News
Fake TV news widespread
Apr 10, 2006 2:01 PM, Beyond The Headlines e-newsletter
The Center for Media Democracy (CMD) and Free Press last week exposed what it termed “an epidemic” of fake news infiltrating local television broadcasts across the country.
At a press conference in Washington with FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein, the groups called for a crackdown on stations that present corporate-sponsored videos as genuine news to an unsuspecting audience.
CMD, which unveiled the results of a 10-month investigation, found scores of local stations slipping commercial video news releases (VNRs) into their regular news programming. The new multimedia report released last week includes footage of 36 separate VNRs and their broadcast as news by TV stations and networks nationwide, including those in the nation's biggest markets.
The full report, "Fake TV News: Widespread and Undisclosed," is now available, complete with VNR and TV station video footage, at www.prwatch.org/fakenews/execsummary.
Investigators caught 77 television stations actively disguising sponsored content from companies including General Motors, Intel, Pfizer and Capital One to make it look like their own reporting. More than one-third of the time, stations aired fake news stories in their entirety as their own reporting.
Large conglomerates own approximately 80 percent of the stations snared in the investigation. The list of the worst offenders includes Clear Channel, News Corp./Fox Television, Viacom/CBS, Tribune Co., and Sinclair Broadcast Group — whose Oklahoma City affiliate was caught airing VNRs on six separate occasions.
Adelstein calls for FCC investigation of fake news
Apr 10, 2006 2:30 PM, Beyond The Headlines e-newsletter
Calling the findings “stunning in their scope,” FCC commissioner Jonathan Adelstein called on the commission to immediately open investigations of television stations named in The Center for Media Democracy's (CMD) report for airing fake news.
He said the stations who violated FCC rules should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. If the FCC determines that a licensee has violated the law, Adelstein said it might impose monetary fines of up to $32,500 per violation, and initiate license revocation proceedings. In addition, the failure to disclose is a crime, carrying a penalty of up to $10,000, and as much as one year imprisonment.
Adelstein is calling for the FCC to launch a rulemaking proceeding to clarify the obligations of all entities involved in the production and broadcast of VNRs.
He said voluntary industry guidelines and stern FCC warnings have failed to solve the problem, even in the wake of widespread and embarrassing disclosures in the press.
For more information, read "Fake TV news widespread and undisclosed."
RTNDA urges full disclosure
Apr 10, 2006 2:53 PM, Beyond The Headlines e-newsletter
In the wake of last week's report about the use of video news releases without attribution on local television stations, the Radio-Television News Directors Association has urged station management to review and strengthen their policies requiring complete disclosure of any outside material used in news programming.
The RTNDA cited its longstanding policy on the identification of outside material is stated in its code of ethics: “Professional electronic journalists must clearly disclose the origin of information and label all material provided by outsiders.”
The guidelines also state that if outside material is deemed to serve a useful journalistic purpose, it should be used only if the origin is clearly identified.
“The public has a right to expect truthfulness, accuracy and fairness in newscasts. Electronic journalists have every incentive to maintain the bonds of trust with their audiences by clearly disclosing the sources of the material they use,” the RTNDA said in a statement.
The RTNDA Code of Ethics is on its website at: www.rtnda.org/ethics/coe.shtml/. The VNR guidelines are available at www.rtnda.org/foi/finalvnr.shtml.
SMPTE releases VC-1 standard
Apr 10, 2006 3:12 PM, Beyond The Headlines e-newsletter
The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers has released its standard for compressed video bitstreams.
SMPTE said release of the VC-1 document, along with supporting Recommended Practices, would guide companies in building interoperable solutions using advanced compression technology.
“The work was contentious at times, and initially some people thought that SMPTE would just 'rubber stamp' the Microsoft document,” said Peter Symes, SMPTE engineering vice president who oversaw the development of the standard. “In fact, many individuals and organizations contributed to the final documents over the two-year development period. Significantly, SMPTE has now been chosen as the organization to standardize two new compression systems.”
Microsoft, who contributed decoder source code and other resources towards development of the process, proposed formal standardization.
SMPTE's Compression Technology Committee has also formed a new working group dedicated to providing maintenance of the test materials and documents, as well as the administration of a bitstream exchange program. Microsoft has contributed source code for a prototype encoder that is available to committee members participating in this program.
The VC-1 documents are SMPTE 421M-2006, VC-1 Compressed Video Bitstream Format and Decoding Process-the Standard itself, as well as two supporting Recommended Practices, SMPTE RP227-2006 VC-1 Bitstream Transport Encodings and SMPTE RP228-2006 VC-1 Decoder and Bitstream Conformance. All three documents can be purchased on the SMPTE Website at www.smpte.org.
FCC & Industry Updates
Senate politics delays McDowell FCC nomination
Apr 10, 2006 3:16 PM, Beyond The Headlines e-newsletter
Robert McDowell, the Republican who would fill the last vacant seat on the FCC, is playing a waiting game. As a result, the FCC remains in partisan gridlock.
Any senator can block a full Senate vote on executive nominations and as many as two are doing just that with the McDowell appointment.
Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) is blocking McDowell and other White House nominees due to her continuing displeasure with the president's response to Hurricane Katrina. She said she would continue to block the nominations until significant progress is made to secure White House commitments to levee protection and coastal restoration in Louisiana.
It was also reported that Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.VA) had also placed a hold on executive nominations. Rockefeller is recuperating from back surgery.
The FCC has avoided taking on contentious, partisan issues-such as media ownership-until it has a full slate of members. Until the Senate issues are resolved and a vote is allowed, the waiting game will apparently continue.
U.S. House panel moves on telco TV
Apr 10, 2006 3:23 PM, Beyond The Headlines e-newsletter
Telco TV is getting a push on Capitol Hill. Legislation designed to create national video franchising to help Verizon Communications and AT&T got the approval of a key House panel last week.
The House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on telecommunications and the Internet voted 27-4 to allow telcos to apply for a nationwide license to offer video service, instead of the current process in which they must negotiate with thousands of cities for individual franchises, Reuters reported.
The two largest U.S. telephone carriers are rapidly moving into pay television services and have complained that with current laws it will take them years to get the necessary licenses, making it harder to compete against cable companies.
Reuters said the future of the legislation is unclear because of the short legislative session this year, as well as because of divisions among lawmakers, network providers and Internet content companies.
Democrats offered numerous amendments, including provisions aimed at preventing Internet service providers from favoring certain content over others and requiring new video providers to build out their service to ensure poor areas are not left out.
The Republicans who have a majority on the panel, including the Internet neutrality amendment, defeated most. But lawmakers approved by voice vote a provision requiring high-speed Internet providers to sell the service without tying it with voice or other products.
The bill would also empower the FCC to enforce its principles that call on Internet service providers to permit consumers' unfettered Internet access and allow them to run any Internet-based applications.
New movie services arrive on Internet
Apr 10, 2006 3:29 PM, Beyond The Headlines e-newsletter
Six major Hollywood studios started selling digital versions of movies on the Internet last week — the first time they have allowed U.S. consumers to buy films online and store them indefinitely with no viewing expiration date.
Warner Brothers, Universal Pictures, Sony Pictures, 20th Century Fox, Paramount Pictures and MGM are offering films for sale on a co-owned Website called Movielink.com. Prices range from $10 and $30 per film, with the average being about $20.
In a separate announcement, Sony and Lionsgate said they would sell films through the CinemaNow site. Films from the Walt Disney Co. were not available. Both groups said they are negotiating with Disney for rights.
Both CinemaNow, which began by offering nearly 300 films this week, and Movielink, which offered about 75, will offer films the same day they are released for sale on DVD.
Many have noted that the studio's sales through iTunes have been much greater than he expected. Moreover, Universal's research showed that the majority of those downloads were watched on computer screens, not video iPods, indicating that people are willing to watch video on their PCs.
The New York Times said Apple, Amazon.com and other online retailers are also busily trying to cut deals with Hollywood to sell downloads. In general, the studios want to make downloads available on largely the same terms, in as many places as possible.
For now, these movie downloads are a bit cumbersome and the studios have limited the way they can be watched. A movie will need about one gigabyte of hard-drive space and will take an hour or two to download using a high-speed Internet connection.
CinemaNow will allow the movies to be played only on a single computer. It prevents users from burning a DVD. Movielink will allow the movie to be copied onto a DVD, from which the movie can be downloaded to two other computers, but it cannot be played on a conventional DVD player.
The movies also cannot be copied to Apple's video iPod or the handheld video players that use software from Microsoft. The studios are expected to permit downloads to portable devices later this year.
MSNBC offers free news clips to mobile phones
Apr 10, 2006 3:37 PM, Beyond The Headlines e-newsletter
MSNBC.com last week launched a project to offer free, ad-supported video and other news content on mobile phones with Web access.
It is one of the first major experiments to see whether consumers will embrace traditional advertising on their mobile devices, the Washington Post reported.
The service, downloadable from the MSNBC Website, will deliver banner ads alongside MSNBC news stories, or 10- to 15-second video ads before clips of NBC's "Today" show.
The new service is unusual for mobile telco. Most such mobile video offerings have required either a subscription to a special service such as Verizon Wireless's V-Cast or fees to the material's creator, such as 99 cents a month for CBS News to Go.
Mobile ESPN brings MLB content to wireless subscribers
Apr 10, 2006 3:50 PM, Beyond The Headlines e-newsletter
Mobile ESPN, a national mobile phone service designed for sports fans, now offers a variety of new features for subscribers to follow the 2006 Major League Baseball season. Subscribers have one-touch access to personalized text and video coverage of their favorite teams and players, as well as complete mobile access to their ESPN.com fantasy baseball teams.
Mobile ESPN wireless network voice and data services are provided on the Nationwide Sprint PCS Network. High-speed data services are available in the Sprint wireless high-speed data (EVDO) coverage areas. Where available, “EVDO” provides broadband-like download speeds, enabling extremely fast access to Mobile ESPN's sports content, Internet searching and certain downloads.
Rate plans start at $34.99 a month, and include voice minutes and all ESPN sports content, text messages and wireless Internet access. Handset prices start at $99.
Mobile ESPN is available through Best Buy stores nationwide at www.mobileespn.com.
Former Pinnacle Systems co-founder joins venture capital group
Apr 10, 2006 3:59 PM, Beyond The Headlines e-newsletter
Ajay Chopra, a former co-founder of Pinnacle Systems, which was sold to Avid Technology in 2005, has joined Trinity Ventures, an investor firm specializing in early-stage information technology companies.
Chopra will serve as a venture consultant, and will help identify and support entrepreneurs who are seeking to build world-class companies in the digital media space.
With more than 20 years of operating experience at the senior management and board level with start-ups, private companies, and public companies, Chopra has considerable experience in the industry. During his tenure at Pinnacle, the company grew from the start-up stage to a global $350M public company, while earning technical Emmy awards for technical innovation.
Previously, Chopra was with Mindset, a computer graphics start-up. Before Mindset, he held various technical and management positions at Atari, a video games company, and Unisys.
CEA honors 2005 Digital Television Pioneers
Apr 4, 2006 2:04 PM, HD Technology Update e-newsletter
The Consumer Electronics Association last month honored the winners of the Academy of Digital Television Pioneers (DTV Academy) Awards in five categories during its Entertainment Technology Policy Summit luncheon in Washington, D.C.
The winners included:
- Best DTV Program Provider: DIRECTV
- Best DTV Leadership (Industry): Peter Fannon, Panasonic Corp. of North America
- Best DTV Leadership (Government): Senator Ted Stevens (R-AK), Senator Daniel Inouye (D-HI), Congressman Joe Barton (R-TX) and Congressman Fred Upton (R-MI)
- The People's Choice Award for Favorite HDTV Programming: NFL Monday Night Football (ABC)
- The President's Award for Outstanding Contribution: Rick Chessen, former chair, FCC Digital Television Task Force and Bureau Chief of the Media Bureau.
For more information, visit www.ce.org.
New Products & Reviews
Mitsubishi unveils new HDTV technology
Apr 10, 2006 4:04 PM, Beyond The Headlines e-newsletter
Mitsubishi has developed a new commercial television technology that uses colored lasers to display images on large, thin, lightweight screens-surpassing images seen on film, the New York Times reported.
The television sets are expected to reach stores sometime late next year.
At the heart of the new television is an existing rear-projection technology called digital light processing. In the past, this technology, developed by Texas Instruments, used white-light mercury lamps as the television's light source.
With laser technology, separate red, green and blue lasers are used in conjunction with an HDTV chip, Frank DeMartin, vice president for marketing and product development at Mitsubishi, told the Times.
In terms of performance, DeMartin said the laser television promises a greater range and intensity of colors. He said the new sets would be made with compact, sculptured cabinets and remain relatively light because the screens would be advanced plastics rather than the glass common in plasma television flat-panel units.
Solid-state lasers, DeMartin said, will greatly outlast lamps. As a light source, he said, they are practically permanent, meaning that the lasers should last for the set's lifetime.
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Rule Broadcast Systems adds Canon SD and HD lenses to rental inventory
Apr 10, 2006 4:12 PM, Beyond The Headlines e-newsletter
 Rule Broadcast has seen its HD production rental business, including its Canon lenses, soar over the past few months. |
To offer its customers more choice for high-quality acquisition, Rule Broadcast Systems has purchased Canon Broadcast's high-definition HJ17ex7.7B IRSE lens, HJ11ex4.7B IRSE wide-angle lens, and the standard-definition J35ex11B IASD SD telephoto lens.
Rule Broadcast has standardized on Canon lenses for the vast majority of the cameras they rent. The company's purchases of Canon HD lenses will serve an increasing number of HD production clients.
Weighing 3.83lbs., Canon's HJ17 lens is a wide-angle HD zoom designed for maximum portability and versatility in EFP applications. With a focal length ranging from 7.7mm to 131mm (15.4mm to 262mm with Extender), the HJ17 lens delivers high-end HDTV performance and excellent picture sharpness.
The Canon HJ11 is one of the widest HD lenses in its class, and is intended for producers and broadcasters requiring extremely wide-angle shooting with minimum chromatic aberrations and geometric distortion (at the widest angle). Featuring a focal length of from 4.7mm to 52mm (9.4mm to 104mm with Extender), the HJ11 weighs 4.3lbs.
The J35ex11B IASD telephoto lens offers a high zoom ratio of 35x, and weighs 9.83lbs. The lens features Canon's advanced IFxs optical technologies, including Power Optics, Internal Focus, and Digital Drive features for customizing select digital functions.
For more information, visit www.usa.canon.com.
Stations broadcast DTV with Dielectric
Apr 10, 2006 4:25 PM, Beyond The Headlines e-newsletter
 Dielectric's solution for KTBS included the use of a combiner and splitter that allows the stations to share a single 8in transmission line, thus minimizing the tower modification requirements. |
The project helped KPXJ achieve several goals: the station replaced its former analog antenna with a digital UHF antenna, and with the move to the much-taller KTBS tower, the new antenna was elevated from 450ft to 1600ft, greatly increasing KPXJ's coverage area.
KPXJ purchased Dielectric's TFU-30DSC-R S180 antenna, which provides an average power rating of 40kW. The side-mount TFU-series antenna was installed on the existing tower with only minor modifications.
For more information, visit .
DNF Controls adds as-run log option top playlist playout system
Apr 10, 2006 4:44 PM, Beyond The Headlines e-newsletter
DNF Controls has introduced a new As-Run Log option for its 3040P/DLO Playlist Playout System, an on-air automation backup system. The new As-Run Log option enables automatic logging of playout times, durations, and errors. Once created, the log can be uploaded from the 3040P/DLO to a PC via a Windows-based software application.
Used for on-air automation back up, the 3040P/DLO Playlist Playout System provides a versatile and flexible means to download a playlist, edit it, and get it on the air fast in the event of an automation failure. It gives users the ability to control the server quickly and easily in order to stay on the air.
DNF Controls will display this and other features at NAB2006 booth #SU2955.
For more information, visit www.dnfcontrols.com.
Neumann goes retro with TLM 49
Apr 10, 2006 4:49 PM, Beyond The Headlines e-newsletter
Neumann is now offering its new TLM 49, with a retro design that harkens back to the 1950s.
The TLM 49, which comes standard with an elastic suspension, employs the K 47 capsule, which is also featured in the company's M 49 and the U 47 mics.
The warm character of the sound lends the voice richness and transparency, enabling it to make its presence felt in the mix. As is the case with the Neumann classics, the voice comes to the fore with no unpleasant overemphasis of the high frequencies.
For more information, visit www.neumann.com.
Sundance Digital puts Grass Valley K2 server on-air at KGW-TV
Apr 10, 2006 4:55 PM, Beyond The Headlines e-newsletter
KGW-TV, the NBC affiliate in Portland, OR, is now on air with a new six-channel Sundance Digital Titan automation system and the Grass Valley K2 media client and Media server system. KGW-TV joins 13 other stations in Belo's Television Group that now operate with Titan at their digital core.
KGW, on the air 24-hours, currently delivers both NTSC and digital television channels. Two K2 media server clusters (one for redundancy) support program and commercial playout as well as distribution of local weather programming and commercial insertions on WeatherPlus, a DTV sub-channel.
Titan is a highly scalable automation system able to control hundreds of channels in a facility or remotely manage playlists at multiple geographically separated locations. KGW-TV presently operates six Titan channels, one of which is a “spoke” for Northwest Cable News (NWCN) originating from Belo's KING/KONG duopoly in Seattle.
The station's six-channel Titan configuration includes Sundance Digital's Intelli-Sat Schedule and Record Manager, News Recorder to automatically capture and re-purpose live news programming, TitanSync for auto-failover redundancy, multiple Media Prep and Air Control Stations, a Digital Delivery Management System (DDMS) to integrate the movement of media from various commercial cache servers, and SalesView Lo-Res for server content browsing. Titan is also controlling Grass Valley's M-2100 SD and HD master control switchers.
The Titan system is also integrated with a Telestream Traffic Manager system. They use Telestream in combination with Sundance's DDMS to download syndicated programming from Pathfire and file transfer a show straight into the Titan system without going to tape. The segment timings come across automatically.
Sundance will exhibit at NAB in booth #SU1425. For more information, visit www.SundanceDigital.com.
Harris intros NEXIO XS server
Apr 10, 2006 5:01 PM, Beyond The Headlines e-newsletter
 The NEXIO XS server scales from two channels to well over 100 channels, thousands of hours of shared storage and hundreds of megabytes per second of IP network bandwidth-all within a single NEXIO SAN. |
Housed in a single 3RU frame, NEXIO XS features all-software codec technology, integrated editing applications and front-panel access to drives.
The new system manages SD and HD content from ingest to playout. No external coders or decoders are required, no I/O-to-storage bridge devices are needed, and no third-party editing systems are necessary.
Since the system uses software-based codec technology, compression formats can be changed through standard software updates. The system connects to the NEXIO SAN, providing broadcasters with an infrastructure for producing, processing, distributing and managing SD and HD content.
The NEXIO XS server scales from two channels to more than 100 channels, thousands of hours of shared storage and hundreds of megabytes per second of IP network bandwidth-all within a single NEXIO SAN.
For more information, visit www.harris.com.
ORF upgrades Vizrt graphics in Austria
Apr 10, 2006 5:09 PM, Beyond The Headlines e-newsletter
 ORF harnesses the 3-D rendering capabilities of the Vizrt system for its post-production edit suites. |
Austrian public service broadcaster, Österreichischer Rundfunk (ORF), has purchased Vizrt's products for a complete graphics overhaul.
ORF now makes use of more than 40 Viz|Trio character generators, which were added to ORF's existing Vizrt virtual studio set and real-time 3-D graphics system of 10 Viz|Engine renderers.
In addition, to enable a consistency of look across live and pre-recorded programs, ORF has harnessed the 3-D rendering capabilities of the system for its post-production edit suites, and has now bought a total of 25 nonlinear editing plug-ins, which integrate with its Pinnacle editing systems.
For more information, visit www.vizrt.com.
3sixtymedia deploys Snell & Wilcox Kahuna
Apr 10, 2006 5:16 PM, Beyond The Headlines e-newsletter
 The Snell Kahuna will immediately enable 3sixtymedia to move to multiformat SD/HD operation. |
UK-based 3sixtymedia has purchased a Snell & Wilcox Kahuna SD/HD production switcher for its Manchester Studios.
3sixtymedia purchased the Kahuna due to its capability for simultaneous SD and HD operations on the same control surface and in the same mainframe. Initially, the company will work in SD-only mode. After the refurbishment of its studio, monitoring, and infrastructure is complete, it will upgrade to multiformat SD/HD operation.
3sixtymedia purchased a 3M/E Kahuna system featuring a 4M/E option installed in the mainframe, a separate master auxiliary panel, six remote auxiliary panels, four channels of DVE, and an 80-input option. To give the system even greater power in mixed- or dual-format productions, the studio added new switcher options including ancillary data on the auxiliary output, a modulation option, and extended background FormatFusion.
For more information, visit www.snellwilcox.com.
CP-Tel selects Latens to secure Louisiana IPTV
Apr 10, 2006 5:32 PM, Beyond The Headlines e-newsletter
Latens Systems has announced that CP-Tel has purchased its FCAS Conditional Access technology for IPTV services in Louisiana.
The system will work with IPTV AmiNET set-top boxes from Amino.
CP-Tel now can offer its subscribers secured video services that include pay television, PVR, VOD, and subscription SVOD as MPEG-2 streams.
Latens uses secure software modules for security. The technology can be extended to provide security for the PVR and multiple set-top box homes.
Latens' FCAS can operate in both centralized and distributed architectures.
For more information, visit www.latens.com.
