KIEM-TV's Move To JVC's D-9 Format Gives Station Added Boost to Remain No. 1 in Market; News Channel Three, Eureka, California, Strikes Gold with JVC Deal.

Business Editors

WAYNE, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 31, 2000

JVC PROFESSIONAL PRODUCTS COMPANY announces that KIEM-TV, Eureka, California, has purchased more than two dozen pieces of D-9 equipment, including editing decks and camcorders, for production and broadcast use.

This enormous purchase has turned the station, an NBC affiliate, into a producer of high-resolution programming, and quickly propelled the station into the enviable position of eclipsing its local competition and competing on an image-quality level (if not in market-share), with the major networks.

The purchase of JVC equipment included twenty (20) D-9 BR-D85 editing decks and five DY-700 camcorders.

From its remote location along a stretch of California's northern coast and with the assistance of JVC's superior D-9 format, KIEM-TV has taken command of its tiny market, ranked as 189th nationwide. This has been accomplished through D-9's exceptional engineering. The format uses 4:2:2 component processing with 3:3:1 loss less compression ratio and 50 megabits per second recording rate, and records on a robust 1/2 metal particle tape. The result is astonishingly crisp, clear images with minimal aliasing.

"We have been the undisputed number 1 station in our market. Converting to JVC's D-9 format was a move to maintain this position," says Bob Mottaz, the station's chief engineer.

When it came time to upgrade its aging 3/4-inch tape equipment, KIEM-TV researched various formats, including Digital Betacam, Betacam SX and DVC PRO.

Mottaz learned of D-9's dependability through discussions with Greg Johnson, a former co-worker and currently chief engineer at KITV in Honolulu, the nation's first fully-licensed all digital television station which began transmitting a digital signal using JVC's D-9 as its primary tape format. "Greg also looked at other formats and recommended D-9 for the money and specifications," Mottaz recalls.

But Mottaz was faced with a problem. Though he knew of D-9's technical superiority, the station only had a budget of $200,000 for the purchase of new equipment. "We were seriously considering buying Panasonic DVC PRO equipment because it was a little less expensive," Mottaz recalls, "but I new about JVC's D-9 format and that its product specifications were far superior to DVC PRO's 4:1:1 component processing and 25 megabit recording rate. Digital Betacam equipment, selling for four-to five-times more than the JVC products, was totally out of the question," he says.

"I wanted JVC's D-9 equipment badly. Its 4:2:2 component processing gives twice the resolution as DVC PRO's 4:1:1 processing, and believe me -- its noticeable. Our local competition is using DVC PRO equipment and you can see the difference."

"Now, we shine," he says, commenting proudly on the video quality of the station's news program "News Channel Three" and commercial productions. The news staff has completely turned production over to the D-9 format. "Despite the fact that we are in a small market, with D-9 we are comparably equipped to larger stations in larger markets in the country - and that's exciting," says Mottaz.

Mottaz also explains that he favored the BR-D85 over the DVC PRO deck because of its construction. "The tiny mechanism of the DVC PRO deck bothered me," he says. "The BR-D85 has a reliable transport threading mechanism that has substantial mass to it. It is something you can work on and be physically involved with as far as alignment." Besides the 4:2:2 component processing and 3:3:1 compression, Mottaz found the BR-D85s other features, such as a pre-read function which enables playback and simultaneous recording for layering; horizontal resolution of 720 pixels; tape length of 105 minutes; and Serial Digital SMPTE 259M analogue component inputs and outputs, as valuable specifications.

KIEM-TV has distributed its twenty (20) BR-D85 editing decks in operation throughout the studio. Three news edit bays have two decks each. Two main production rooms for on-air and commercial productions each have two. A dubbing center that dubs everything from other formats onto a digital hard drive system for on-air playback of commercials has one unit. Nine remaining decks are housed in the master control area and are used to record news feeds, satellite feeds, syndicated programs and on-air playbacks.

The News Channel Three team at KIEM is now using the DY-700s for all local acquisition, with one camera assigned to production. The station is considering the purchase of more BR-D85 editing decks for on-air use and production.

Besides its new array of D-9 products, KIEM uses JVC monitors,3/4inch editing decks and a frame synchronizer.

JVC PROFESSIONAL PRODUCTS COMPANY is based in Wayne, New Jersey, and distributes a complete line of broadcasting and professional equipment including cameras, recorders, monitors, projectors and editing products. For more information on JVC's D-9 products, visit the JVC PROFESSIONAL PRODUCT COMPANY web site at www.jvc.com/pro, or contact David Walton at 1-800-JVC-5825.