Elmwood Park, NJ (October 23, 1997) – Nine months after a fire destroyed Southtowns Christian Center in Buffalo, New York, and its LPTV television station, Channel 39, the interdenominational church is back in production. The church has restored its structure and upgraded its production capabilities to digital broadcast quality with JVC's DIGITAL-S video tape format.

The church produces one hour per week of local programming and also handles outside commercial work. Pastored by Reverend Thomas M. Smardz Sr., Ph.D., the church's Sunday Service is aired on WNGS-TV67, W39BC, Adelphia Cable, and US Cable in the Buffalo/Western New York Region.

"Before the fire, we were using older Ikegami tube cameras, 3/4" VTR's and a Video Toaster," said Rev. Smardz. "After six months of research and testing, we purchased a JVC BR-D80 DIGITAL-S edit recorder, a JVC BR-D40 DIGITAL-S dockable field recorder, a JVC BR-S800 S-VHS editor and a JVC KY-19 3-CCD camera."

Production Manager for W39BC, Kevin Smardz said, "We did consider DVCPRO, but chose DIGITAL-S because of its 4:2:2 processing, mild compression, and 1/2" tape. DIGITAL-S is clearly superior to the smaller DV formats and any analog format."

Southtowns Christian Center also purchased the FAST Video Machine and an ECHOlab MVS-3 production switcher because of its easy upgrade path to digital. For audio mixing, they chose Mackie's 32x8 audio console.

JVC PROFESSIONAL PRODUCTS COMPANY, headquartered in Elmwood Park, NJ, distributes a complete line of broadcast and professional video equipment. For more information, contact David Walton at 1-800-JVC-5825 or visit JVC's web site at www.jvcpro.com.