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KXAN News goes HD
If KXAN’s 5, 6 and 10 p.m. newscasts look sharper and brighter today — if you suddenly realize that anchors Robert Hadlock and Leslie Rhode have a few freckles you hadn’t noticed before — there’s good reason.
The station is debuting its new high-def local newscasts.
The NBC affiliated station is the third Austin station to offer local news in HD. KEYE led the way in November 2007, and KVUE followed this past June (2008).
KXAN worked with the Emmy award-winning lighting design firm FX Group to design a flexible news set that will be used for all newscasts.
And the station has updated its studio cameras, weather and graphics equipment for HD telecast.
“High definition newscasts and cutting edge visuals highlight our commitment to quality and clarity, in both content and presentation,” news director Michael Fabac said in a release.
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By bob
December 24, 2008 7:40 AM | Link to this
No promotion, no Robert or Roger on the first day of HD, and the audio levels were horrendous!For such an historic day it was sad. What was it? amateur nite?
One would hope they'd make a big deal of their new set and HD signal since those babies on LIN make a big deal of one penny per subscriber.
At least Jim and the reporters look really good now. KXAN quit being boring.
By Joe
December 23, 2008 10:16 PM | Link to this
Congrats to KXAN on what looks like a smooth, clean transition to HD. The graphics could use a few tweaks (why is the main bug so far from the edge of the 4:3 safe area and the "HD" tag??) but not bad for a station that traditionally has butchered anything HD-related.
Now when will KEYE realize that passing off horribly stretched SD video as "HD" isn't going to cut it in this market any more? Austin's first news to go HD, yet the only thing that is actually HD is studio shots, most of the weather graphics, and enterprise stories. Live shots aren't even widescreen SD... they're 4:3 stretched to fill the 16:9 frame. Then the whole HD production is letterboxed on the SD channel, which is even worse.
By keith
December 23, 2008 5:14 PM | Link to this
yawn...old news