‘The Snell Kahuna is an important part of our HD roadmap because it is enabling us to make a smooth, cost-effective migration to HD broadcasting,’ MediaCorp VP, Ronnie Chng Tee Kwang, confirms. ‘We needed a system that could easily switch between HD and SD operations, and integrate SD material without requiring external upconversion. Kahuna’s versatility and superior technology based on FormatFusion make it an extremely valuable member of our production team.’

MediaCorp first used Kahuna for its HD and SD coverage of the inaugural Summer Youth Olympic Games, held in Singapore in August 2010. Installed at the MediaCorp Youth Olympic studio and production hub at the Marina Bay Sands, the system performed so well in a fast-paced, live production environment that MediaCorp chose Kahuna for the HD upgrade of its Studio 4 facility for production of a wide range of dramas and music and sports programmes. Though these will be broadcast in HD, they still will draw from many sources that exist in SD and other formats, making Kahuna’s multi-format capabilities crucial. In addition to Kahuna, Studio 4 features a Snell Sirius 620 48x48 (expandable to 128x128) 3G/HD/SD re-clocking routing switcher.

‘MediaCorp was the perfect company to introduce our Kahuna to the Singapore broadcast community,’ says Naresh Subherwal, President of Snell’s Asia-Pacific operation. ‘We’re pleased that Kahuna played such a prominent role in the broadcast of the first-ever Summer Youth Olympic Games, and that the platform is helping usher in a new era of HD programming for Singapore’s most prominent broadcaster.’