Quad Cities IA/IL - President & General Manager Larry Rosmilso, along with representatives from Local TV, LLC, owner of WQAD, announced the decision to WQAD's full staff Thursday, July 22nd at their studios in Moline
"This is an unprecedented investment in the station" stated Rosmilso. "In the next several months, we'll spend close to 2-million dollars to upgrade the equipment at the station, and no department will be untouched by the process."
The move to high definition news coverage will bring Quad Cities news viewers more stunning video pictures, clearer audio & enhanced live coverage from the field as everything from live trucks to cameras & edit gear, even most of the internal cables gets replaced. "Every piece of equipment in the building will be upgraded to handle high definition video and enhanced audio," reported Chief Engineer Rick Serre.
The announcement came right on the heels of WQAD's first High Definition production, Helping Haiti which aired on Wednesday night. "We've had the HD cameras and an editor and we chose the Haiti project as our first experiment in HD news production" stated Alan Baker, WQAD News Director. "We were blown away at the quality of that first production. That's just a taste of what's to come."
The entire conversion process will take place in stages over the next several months. "We'll be keeping viewers on top of the progress as we hit each milestone," stated Baker.
WQAD is one of 20 mid-sized television stations owned by Local TV, LLC, part of Oak Hill Capital Partners and a consortium of investors who like TV and local news and believe in the future of both.
