KJTV-TV Launches Digital News Operation Using Grass Valley Group's Vibrint, Kalypso Systems

Nevada City, Calif., October 31, 2000 — Continuing to expand the roster of broadcasters using its digital newsroom solutions, the Grass Valley Group today announced that KJTV-TV, a FOX affiliate owned and operated by Ramar Communications in Lubbock, Texas, has launched a news operation using the digital media leader's Vibrint Digital News Production Workgroup and Kalypso™ Video Production Center systems.

Serving nearly 450,000 viewers, KJTV-TV has created a flexible, state-of-the-art newsgathering and reporting operation within its 601 digital facility. It uses three Vibrint NewsEdit™ systems to create news and sports packages, a NewsQ system to play them to air, and a Kalypso system as the main switcher in its news control room. With a high-energy news environment, the station placed a premium on solutions that could keep things running smoothly.

"We chose the Vibrint systems because they can handle the pace of hard news: they're simple, easy to use, and let our editors work right at their desks," said Winn Boedeker, KJTV-TV's main studio engineer. "The Kalypso Video Production Center offers a similar kind of flexibility. Together, these Grass Valley Group systems let us get our stories to air quickly."

"News directors and editors have jobs that are hard enough without technology getting in the way—that's why we designed the Vibrint systems to be as intuitive as possible," said Tim Thorsteinson, president of the Grass Valley Group. "This approach helps operations like those of KJTV-TV reap the advantage of digital technologies without sacrificing speed or story quality."

In addition to its Vibrint and Kalypso systems, KJTV-TV relies on Grass Valley™ 8900 Series modular products for analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog signal conversion.

About The Vibrint Digital News Production Workgroup

The Vibrint Digital News Production Workgroup helps improve newsroom productivity, break down price barriers, and fast-track digital newsroom conversions. The Vibrint Digital News Production Workgroup includes: Vibrint FeedClip™, an interactive feed capture system; Vibrint NewsEdit, a nonlinear editing system designed to replace the record deck in cuts-only editing bays; and, Vibrint NewsQ, a low-cost, manual playback application. All three systems include intuitive, easy-to-use software running on a standard PC platform which relies on standard MPEG2 video, the Microsoft Windows NT file and operating systems, and standard networking and storage technologies. Broadcasters also have the flexibility of choosing the Grass Valley Group Profile^® XP Media Platform for news ingest and playback.

About The Kalypso™ Video Production Center Family

As the hub of a teleproduction environment, the Kalypso Video Production Center family combines industry-leading switching and powerful mix/effects (M/E) capabilities with an open, networked architecture that offers a precedent-setting degree of operational integration. With 80 inputs (video or key) it offers fingertip control of a number of previously off-board functions to streamline workflow, from greater M/E capabilities to a programmable clean-feed system. All from a familiar Grass Valley control panel interface.

About The Grass Valley Group

The Grass Valley Group knows more about high-quality video than anybody else—especially as video goes digital. Interactive television. Digital cinema. Data-enhanced broadcasting. Internet. It's a world of Digicasting™—of Media Without Bounds™. Whether online or on the air, the Emmy^® award-winning Grass Valley Group, a privately held digital media leader, has the hardware, software, and new media technologies to get content wherever it needs to go.

For the latest Grass Valley Group product information, including Vibrint solutions, visit www.grassvalleygroup.com.

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