Snell Production Switcher Gives Brand-New Digital Station Flexibility in Delivering High-Quality HD Programming

READING, U.K. — Nov. 3, 2009 — Snell today announced that Raycom Media's newest NBC affiliate, WMBF-TV in Myrtle Beach and Florence, S.C., has gone to air with the Kahuna multiformat SD/HD production switcher. Raycom Media stations are standardizing on the Kahuna, and the Snell system is at the heart of WMBF-TV's state-of-the-art digital facility. 

"The launch of a full-power digital station, built from the ground up, is a significant and unusual challenge, but one that gave us the freedom to incorporate best-of-breed systems for digital broadcasting," said Raycom Director of Engineering Bob Thurber. "We knew from exhaustive testing and deployments at other Raycom stations that we could rely on the Kahuna production switcher from Snell to give us flexibility in handling SD and HD content. The switcher provides all the tools our operators require in building dynamic broadcasts, including powerful effects, which will make WMBF-TV a very appealing option in this new market."

WMBF-TV is the Myrtle Beach-Florence market's first local NBC affiliate, and its Kahuna production switcher allows the station to deliver high-demand HD content and take advantage of new advertising revenues in the market. The entirely digital station is equipped to provide HD local programming, with the Kahuna providing seamless upconversion of SD content for transparent integration into HD productions.

"While the Myrtle Beach-Florence market has grown significantly over the past decade, WMBF-TV still must provide viewers with a highly compelling and competitive broadcast product," said Jonathan Goldstein, president of Snell's Americas business. "The Kahuna is a valuable asset in meeting this challenge, bringing immediate value to WMBF-TV broadcasts while providing a flexible platform for HD operations."

About Kahuna:
Kahuna from Snell is the world's first and only true multiformat SD/HD production switcher. Thanks to a Snell technology called FormatFusion, Kahuna enables simultaneous SD and HD operations in the same mainframe and on the same control panel. This vastly simplifies the HDTV transition for broadcasters by eliminating the need for external HDTV up/down/crossconverters in the live production environment, as well as the cost and the signal-path delay associated with these products. Kahuna has the smallest mainframe, lowest weight, and lowest power consumption when compared with other large switchers, and it has been integrated with dozens of third-party products including routers, servers, automation systems, and controllers.