KTSC goes HD

Colorado Springs final TV station finally got its high definition signal up and running (OK, technically KXTU/57 "The CW" isn't, but that's a low-power station). KTSC engineering manager Ian Hartley said they turn on the HD goodness last Friday.

They've been struggling with getting the signal up for more than two years. KTSC's digital transmitter was working, but they didn't have the capability before this to broadcast in HD.

Ian says they're in a testing phase right now, so what you're seeing is the national PBS HD feed. I asked him if there were a way of getting the programming schedule for that and he said, "Not that I know of." So it's going to be a grab bag for now. Ian said KTSC plans to make a longterm decision about the HD programming by February. The reason it's not the same as the programming on the standard def channel is that very little of that programming is available in HD.

The reason why it took so long is that Rocky Mountain PBS is trying to build a statewide link out of its Denver headquarters to the affiliate stations in Colorado Springs, Grand Junction and Durango. To do that, they take the PBS satellite feed in Denver, then bounce it through a series of four microwave links to Pueblo, then up to Cheyenne Mountain and out to the world. Getting those microwave links established was apparently a huge amount of work. The KTSC feed was the test case - presumably Grand Junction and Durango will benefit from our experience.

If you want to have some input on what KTSC-HD should show, e-mail customer_support@ktsc.pbs.org.