KWES Odessa Goes HD With Utah Scientific

Drewry Communications’ NBC affiliate KWES Odessa-Midland, Texas (DMA 151) has upgraded to digital HD with Utah Scientific equipment. The installation is part of a groupwide upgrade for owner Drewry Communications Group, which has standardized all of its facilities on Utah Scientific.

The station now relies on Utah Scientific equipment for master control, production control, and HD routing and distribution in its 24/7 operation. The new equipment allows KWES to produce local programming in HD; insert HD logos, squeezebacks and legal IDs and more — things the station could not do with its old setup. The Utah Scientific equipment also supports embedded audio, which takes the burden of balancing audio and video off of the master control operator, enabling the operator to focus on other parts of the production.

“Before we installed the new Utah Scientific equipment, our video and audio signals were fuzzy and distorted,” said Kevin Southern, KWES director of engineering. “Getting off the old analog equipment and upconverters and getting onto HD routing and distribution has made a significant difference in quality. We’re night and day from where we were a couple of years ago. Utah Scientific is a key component in making KWES the best-looking over-the-air station in the market.”

KWES installed an MCP-2020 multichannel master control panel; an MC-GUI; two MC-4000 master control processors with DVE, logo and EAS capabilities; a Utah-400 routing switcher V-144R frame loaded 112×56 for 3G/HD/SD; an SC-4 control system; Utah-100/3 Series 3G/HD/SD distribution amplifiers; a Utah-100X bypass router frame loaded 16×1; a TSG-490 Sync/Pattern generator; a SoftPanel-2 GUI; and various control panels.

Southern also cited Utah Scientific’s 10-year warranty as another important reason for purchasing the equipment.