TV station shows off innovation

Nationwide network Pappas Telecasting Companies chose its Reno stations as the beta test site to implement the digital revolution in broadcasting. And it's not keeping the technology under wraps.

Television stations KREN 27 (a CW affiliate) and KAZR 46 (AZTECA, Spanish language) have relocated to Meadowood Mall, behind a wall of glass that reveals inner workings to the passing public.

This in an industry that traditionally has lived in a dark warehouse in the corner of the city, says Leo Ramos, vice president and general manager. "We look at being in the mall as our prime public relations activity."

There, the 57 employees go about their business in plain view. Mall walkers can watch as newscasters, cameramen and directors produce the nightly news.

"Transparent is a key word for us," says Ramos. Transducers affixed to the glass turn it into a speaker, which transmits to the mall audience a director's call for "camera one." Those viewers can even become the show they can talk to the screen and be instantly on the air, captured by video cameras mounted on high.

But broadcasting is more than show business, and cost savings is where the high tech makeover kicks in.

Before, says Ramos, it took eight people to staff master control; it's now automated.

The Inversion Automation System taps into satellite feeds. It monitors signal clarity and manages quality control.

Workers who once handled commercials on tape, popping them into a machine as instructed by a logbook, are gone.

"We've minimized talent," says Ramos, "but we have the very best talent available."

And, while the TV studio of the past required about 25,000 square feet, the digital technology shrunk sizes and eliminated tape machines. Now, it requires a mere 7,500 square feet.

"This is one of the top 10 TV stations in the US in terms of facilities," says Ramos. "It's six years ahead of its time." The federal government has mandated HDTV (high definition television) be provided nationwide by 2009.

"We're not going to build for the next two years, but for the next 20 years," Ramos says.

Reno was chosen as the beta test market because Pappas president Harry Pappas lives here, having moved to the area, says Ramos, for its natural beauty. With 28 television stations nationwide, Pappas hired Ramos over two years ago. Since then, planning and design of the new 8,500-square-foot facility has been his prime focus.

The station's open and airy architectural plan, designed by Dan Carne, conveys a space- age feel in silver and blue. But it's also functional. Sleek silver columns transport to the ceiling those snakes nests of cables common to other broadcast studios. No longer underfoot, the cables course along overhead "raceways" that move electronic signals to the master control room tucked at the back.

That digital equipment, too, now takes but a fraction of the space once required. One wall of electronics houses the equipment that once required 16 walls. A rack just three feet high can store 24 terabytes of information: 4,000 hours of HDTV programming.

Chief engineer and designer of the facility, James Ocon, is also deputy director of engineering for Pappas Broadcasting. Broadcast Industry magazine awarded his facility an excellence in design.

While Reno may be small potatoes in population it ranks 110th in market size it's one of fewer than 30 stations in the country originating HDTV," says Ramos. The 19-year broadcasting veteran moved from Chicago to work at the Reno test site, while Ocon moved from Los Angeles. The station recruited staff from across the country because it didn't find those technically trained people here.

The station produces a 6 p.m. Spanish newscast, the only high definition news in the city. Latinos gather nightly outside the studio to watch it live.

Within two weeks, KREN will launch Reno's first local one-hour, primetime newscast at 10 p.m. on KREN Ch. 27 (Charter channel 6; Dish and Direct channel 27).

"We've got a bi-lingual news department. We switch from 6 p.m. Spanish to 10 p.m. English," says Ramos.