TBN Finishes HD Upgrade in Dallas

Religious Programmer Has More Work on Tap

by George Winslow -- Multichannel News, 5/13/2009 1:51:38 PM

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Religious programmer Trinity Broadcasting Network has finished upgrading its Dallas facilities, including its International Production Center and local station KDTX-TV, to high-definition production.

TBN is also moving forward with HD upgrades for its WPGD in Nashville, a process that is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2009, and is starting to plan for an HD upgrade to its WHXL in Orlando, Fla., according to TBN chief of staff Paul Crouch Jr.

TBN has been one of the earliest and most aggressive of the religious broadcasters in expanding its HD productions and facilities. Four years ago, it upgraded its Costa Mesa, Calif., studio and facilities; and two years ago, it launched HD operations in New York City.

TBN still has considerable work remaining in its transition to HD, though, Crouch noted. "With 36 television stations to go, it is going to be a big process and a long process," he said. Finishing the conversion for all of TBN's stations, cable networks and production facilities could take as long as 10 years.

Much of the impetus for the upgrades has come from the need to replace aging equipment, Crouch explained. "The most compelling things on HD are movies and sports," he said. "We do a fair amount of movies, but aren't big on sports; and a lot of our shows are documentaries or are shows with talking or singing heads.

"So HD was not quite as relevant for us as it might be for some others. But we have a lot of legacy facilities that are aging and dying; and we decided that rather than keeping a limping facility together, we would just start from scratch and go HD from stem to stern."

Currently, TBN stations are not broadcasting in HD. "We've been multicasting for about three years and are choosing to send out five standard-definition channels over our multicast, as opposed to one HD and a combination of SD channels" Couch Jr. said. "Right now, the HD feed is strictly going out to Verizon FiOS and AT&T U-verse, and we're about to sign a deal with [satellite-TV providers] DirecTV and Dish [Network] for the HD feed."

TBN HD is being offered free of charge to operators but differs from the standard-def feed in that it only includes content that was originally shot in HD or on film.

No timetable has been set for the start of HD broadcasts from their owned-and-operated stations, Crouch Jr. added.

All of the upgrades, including the past and upcoming work, are being handled by integrator TV Magic.

In Dallas, the HD upgrades involved TBN's International Production Center and four connected sites, including KDTX, a gymnasium that has been converted to a large studio space and a 3,500-seat church equipped with 11 camera positions.

For the Dallas upgrades, TBN acquired Thomson Grass Valley Kalypso HD production switchers and Jupiter and Concerto routers, as well as their LDK 4000 MK II HD Triax cameras with Canon lenses. The facilities also are using the Evertz MVP multi-image display, Sony monitors, the Avid Deko 3000 HD CG graphics system, Solid State Logic C200 audio board and a Sennheiser wireless system.

Crouch noted that TBN plans to use many of the same vendors in upcoming upgrades but will use Ikegami cameras for the revamped Nashville and Orlando stations.

Costs for the upgrades have varied widely depending upon how much equipment could be retained. So far, the New York upgrade, which cost $5 million, has been the most expensive.

Crouch noted that he had first been impressed by the work of integrator TV Magic while working for another religious broadcasters and began using TV Magic for a variety of projects after he joined TBN full-time in 2000. He particularly praised the integrator for its advance planning, the quality of its work and for its ability to manage the upgrades with minimal disruption to their other operations.