High Res Photo

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

WDJT-TV MILWAUKEE UPGRADES TO LOCAL HD NEWS
WITH JVC PROHD CAMERAS FOR ENG

WAYNE, NJ (April 16, 2012) – JVC Professional Products Company, a division of JVC Americas Corp., today announced that WDJT-TV, the CBS affiliate for Milwaukee (DMA #34), has transitioned to local HD news production with 10 GY-HM790 ProHD cameras in the field.

Owned by Chicago-based Weigel Broadcasting Co., WDJT adopted a tapeless ENG workflow with Panasonic P2 cameras years ago, but decided to upgrade to ProHD cameras for HD production and moved the Panasonic cameras to the studio. The station “flipped the switch” to local news in HD on Jan. 9, but had been using its GY-HM790s in the field in SD mode since September. As a result, it was a pretty easy transition from SD to HD, according to Jim Hall, WDJT general manager.

“It worked out perfectly for us,” he said. “Given JVC’s power consumption, memory cards, lens configurations, price, and low-light ability, we re-capitalized our photographers with JVC.”

With the move to HD, the station also installed Edius NLE systems. Steve Percefull, WDJT chief engineer, said each editing bay has a media card reader, so ENG footage can be imported easily and without transcoding. Plus, the move to inexpensive, non-proprietary SDHC cards for acquisition has resulted in significant cost savings.

WDJT uses a variety of Canon lenses on its GY-HM790s, including a 20x zoom with doubler to cover Green Bay Packers and Wisconsin Badgers football games. Tom Gifford, WDJT chief photographer, said lens flexibility is important, but the camera’s low-light performance is even more critical. “We have an overnight photographer who takes advantage of this nightly,” he added. “It makes good footage possible.”

Station photographers and MMJ (multimedia journalists) news crews have been very pleased with the new JVC cameras. “Overall, it’s been a very positive reaction,” Gifford said. “We’re very happy with the HD image. I’ve heard a lot of comments inside the building – and outside the building – that our field footage is the best in town.”

The compact, shoulder-mount GY-HM790 is an outstanding choice for ENG use, with a dual card slot design that records to low-cost, non-proprietary SDHC solid-state media cards in ready-to-edit file formats (.MOV and .MP4) for major NLE systems. For studio use, it offers an innovative modular design and a redesigned studio adapter sled. Its three, 1/3-inch progressive scan CCDs produce 1280x720 and 1920x1080 images, and its proprietary MPEG-2 encoder supports 1080i, 720p, and even SD (480i) for operations that have not yet made the move to HD.

ABOUT JVC PROFESSIONAL PRODUCTS COMPANY

Headquartered in Wayne, New Jersey, JVC Professional Products Company is a division of JVC Americas Corp., a wholly-owned subsidiary of JVC KENWOOD Corporation. JVC is a leading manufacturer and distributor of broadcast and professional video and audio equipment. For further product information, visit JVC’s Web site at http://pro.jvc.com or call (800) 582-5825.

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Caption: WDJT-TV, which recently made the transition to local HD news production, is using JVC GY-HM790 ProHD cameras in the field.