KRNV-TV Great Reno Balloon Race broadcast takes flight using RF Central HD technology

KRNV-TV News
4 broadcasted the 2007 Great Reno Balloon Race,” Hare & Hound: Hunting Balloon-Style”
event in HD using RF Central equipment.

Employing
four RFX-CMT-II camera-mounted transmitters and four RFX-RMR-II rack mount
receivers, more than 100 vibrant hot air balloons were captured as they
engulfed the

Nevada
skies. Each set of four was deployed along with KRNV-TV’s HD field cameras to
wirelessly transmit video and audio back to its central receive point, which
was based within its satellite production van.

In the
more than 17 years that KRNV-TV has televised the balloon race, 2007 marked the
first year in which the station was able to acquire HD images directly from the
field for live broadcast. David Feher, director of engineering for Sunbelt
Communications, parent company of KRNV-TV News 4, explains, “The missing link
in our HD broadcast has always been how to get live field acquisition to the
station for broadcast. Through RF Central’s new CMT-IIs and RMR-IIs, we were
able to transmit and convey an intact HD signal from remote cameras, which
allowed us to maintain the HD quality and characteristics of these pristine
images that we were capturing and broadcasting live.”

In
addition, Feher says using RF Central’s newest HD equipment gives new meaning
to detail. “All of the balloons were brilliant in terms of size and color.
Because they were being brought in HD, the color rendition was spectacular. Watching
this event in HD was impressive.”