Switch flipped on public station link

Eight PBS and nine NPR stations in Indiana have completed a fiber-optic connection that allows them to share programming more cost-effectively.

Wright

The consortium known as Indiana Public Broadcasting Stations previously used expensive satellite uplinks or literally shipped tapes of programs.

But on Jan. 14 they used the new fiber connection to share the broadcast of Gov. Mike Pence’s State of the State address.

Work on the fiber link began last year, thanks to a $750,000 grant from Lilly Endowment Inc.

The network also provides the infrastructure for stations to cut costs by creating a joint master control center, a centralized accounting center “and the extension of our statewide public radio news service across all distribution platforms,” said Lloyd Wright, CEO of WFYI Public Media, in Indianapolis.

The Lilly Endowment grant also will go toward paying Crowe Horwath LLP to study back office consolidation opportunities among the stations.