James City County, VA, in the Hampton Roads area has upgraded its public, education and government (PEG) programming to HD using Cablecast Flex multi-format video servers and Cablecast Broadcast Automation software from Tightrope Media Systems.
"We were eager to move to HD to offer a better television experience for our viewership," said Randall Hisle, chief video engineer for James City County. "Other than our PEG content, all of the channels on our local cable system were already HD, so we needed to upgrade to meet our viewers' quality expectations. Most of our recent production equipment and infrastructure was HD-ready, so when Cox Communications allowed us to start transmitting in HD, upgrading our Cablecast playout platform was the final piece of the puzzle."
A joint venture of James City County and the City of Williamsburg, the TV studio and headend at the James City County Community Video Center host production and playout for four separately programmed channels. Three of the channels - the county and city's jointly run community and education stations, plus James City County TV, the county's government station - are now distributed in both HD and SD, while the fourth, the city's distinct government channel, is available exclusively to Williamsburg residents in SD.