MISHAWAKA — WSBT began a new era Sunday as the television station began broadcasting in high definition from its new facility in Mishawaka. It’s the area’s first station to make the switch to HD.

At 12:05 p.m., station engineers “flipped the switch,” moving operations from 300 West Jefferson Boulevard in downtown South Bend, to 1301 E. Douglas Road in Mishawaka.

While the changeover took only a second, the journey to get there was years in the making.

"I can’t even list how many things have gone into bring us to this day," said WSBT News Director Meg Sauer. "It’s really been years of work, months of rehearsals, weeks of training, and a lot of blood, sweat, and tears."

Throughout the day Sunday, dozens of news producers, anchors, reporters, photographers, and others gathered in the new WSBT digital newsroom where hours later, they would air the first news broadcast from the new building.

"This is all brand new stuff for us. Everything we are touching is brand new," said newscast director Chuck Lawson. "So we’re just relearning all the aspects it takes to put on a newscast in HD."

By mid-afternoon, meteorologists Andrew Sweeney and Cari Peugeot were huddled near a computer trouble shooting. Around the counter, managing editor and anchor Jim Pinkerton was also working through some technical bugs.

"The big thing is just to stay calm," Pinkerton said. "What happens happens and we’ll make it work."

"It reminds me of hearing the old stories in the newsroom from people saying, 'I remember when we worked with film and I remember when we went to color.' Well, this is just as big as those transitions and so to be a part of it … it’s history and it’s very, very exciting,” said Sauer.

WSBT management has touted the digital newsroom as one of the highlights of the new broadcast facility. It is jointly staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week by representatives of WSBT-TV, WSBT Radio, and the South Bend Tribune.