In a first, NJTV will give Christie HD treatment in today’s address

For the second time in two weeks, NJTV will have its cameras and crew at the Statehouse as it prepares to broadcast Gov. Chris Christie‘s State of the State address for what it says will be in high definition for the first time on public television.

“The rescheduling wasn’t as difficult as it might have been, because we had everything scheduled from this past Tuesday’s canceled state address. We’re basically using the same equipment, facilities and personnel,” said station general manager John Servidio.

The address was pushed back a week following the death of Assemblyman Alex DeCroce on Jan. 9.

Servidio said he thought the station’s hour-long coverage of last Tuesday’s memorial for DeCroce was a “very good dry run” that “fit the emotion of the day.” It also gave the station a chance to test its high-definition broadcasting capabilities prior to today’s address.

Coverage of the speech will begin at 3 p.m., with NJTV providing a satellite feed for other stations, as well.

Servidio said criticism of NJTV’s coverage of the DeCroce tribute was unfair, as the station began providing the pool feed for other stations at noon, but decided not to begin airing the footage on the channel until 1 p.m. determining that “nothing newsworthy” was going on.