North Bay Report | LIVE in HD

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On Tuesday, November 5, 2013, with only an HD camera with SDI-HD out, a laptop, an on-set HD monitor, and a shared Google Spreadsheets document, Senior KRCB-TV Producer David Waxman made history with the station’s first-ever LIVE HD broadcast.

Behind the scenes at Election Night 2013

Production intern Sutter Laird and host Bruce Robinson prepare for the next live break

The opening and closing sequences were generated using Adobe After Effects, and were played back separately in KRCB’s Master Control Center. Live graphics were generated on another PC using Google Docs cloud technology and appeared seamlessly on anchor Bruce Robinson’s laptop which was being mirrored to the HD monitor on-set.

Without an HD switcher, the HD-SDI feed from the JVC ProHD camera fed directly into the Master Control switcher. Audio was mixed live using a Mackie switcher and fed directly into the JVC so that an embedded audio signal was delivered via SDI.

A single HD camera with teleprompter, a light panel, a floor director. some lights, and an SD field monitor.

Floor Director Paul Franceschini, Production Assistant Stan Marvin, and Camera Operator Ken Kimari operate the makeshift HD studio. The “obsolete” SD cameras are turned off in the background.

Live updates were provided at the top and the bottom of the hour starting when polls closed at 8pm, and continued until 11pm. The final update of the evening was also archived online so viewers could see the final results throughout the next day.

All-in-all, KRCB’s first HD broadcast was a smashing success! And it was all achieved WITHOUT an HD studio!