KLRN-TV Invests in Clarity Pixel Power System

Pixel Power (www.pixelpower.com) today announced that KLRN-TVChannel 9 in San Antonio, Texas, has purchased its Clarity2 DualChannel SD Graphics System. KLRN-TV covers a 30 county region in theSouth and Central Texas area.

To move into the digital broadcast arena, KLRN needed a system thatcould be used for its current analog production and which would fittheir long-term requirements for HD television broadcasting. AlthoughKLRN doesn't currently have the HD option for the Clarity system, theyexpect to order it within the year. Because KLRN will be broadcastingsome high-definition programming and eventually producing HD content aswell, they want to maintain their graphic look and provide their ownhigh-definition graphics for station branding during programmingbreaks.

Clarity is a powerful, flexible multi-channel solution for thecharacter generation, still store, and animated graphics requirementsof television broadcasters and postproduction companies. Available instandard, high definition, and combined HD/SD configurations, Clarityis the only character generator and graphics system that can simulcastboth standard and high-definition video from a single system. PixelPower's Clarity graphics system provides multi-format support withflexible hardware and software configurations to address the demandingrequirements of broadcast, postproduction, and graphics production.

Charles Vaughn, senior vice president of telecommunications forKLRN, says, "We looked at Clarity and other systems in the market, andwe liked the features we saw in Clarity. We believe that even though itis computer-based, it is by design an online broadcast piece ofequipment. We do a lot of live presentations, and it has a good userinterface for live television. We felt that the quality of the outputwas a large consideration, and Clarity's output is the best we've seen.We also liked the integrity of the graphics and the stability of thesystem. We're interested in Clarity's ability to interact with otherinformation systems to automatically provide portal graphics."

A main factor for KLRN in choosing a new graphics system was theupward mobility path available with Clarity. They investigated manyother systems but felt that Clarity provided the best long-terminvestment since it could handle both standard and high-definitionvideo in a single unit. Mr. Vaughn states, "Pixel Power is a generationahead of other graphics systems; we felt the other manufacturers wereshowing us the last of their product line and these products were closeto obsolete. We wanted to avoid making a choice that was a dead-endsolution".

Mr. Lewis Miller, vice president of engineering, says, "We're nowimplementing some of the unique things we intended to use it for. Forinstance, we wanted to have the character generator to be fully capableand controlled from three different locations " One station is locatedin the studio/video control room, a second is in an edit suite, and thethird is located in master control.

Both Vaughn and Miller emphasize that of all of the Clarity'ssignificant advantages, the key one is that the system is easilyupgradeable to HD. They also mentioned that the user interface andtraining are important, and reiterated that Clarity had the smoothestrolls and crawls of any system they had seen. Four weeks ago KLRN hadtheir annual nine-day television auction, which was Clarity's first bigtest. KLRN went on-air at 6:30 p.m. and finished the live auction inthe studio at 2 a.m. Mr. Miller says, "Clarity held up extremely welland we were very satisfied with the performance of Clarity".

About KLRN: KLRN-TV Channel 9 in San Antonio, Texas, is licensed tothe Alamo Public Telecommunications Council (APTC). The studios arelocated in downtown San Antonio. The station provides public televisionservices for a 30-county region in South and Central Texas. The missionof KLRN is to use the power of telecommunications to provide qualityprograms and services that advance education, culture, and community toenrich the lives of people throughout South and Central Texas.

About Pixel Power: Established in 1987, Pixel Power is dedicated toproviding broadcasters and facilities with powerful graphics andcharacter-generator products. With a flexible, professional range ofaward-winning products, Pixel Power has over 1300 systems installedworldwide.

Pixel Power Ltd.'s corporate headquarters is located in Cambridge,England, with a wholly owned U.S. subsidiary, Pixel Power Inc., basedin Boca Raton, Fla. Pixel Power maintains its global presence through aworldwide network of distributors. www.pixelpower.com