Synergy's Custom Control buttons. They're vital for fast, complex on-air switching. The placement, ease of programing, and banks allow a TD to recall numerous Memories and wow Directors.

Recently, we also installed another Ross Synergy 1 digital switcher in our new production truck - used to produce a weekly live-to-tape program and for taking our newscast on the road.

Fox recently announced plans to begin broadcasting in high definition in the fall of 2004. We are studying application of HD to our local product. With the Synergy 4, we're ready for anything.