Sunday, June 06, 1999
New studios jump Channel 5 from past to future
BY JOHN KIESEWETTER
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Powel Crosley Jr. would be proud. WLWT's new $15 million state-of-the-art digital TV studio is the most modern in town, as Crosley Broadcasting's radio and TV facilities were for decades.
“We are at the forefront of where the industry is going,” says General Manager Rick Rogala about Channel 5's new home, 1700 Young St., Mount Auburn, three blocks west of WKRC-TV (Channel 12).
“What we can do now is light years ahead of where we were.”
Channel 5 has the city's only all-digital station, ready for the 21st century. Cincinnati's four major network affiliates (WCPO-TV, WKRC-TV, WXIX-TV, WLWT) must broadcast digital TV, along with current analog signals, by Nov. 1.
Inside the old Taft Broadcasting corporate headquarters, computers will move satellite dishes to capture video feeds and store them in a computerized “media pool,” instead of on videotape.
Computers also will automatically place programming on analog WLWT-TV and digital WLWT-DT. The computer provides seven video streams at once.
“There are only a handful of stations in the world that have the kind of technology we have here,” says Bill Manning, creative services director.
Studio control room switchers can route 12 sources of video, twice the capability of the old studio. The digital audio console can store 2,000 sound bites or sound effects. Editing is done by computer.
“We've got twice as many of everything that we had in the old building,” says John Sandor, technical engineer.
The only thing Channel 5 doesn't have more of is space. The new building is only 48,000 square feet, about 12,000 less than Crosley Square. But it's more functional, on three horizontal floors, compared with the vertical six-floor old building, where the newsroom, anchor studio, control room and engineering department were on different floors.
“This is like going from the Flintstones to the Jetsons,” Mr. Manning says.
Channel 5 news staffers, buried in the Crosley Square basement for 50 years, will work in a window-lined offices with a view of Cincinnati, from Mount Adams to Union Terminal.
“Creating an open atmosphere was critical, particularly coming out of the basement where people working all day couldn't even see the weather change,” says Lyn Tolan, news director.
At the heart of the newsroom is the high-tech assignment desk, where supervisors will monitor police scanners, news crews' radios, control room conversations, wire services, the Internet and cable news channels.
Throughout the building are dozens of panels with video, audio, intercom and data outlets. More than 52 miles of wire has been installed in the building.
“Whatever is going on, we can plug in and go live anywhere in the building,” Ms. Tolan says.
A few steps from the newsroom is the new 4,200-square-foot digital studio, about 40% bigger than Ruth Lyons' old fifth-floor Crosley Square studio used by Channel 5's anchor team. It has three robotic cameras.
Channel 5 also has:
• A “community response room” to be used as an on-camera phone bank during disasters or community appeals.
• An on-line office next to the newsroom to replace the out-of-house provider that converted Channel 5's news to a Web site.
• A brick patio near the newsroom which can be used for lunches or live reports.
• A lobby exhibit tracing the history of Channel 5, with a vintage Crosley TV and a new wide-screen high-definition digital TV set.
“The rich tradition of this television station, as it relates to programming, is important from a historical perspective,” Mr. Rogala says. “But it's going to be nothing compared to where we take this television station in the future.”
This is Crosley Square . . . Signing off
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