HD Upgrade

Between 2011 and 2013, YSTV embarked on a project known as the HD Roadmap, attempting to replace the old analogue kit with new HD equipment. The funds were sourced from Alumni and YUSU, somehow managing to get everything we asked for. The upgrade was completed on November 11 2013, after a weekend of equipment stroking and BNC crimping.

Equipment

The majority of the purchased equipment was Black Magic Design - 4 HDMI to SDI converters, an ATEM vision mixer, a Micro Videohub and a couple of Decklink cards. A number of SDI to HDMI converters were purchased as well. Somehow, the cabling within the station was of an acceptable quality for HD-SDI, so the plans to rewire all the patch panels was abandoned. It was also decided that we would get the actual BNCs for the cable we had, despite them being nearly £2 each! They were, however, very nice BNCs that will hopefully last a long time.

Impact

The first show to make use of the new equipment was Monday Evening Live the evening of 11 November. This was then followed by Children In Need 2013 on 16th.

The techies quickly rejoiced at the wonders that digital did - such as not having to wiggle cables until video signals got better, and stuff just working. This was short lived, however, as one of the three HVR's broke less than a month later, leaving us with only two HD-capable cameras.