Snell’s Kahuna Is Big in WEAR’s HD Newscast

Sinclair Broadcasting Group-owned ABC affiliate WEAR ABC 3, which covers the Pensacola, FL, and Mobile, AL, market, became the first station in its market to launch a local newscast in HD, using the Snell Kahuna multiformat switcher as part of the process.

Sinclair standardized all of its news-producing facilities on the Kahuna switcher.

WEAR installed a new digital-control room and rebuilt its news set, but its acquisition and mobile newsgathering equipment remained standard-definition-based. Kahuna allows the station to mix content from SD sources into its HD newscasts without having to purchase external conversion equipment or upgrade cameras and other production equipment to native HD.