QVC Does HD on the Fly

摘要

To Angie Simmons, the best thing about QVC's transformation to an HDTV production environment is that nobody noticed. It's not that the QVC senior VP doesn't have high hopes for what HD can do to make handbags, jewelry items and clothes look more alluring on the TV screen. But the initial goal for Simmons and the QVC production team had nothing to do with on-air presentation, and everything to do with logistics.rnAs one of the few TV networks that televise an all-live, round-the-clock schedule, QVC faced an unusual challenge in reconfiguring its West Chester, Pa., studio operations for HD earlier this year without disrupting normal program segments.rnShutting down for a relaxed retrofit wasn't an option for QVC, a unit of Denver-based Liberty Media Corp. With more than $5 billion annually in sales from its TV-merchandising operations, even an hour of downtime means big money. So, Simmons and her team decided to orchestrate what was essentially a massive real-time swap-out of cameras, lenses and production equipment that would occur in a single night.