KJZZ covers Jazz playoffs in HD; Harris Broadcast plays key role

By Andrew Lippe

KJZZ Salt Lake City UT, local broadcasting home of the NBA’s Utah Jazz, is, for the first time, broadcasting all Utah Jazz playoff games in high definition. The move is the result of an ongoing renovation at KJZZ to go full HD and, eventually, will result in all Jazz NBA telecasts being available in HD.

“This is our first playoffs in HD,” says Travis Henderson, KJZZ producer and director. “There was clearly a demand for high definition.” All Utah Jazz playoff games will be produced in 720p and will air on KJZZ over-the-air and via Comcast digital cable.

“The goal was to have an infrastructure ready by the playoffs,” says Michael Grover, KJZZ chief engineer. The station can handle a full, 1.5 Mbps uncompressed HD signal and is converting its studio to HD.

KJZZ’s facility is located in the Salt Lake International Center and Harris Broadcast played a key role in the HD transition. A Harris master control switcher and Platinum HD router have been installed in the facility alongside a NetVX encoder and multiplexing equipment. Mobile production facilities are provided by Mobile TV Group.

The move to HD has been noticed by viewers. In the regular season KJZZ broadcast a game in HD as a trial. “You wouldn’t believe the number of phone calls we got when the game following the test game was not produced in HD,” says Grover.

Travis Henderson says the fan response to the first two HD playoff games has been terrific and the picture quality is giving Jazz fans a great experience they never had before.

“HD is the only way to watch basketball,” adds Henderson.