FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE WQLN-TV IMPROVES ON-AIR LOOK WITH D-9 Wayne, NJ (October 20, 1999) -- PBS-affiliated station WQLN- TV in Erie, Pennsylvania has upgraded it's on-air quality by investing in 14 D-9 (D-9) tape machines from JVC PROFESSIONAL PRODUCTS COMPANY. The acquisition of six BR- D50U players and eight BR-D85U player/recorders in mid-May represents the first D-9 purchase by the station. "We saw the format at NAB a couple of years ago, and we were all quite interested in it," says Dennis Spagnolo, director of broadcast operations and engineering. "Now we've begun to finally make the move from 3/4-inch SP in our master control and edit bays, and we're phasing out 1-inch. We didn't want to continue with Beta SP so we felt the best format to move to was D-9." Spagnolo cites a number of benefits inherent in D-9. "We liked its picture quality and 4:2:2 processing," he reports. "The mechanics inside the machines are much better than other formats we looked at. And the two-hour tape run is very important to us. As a PBS station, many times our shows are two hours long. There were times with the SP format where we had to switch tapes three or four times and match frame them while they were running." Four of the BR-D85s work strictly as record machines in master control, recording programming off the network on timers. Five of the BR-D50s have also been installed in master control to play back interstitial material and some programming. Production 1, an edit suite with TV studio adjacent, houses two BR-D85s. They interface to a CMX editor which also controls two Beta SP machines and a 1-inch VTR. The BR- D85's pre-read capability comes in handy for editing underwriters' credits, promos, station IDs and some local programming. A second edit bay, Production 2, is equipped with a JVC 820 editor controlling a BR-D85, the sixth BR-D50 and a 3/4-inch machine. Production 2 handles editorial tasks similar to its counterpart. The remaining BR-D85 is located in a dub bay where it can record material from the satellite or router system. It also dubs to or from other in-house formats. "Everyone in the control operations and engineering staff likes the D-9 machines," Spagnolo says. "We have already noticed the difference on air, and we think viewers will too as we work all the 3/4-inch out of the system. As more and more material is originated on, edited on and brought to air on D-9, we expect to see real differences on air." JVC PROFESSIONAL PRODUCTS COMPANY, headquartered in Wayne, New Jersey, distributes a complete line of broadcast and professional equipment including cameras, recorders and editing products. For more information regarding D-9, contact David Walton at 1-800-JVC-5825 or visit the D-9 web site at www.D-9.com or the JVC web site at www.jvc.com/pro.