Special Reports

Kicking TV News Up A Notch In The Heart Of Chicago

CHICAGO (CBS) ― The CBS 2 news team is enjoying our new surroundings, and all the high-tech advances that are helping us cover the news in a whole new way.

CBS 2's Vince Gerasole reports the CBS 2 Broadcast Center is the first Chicago television station built from the ground up for high-definition broadcasting – and the way the station gathers news has just been kicked up a notch.

From our edit stations to our studio cameras to our graphics design gadgets, 99 percent of the equipment at 22 W. Washington is the latest high-definition technology has to offer,

"Everything, everything had to be new," said CBS 2 Director of Engineering Tom Schnecke.

Just to get all this stuff connected our engineers had to lay more than 282 miles of cable. Ultimately it brings you a better picture.

Thanks to the way our broadcast center is wired we can share images simultaneously with writers and producers all over the building, and that lets us tell a more compelling news story faster.

"Now they have all the bells and whistles and all the technology to do it more efficiently," CBS 2 President and General Manager Joe Ahern said.

The backdrop is a new, larger and crisper high-definition picture. The viewing ratios are larger, more of a rectangle, in high-definition, allowing us to deliver a larger picture that shows more of the scene.

And you don't have to be an insider to see one of our biggest advances --- it's our high resolution outdoor display facing Daley Plaza. The 19-by-31 foot screen will allow us to share our programming, newscasts and breaking reports with the thousands of people passing through the square.

Our reporters like the location, just steps away from the seats of government and Chicago's financial core, which helps us keep a closer eye on the issues we cover.

The CBS 2 control room boasts 18 feet of giant plasma screens that allow our directors to customize a virtual wall of monitors from literally hundreds of sources when they put a newscast together.

"We have the best tools that are made, but beyond that it's about the people," said CBS 2 News Director Carol Fowler.

(© MMVIII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

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