KVOA enters high-def era

As of 10 p.m. last Sunday, that's now a reality.

In the world of local news, it isn't always easy to be innovative: There are only so many stories to be covered in so many different ways.

But, as you may already know thanks to weeks of promotion, the local NBC affiliate, KVOA-TV Channel 4 is now the the first station in Tucson producing and airing its news in high-definition.

The switch to high-def allows KVOA to provide superior picture and sound (usually estimated to be about seven times sharper than "standard definition"), and to present each news broadcast in a widescreen aspect ratio (think the dimensions of a movie-theater screen) for viewers with compatible TVs. (The screen-aspect ratio involves horizontal length and vertical length. For standard TV, it's 4:3; for widescreen, it's 16:9.)

"It's awful close to going from black and white to color," said Gary Nielsen, president and general manager of KVOA Communications Inc.

"I've been in broadcasting for a thousand years, and the detail you get with this is absolutely incredible," added KVOA operations manager David Kerrigan.

Pretty cool. But it took a lot of work.

"Everything has to be replaced," Nielsen said of the preparations that went into the switch. "Every time a new piece of gear comes in, there has to be training for it."

To prepare for the switch, KVOA, Tucson's overall ratings leader as of the last published set of data in January, had an entirely new set built — from the same design team responsible for the new "CBS Evening News" set when Katie Couric debuted as anchor last fall.

"It's unbelievable," KVOA anchor Martha Vazquez, who has been with the station for 23 years, said of the new set. "So gorgeous, so big, so high-tech." Vazquez estimated that it's the station's first new set in eight or nine years.

"The first time you see an HD broadcast, you just say, 'Wow,' because of the clarity of the picture," she said. "I was like, 'Wow, this is like a window to the world.'"

KVOA not only had to replace nearly all cameras and other equipment, it also had to completely redo the mountaintop microwave transmitters that relay broadcast signals, a complicated process with little margin for error, which Nielsen likened to "pushing a snowball uphill, here, in July."

"We gave ourselves a very aggressive deadline," Kerrigan said.

Apparently, that worked. Nielsen said that crew members managed to quickly adapt to the new equipment, and experts from out-of-town were enlisted to help ensure a proper, smooth transition in time for the targeted April 22 start date, which was met.

The undertaking, described by Nielsen as "multimillion dollar" and supported by KVOA's parent company, Cordillera Communications, started around the beginning of the year.

KVOA and all the other major broadcast channels in Tucson have had digital channels for years now, offering available prime-time network programming in HD. Tucson's other news stations — KGUN-TV, Channel 9, and KOLD-TV, Channel 13 — have not yet announced any plans for switching to high-definition, although PBS affiliate KUAT-TV, Channel 6, has been producing "The Desert Speaks" in high-definition since 2002, according to Fran Sherlock, "The Desert Speaks" project manager.

"We had an opportunity to go high-def, so we jumped at it," said Sherlock, who on Tuesday hadn't yet seen KVOA's news in high-definition.

"I'm looking forward to seeing how it looks. We're in the process of doing the same thing," Sherlock said, referring to a push from KUAT to add more local high-definition programming other than "The Desert Speaks."

Everything in the KVOA studio will be filmed and broadcast in high-definition. Reporting in the field will be shot digitally (not quite high-def, but close), then "upconverted" to high-definition, and aired in widescreen, so, according to Nielsen, HDTV viewers shouldn't notice too much of a difference.

Weather graphics and maps are also now in high-definition.

"The weather graphics are just magnificent," said Jimmy Stewart, a KVOA meteorologist since 1990. "All the weather equipment is totally different; it's all new big-boys toys for me. The tools I have to work with now and the looks in particular are just spectacular."

Stewart is a fan of HD programming and said co-workers call him an "HD snob."

"If it's not in HD, I won't watch it," he said.

The high-def buffs at the Tucson section of avsforum.com, an online message board about high-definition programming, were also positive about KVOA's change.

All right, you get it by now, high-definition is great. But is there a downside to all that detail?

It's been fairly well-publicized that many people in show business freak out over high-def, due to the unforgiving effect it has on a person's appearance. "30 Rock" star Tina Fey recently said in Wired magazine: "HD video is beautiful for sports, but it doesn't help humans."

"You can even see, like, little pieces of lint or flyaway hair," Vazquez said. "Sure, you worry about all that stuff, but I'm not going to be able to account for every hair on my head at all times. There will be a lot of attention to detail, because people can see everything."

So the News 4 crew has to be a lot more careful with everything. Due to the detailed nature of high-definition, things like lighting, hair and makeup are now scrutinized — even fashion.

"A jacket that I would wear on the air maybe has a couple of little blemishes," Stewart said. "People wouldn't see that in standard definition, but they would see it in high-definition."

Overall, though, the on-air team at KVOA isn't too worried.

"We've all been in front of the cameras, and we all look pretty good," said Stewart.

But don't think the station has come down with a case of high-def myopia. The brass at KVOA realizes that, for the time being, most of their audience is still watching on regular TVs. Ultimately, Nielsen said, what has made local news successful for all these years will remain the same.

"People still relate to television news in a personal way," he said. "They know our folks."

And they'll be seeing them a lot clearer.