Summary

WLS-TV, ABC's Chicago owned-and-operated station, completed a two-year, $5 million technical facility rebuild to support simultaneous NTSC and 720p HDTV broadcasting. The upgrade centered on Philips Broadcast Saturn master control panels, Venus digital routers, and a Jupiter control system enabling both standard and high definition operation.

Source document circa 2001 preserved as-is

Wednesday, April 18, 2001

WLS-TV - ABC STATION COMPLETES HDTV INSTALLATION

4/17/2001 WLS-TV, the ABC owned and operated station in Chicago, has completed their two year, $5 million rebuild of their technical facility in order to support high definition digital television. At the heart of WLS is their dual NTSC/HD-DTV all-digital master control room with dual Saturn master control panels for standard definition NTSC operation on channel 7 and high definition (720p) on channel 52.
WLS completed their rebuild in two phases, the first being an infrastructure rebuild with the purchase of a Philips Broadcast Venus serial digital router (160x160) with an expansive Jupiter control system with machine control to supplement their Venus 160x128 analog video router and Venus 160x128 stereo audio router.

The second phase of the rebuild was a new master control room, based on two Philips Broadcast Saturn master control panels for simultaneous standard definition and high definition operation. The Saturn switching the standard definition channel is equipped with video processing, DVE and four channels of AES audio (stereo, SAP and DVS). The high definition channel Saturn is equipped with video processing as well as six channels of AES audio (for 5.1 surround sound).

"The advantage of the Jupiter control system," according to Kal Hassan, Director of Engineering at WLS, "is that it can easily control the routers we continue to use from other manufacturers. Combined with the Saturn master control system and the Venus routers we've installed as part of our rebuild, WLS now has the infrastructure to support both standard and high definition programming."

"WLS' choice of the Venus/Jupiter routing systems as the core of their impressive new digital facility enables them not only to leverage their existing technology and equipment to the maximum, but it will also allow them evolutionary upgrades as future demands of high definition increases" says Joop Janssen, VP/GM for THOMSON multimedia's Media Networking and Control group. "The Venus routing switcher can accept both standard and high definition signals and is designed to be flexible, with SD/HD sharing the same core components for easy upgradability."