My friend Terry was kind enough to give me a tour of the KTCA/TPT studios in downtown St. Paul tonight. I’ve driven by that building for years, but had never been inside. It was also pretty cool to see the new central corridor light rail lines in the street outside.

Terry does lots of different things at the station, but I seem to have forgotten most of the “official” titles. I got to see the air control center, most of the sound stages, a number of edit bays, a recording booth, their cool autograph wall and the IT and marketing departments.

I was really impressed with all the digital workflows – can’t imagine how that all worked using tape. Lots of encoders/decoders, IP and fiber connections, giants DVRs and tape storage, time servers, sweet video monitors and satellite feeds all come together to bring 24/7 programming to your TV (more photos after the jump).

Thanks Terry!