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E-News
Senate approves DTV transition deadline
Dec 27, 2005 9:59 PM, ENG Update e-newsletter
The Senate Dec. 21 passed the conference report on the budget reconciliation bill with a provision establishing Feb. 17, 2009, as the hard cut-off date for analog TV transmission.
By a vote of 51-50, with Vice President Dick Cheney casting the decisive vote, the Senate approved the measure, which the House had passed days before. However, a parliamentary procedure used by Senate Democrats changed the legislation slightly on non-broadcast-related matters. As a result, the legislation must return to the House for approval.
Among the digital transition-related aspects of the reconciliation bills passed by the Senate and House are:
- Establishment of Feb. 17, 2009, deadline for the transition from analog to digital TV transmission;
- Appropriation of $1.5 billion to subsidize the purchase of digital-to-analog converter boxes for over-the-air TV viewers;
- $30 million for the DTV transition in New York City;
- $75 million for the DTV transition of LPTV stations.
The NAB considers the legislation a victory on the cable downconversion of HD signals issue. The legislation did not authorize cable systems to downconvert broadcast HDTV signals for their customers subscribing to analog service. Nor did the legislation compel cable system operators to carry broadcasters’ multicast signals.
The absence of closure on those contentious issues leads some observers to predict that the issue of the DTV transition will come up again. A statement from NAB president and CEO David Rehr following the Senate vote indicates as much.
“…NAB will work with Congress to ensure that cable operators not be permitted to block consumer access to the full benefits of digital and high-definition television," he said.
NBC acquires control of MSNBC
Dec 27, 2005 10:06 PM, ENG Update e-newsletter
NBC Universal has acquired controlling interest of MSNBC and an option to acquire the cable news channel in its entirety within two years, according to NBC Universal.
The deal with Microsoft, announced Dec. 23, is intended to allow the television network to integrate the channel fully into its news operation and its cable platform. According to a statement from NBC Universal, msnbc.com will remain equally owned by both Microsoft and NBC Universal.
For the past several years, MSNBC has struggled to win viewers, consistently lagging behind CNN and Fox News.
ENG
Low-delay HD wireless camera system gets high marks during MNF
Dec 22, 2005 12:10 PM
 AVS demonstrated the low delay digital wireless camera system from Link Research during the ABC Sports production of “Monday Night Football” Dec. 12. |
AVS married the Link Research LinkHD system to a Thomson LDK 6000 camera for the demonstration. The system offered full camera control functionality and was integrated into NEP Super Shooter 26 using the existing Thomson video control panel.
Advances promise lower power to capture digital images
Dec 27, 2005 10:10 PM, ENG Update e-newsletter
Researchers at the University of Rochester in Rochester, NY, have developed two technologies that they said will significantly reduce the amount of power required to capture a digital image.
If adopted by ENG camera manufacturers someday, the new technology could help to extend the use of batteries between recharges.
Mark Bocko, professor of electrical and computer engineering, and Zeljko Ignjatovic, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, have designed a prototype chip that can digitize an image right at each pixel. They also are working on another technology to compress an image with fewer computations than the best current compression techniques.
One of the technologies integrates an oversampling analog-to-digital converter at each pixel location in a CMOS sensor. Previous attempts to do this on-pixel conversion have required many transistors, leaving too little area to collect light. The Rochester designs use as few as three transistors per pixel, reserving nearly half of the pixel area for light collection.
Initial tests show that at video rates of 30fps, the designs use 0.88 nanowatts per pixel —50 times less than the industry's previous best. It also delivers a dynamic range of 1:100,000–a hundredfold improvement over existing CMOS sensors.
The team’s other advance is called Focal Plane Image Compression. Bocko and Ignjatovic have figured out a way to arrange photodiodes on an imaging chip so that compressing the resulting image demands as little as 1 percent of the computing power usually needed.
Normal compression techniques include a discrete cosine transform, which checks how much a segment of an image resembles a series of cosine waves. Both the image and the cosine waves are sampled at regular intervals and the transform requires that the image and cosine wave samples be multiplied together and added. Since the cosine wave samples can have a value anywhere between -1 and +1, the computation requires multiplication by non-integers, which demands the bulk of the computing power.
But Ignjatovic and Bocko have laid out the pixels to lie at the peaks of cosine waves resulting in a non-uniformly distributed array, instead of an evenly spaced one. By using this trick, the amount of computation required to compress the image is slashed by nearly five-fold.
For more information, visit www.rochester.edu.
Beyond ENG
KWTV deploys file-based digital archive
Dec 27, 2005 10:19 PM
KWTV-TV in Oklahoma City, OK, has replaced its massive tape-based video archives with an efficient, file-based digital archiving solution.
The Griffins Communications station had recorded all of its newscasts to Beta machines, which required videotape machine maintenance, tape handling and shelf and rack space for the tapes. Additionally, KWTV archived the rest of its programming on VHS tape machines, which ran nonstop, 24-hours per day, seven days per week.
KWTV deployed the Telestream’s MAPreview digital video capture and logging system to replace its massive tape-based video archives. Using MAPreview, KWTV captures and archives all station programming in efficient Windows Media 9 format onto MAP media capture servers.
These programs are held for nine months for BMI and ASCAP audits, ad-run verification, program analysis and executive review. MAPreview also captures and archives KWTV’s two competitors’ programs. These programs are held for one month and used by the marketing and news departments for competitive review. In addition, newscasts are archived in higher resolution formats for awards submission. With MAPreview, KWTV can pull up its newscasts and review them alongside those of the station’s competitor simultaneously. MAPreview provides multi-feed media recording, organization and desktop viewing in a server-based application. Metadata such as closed captioning, time code, keyframes, labels, and as-run logs are captured during ingest. Custom metadata labels can be added.
KWTV has programmed its MAPreview to display ratings data with the video automatically every 15 minutes. The station also uses it to confirm proper closed captioning on the video.
For more information, visit www.telestream.net.
WWTV adds end-to-end digital news production system
Dec 27, 2005 10:29 PM, ENG Update e-newsletter
WWTV-TV in Cadillac, MI, is installing an end-to-end digital production environment for news creation, storage, and playout from Avid Technology.
The CBS affiliate is replacing its tape-based systems with the all-digital system to improve overall operating efficiency and real-time, simultaneous access to content.
Transitioning from an all-tape to all-digital production environment requires a substantial overhaul of infrastructure and workflow capabilities, according to station general manager Bill Kring.
The new workflow is intended to provide the station with improved speed to air for its news content. It also will provide the quality the station is seeking as it transitions to the next generation of digital news coverage and broadcast, he said.
WWTV's new end-to-end production environment consists of the Avid Unity for News shared-storage system with MediaManager software; seven Avid NewsCutter XP systems and a NewsCutter Adrenaline nonlinear news editing system for craft news editing; the Avid iNEWS newsroom computer system for automation; MediaStream for commercial playout; and an Avid AirSpeed video server for news ingest and playout.
WWTV currently uses an Avid Media Composer Adrenaline and Avid DS Nitris system for editing promotions and long-form features.
For more information, visit www.avid.com.
ENG Products
PRO-3 Channel Receiver solves IFB delay in ENG
Dec 27, 2005 10:35 PM, ENG Update e-newsletter
The Modulation Sciences PRO-3 Channel Receiver solves IFB delays encountered in ENG.
It offers the flexibility to correct any delay issue encountered in the field. The PRO-3 PRO Channel Receiver incorporates four unique solutions for providing IFB to ENG field talent unimpeded by delay.
They include:
- DELcor technology, which provides an additional audio channel from the studio to the field for carrying undelayed program audio. The DELcor PCG-II generator includes a switcher to move seamlessly and remotely from the DELcor channel to the SAP Channel.
- DELiminate technology, a uniquely applied squelch technology that silences the earpiece of the talent as soon as he begins speaking, protecting the talent from confusion resulting from delayed program feeds but allowing director interrupts.
- Combined DELcor and DELiminate.
- PRO Mix/Minus delivering up to six independent feeds via TV subcarrier to six different ENG sites.
For more information, visit www.modsci.com.
Thrane ships Explorer 500
Dec 27, 2005 10:41 PM, ENG Update e-newsletter
Thrane & Thrane received approval from Inmarsat Dec.1 to begin selling for its Explorer 500 BGAN satellite terminal.
The Explorer 500 is a portable, compact terminal offering voice, fax, SMS, Internet access and e-mail service, simultaneous voice/fax and high-speed data up to 464Kb/s, and an Ethernet, USB, Bluetooth and phone/fax interface.
A slightly larger Explorer 700 BGAN terminal should be ready during the summer 2006. The company expects to offer a maximum data speed of up to 492Kb/s.
Inmarsat’s broadband global area network service is due in the United States in the first quarter of 2006.
For more information, visit www.thrane.com.
Telescript FPS130V offers light, portable teleprompting for ENG work
Dec 27, 2005 10:47 PM
The Telescript FPS130V Fold and Go teleprompter is a mid-sized unit designed for ENG applications.
The on-camera flat panel prompting system comes with a 13in LCD flat panel monitor with composite and S-Video inputs. The FPS130V weighs 16.5lb and offers a usable range of 2ft to 25ft between the teleprompter and talent.
Designed to mount to all ENG and DV cameras, the FPS130V delivers 430 nits of brightness, can be operated off a battery and requires minimal assembly.
For more information, visit www.telescript.com.
