ABC O&Os outsourcing master control operations

[WXmanTim 88]

I wouldn't be shocked if that delay was on the DirecTV end of things. The DirecTV feeds are usually behind the OTA feeds by roughly that amount in my experience. It's not that surprising considering the feed is received at DirecTV's "Local Receive Facility" that is co-located at KHOU. From there it's fed via fiber to DirecTV's "Regional Uplink Facility" (I can't remember if Houston gets fed to Tucson, AZ or Castle Rock, CO) it's uplinked from there to the DirecTV satellites in Geostationary orbit. The end user then receives it on downlink from those satellite(s). So, considering all that movement before it reaches the end user a 4-5 second delay isn't surprising. I'd be curious to know what the delay is on the "in-house" feed versus the OTA feed.

 

From my understanding the studio feed doesn't truly go back to Vegas. I was always under the impression the studio was routed straight to the edge servers (or, output servers) at each station. Yes, the controllers can see it in Vegas as it's all part of the network. But, to the best of my knowledge the live studio programming didn't run back to the servers there...it could but, I didn't think that was the case. You are correct that Vegas "takes over" the commercial breaks as the content is stored there. Although, the edge servers (or, output servers) at each station hold a content cache and the playlist in the event of failure.

 

 

Mistakes can still happen even if MC is "in house." Heck, yesterday KSTC did a weather break-in and ending up returning programming to the ABC feed (that was running on KSTP) instead of whatever syndicated show they interrupted. They corrected the mistake pretty quickly. But, mistakes happen. That WTVJ clip with the dead air could have happened with an "in-house" MC. However, I will say that the operator should have been watching WTVJ. It's pretty clear to me that the operator gave them 90 seconds and for whatever reason went on to something else. That's not a result of "hubbing" that's just a crap operator. That operator could have done the same thing "in house." I'll grant you that if it was "in house" they might be more likely to catch the "toss back" sooner as there is less that commands the operators attention. However, if a "hub" operator can't make sure everything is good with the other 4-5 stations they are monitoring and, then focus (or, check in on) on a station that cut away from programming for 90 seconds that speaks more to the operator.

 

I don't think "hubbed" master control is a bad idea. As I've stated I think the benefits way outweigh the drawbacks from a business standpoint. In most modern MC systems the schedule is programmed into a playlist. So, you're not swapping tapes and cueing them up anymore. Plus, in most cases you have an extra layer of redundancy. So, you don't have to cobble something together on the fly to get back on the air like Hearst (WGAL) and Scripps (WMAR) have recently had to do. If it's done properly most viewers can't tell the difference. I suspect 99% of viewers couldn't tell you that KARE's MC "runs through" Jacksonville, FL or that WFXT's MC "runs through" Las Vegas, NV or that KOIN's MC "runs through" Indianapolis, IN...nor, could they tell you when the switch happened...and the list goes on and on. So, if the end product the viewer sees is similar to what was being put out from an "in house" master control what's the difference?

 

I suspect San Antonio's run will come to an end soon. Gannett will likely have KENS join their sister stations in Greensboro, NC or, at a new hub. I can't imagine the ex-Belo stations will be allowed to keep their full "in-house" MC too much longer. That said Gannett uses "controlled monitoring" so, there is still a fair amount of local control compared to other groups.

 

Said equipment will still be there. It will just be operated remotely by an operator at Encompass in Atlanta.

 

The "Technical Operations" folks? To the best of my knowledge they are "backup" master control operators...in case a network failure happens. But, they have other tasks as well....at least up here. For example, one of them is responsible for the transmitter. So, If Vegas calls with an issue they have someone locally to go look at it. Plus, they have there other various engineering duties.

 

 

WRT to the ABC O&O's outsourcing master control and not setting up an "in house" hub. I think that speaks more to the ABC O&O group needing to improve their bottom line on the balance sheet. They do fine and by all accounts make plenty of cash relatively speaking. But, if your only bringing bags of cash and your corporate cousins (ESPN, Marvel, et al.) are backing up Brinks trucks loaded with cash Mickey isn't going to be impressed. Whether or not that means they are being prepped for sale/spin off is up to you.

I'm not there day side to really see what or mc ops do, since I work mostly overnights.

 

One thing I do know is that we can't run a severe weather "crawl" out of the weather center on top of syndicated programming with the hub set up as it is. Hub can run the basic EAS crawl, but we can't put a radar or edit that crawl in house.

 

In fact if we go into "tropical storm/hurricane mode" we will have to basically refeed the feed through studio control in order for some of our storm graphics to work correctly.

[sanewsguy 509]

 

I'm not there day side to really see what or mc ops do, since I work mostly overnights.

 

One thing I do know is that we can't run a severe weather "crawl" out of the weather center on top of syndicated programming with the hub set up as it is. Hub can run the basic EAS crawl, but we can't put a radar or edit that crawl in house.

 

In fact if we go into "tropical storm/hurricane mode" we will have to basically refeed the feed through studio control in order for some of our storm graphics to work correctly.

 

This is why master control should be done in house. But, companies can't let that happen. They gotta continue to give Rupert his bonuses.

[cbs2newengland 71]

 

I'm not sure what the manly news comment means but as far as network wide programming.

 

Watch GMA, or even worse WNT? Its mostly female focused stories, obscene stimulation in the 90s packages, and over glamorous reporting. Stay at home mums and any typical ditzy chick DOES NOT WATCH THE NEWS FOR THE NEWS CONTENT! While GMA is toping the morning ratings I think NN is crushing them at night. And isn't their general programming going towards a narrow demographic? This is yet another reason why ABC might be going into a slow death as GE did this same thing to NBCU.

 

 

 

This is why master control should be done in house. But, companies can't let that happen. They gotta continue to give Rupert his bonuses.

 

What's so weird is the Fox O&Os are so damn automated but at FNC, they got more cameramen than any robotics whatsoever and MCR seems to always be dormant. No warm transition to hard breaks, and when a "Fox News Alert" happens on Red Eye the CG gets so confused whether it wants to show its crawl or not because the FNA screwed up the automated script. Again, if anyone wants a MCR job, they should try to lobby FNC or others because they need them!

[MorningNews 1293]

 

Watch GMA, or even worse WNT? Its mostly female focused stories, obscene stimulation in the 90s packages, and over glamorous reporting. Stay at home mums and any typical ditzy chick DOES NOT WATCH THE NEWS FOR THE NEWS CONTENT! While GMA is toping the morning ratings I think NN is crushing them at night. And isn't their general programming going towards a narrow demographic? This is yet another reason why ABC might be going into a slow death as GE did this same thing to NBCU.

 

World News has unfortunately caught up and topped NN often this year. I believe they won the May sweeps for the demo and the total viewer gap has shrinked from a million viewers earlier this year to just 357,000. Seems that the network is making it clear through the programming that they're reaching out to one segment of the entire TV audience but it's working for them.

[rkolsen 1679]

This is why master control should be done in house. But, companies can't let that happen. They gotta continue to give Rupert his bonuses.

A way they could rework to air their crawls would be to "reroute" the signal coming from the hub through the news control and sending it back to the transmitter or hub to transmitter.

 

I still thought NBCs local news operations were fed directly to the to the transmitter than through the hub. But NBC's Local News going through the hub could explain while during a breaking news situation in January (a mall shooting with three dead) had this odd looking crawl on top of their special news coverage which was just white text about 100 pixels tall about a quarter of the way from the top (as was seen on their live stream, app, and whenever msnbc took their feed). I always thought of it as odd that they used a different type of ticker, while their breaking news chyrons where red.

Yes, ESPN, Marvel are the sexy brands that is giving Mickey Mouse his well deserved reserves. This move is really illogical (and don't tell me having it in one city would be more reliable, Atlanta can get tornadoes more likely than a place like NY, or Philadelphia and those cities don't get killer quakes like Fresno or Glendale. I know that's besides the point.)

...

I do fear that the management within ABC is - pardon the pun - becoming a Mickey Mouse operation. The tragedy of the near death experience of NBC is people's minds still and I think if Disney really cuts the bone both the network or the O&O side it's going to ultimately kill the network. No other company would buy them out if you think about it what Comcast did with NBCU was just pure luck! With the KTRK developments and the inevitable #1 war between WCAU and WPVI, I think there is some writings on the wall that's something I would rather not say out loud.

 

I believe Encompass has a backup hub in Los Angeles meaning they have a second diverse location as to where they can operate out off. Atlanta doesn't get bad winter weather which can cause satellite fade and electrical outages or hurricanes often are weakened by the time they reach the coast. Los Angeles does get earthquakes but other than a few Forrest fires the weather is pretty benign. So having two locations thousands of miles away means that they wouldn't have to worry about both backups going down within two days or even the same day. Just think an earthquake in Los Angeles could do damage in San Diego or San Francisco or a snow storm could stretch from Washington DC through New York both of which could knock out millions of power customers.

 

Second what was the KTRK developments?

[ns8401 846]

 

A way they could rework to air their crawls would be to "reroute" the signal coming from the hub through the news control and sending it back to the transmitter or hub to transmitter.

 

I still thought NBCs local news operations were fed directly to the to the transmitter than through the hub. But NBC's Local News going through the hub could explain while during a breaking news situation in January (a mall shooting with three dead) had this odd looking crawl on top of their special news coverage which was just white text about 100 pixels tall about a quarter of the way from the top (as was seen on their live stream, app, and whenever msnbc took their feed). I always thought of it as odd that they used a different type of ticker, while their breaking news chyrons where red.

I believe Encompass has a backup hub in Los Angeles meaning they have a second diverse location as to where they can operate out off. Atlanta doesn't get bad winter weather which can cause satellite fade and electrical outages or hurricanes often are weakened by the time they reach the coast. Los Angeles does get earthquakes but other than a few Forrest fires the weather is pretty benign. So having two locations thousands of miles away means that they wouldn't have to worry about both backups going down within two days or even the same day. Just think an earthquake in Los Angeles could do damage in San Diego or San Francisco or a snow storm could stretch from Washington DC through New York both of which could knock out millions of power customers.

 

Second what was the KTRK developments?

 

The KTRK thing was the ND leaving and their ratings not being #1 across the board anymore.

[Generic Handle 1]

 

 

I brought this up before but, from a business standpoint the benefits of MC hubbing way out weigh the disadvantages. It provides additional redundancy to your system and provides a fall back in case of emergency. A "hubbed" station can usually be back on line in minutes or seconds in the event of an emergency. As pointed out in the link a station that isn't part of a hub is left to concoct something on the fly to get back on the air sometimes taking hours to achieve. 98% of the time the playout schedule isn't interrupted. Do you really need to ingest multiple copies of syndicated programming at every station. Or, is it more efficient to receive it once and distribute files out to the servers. So, why have several stations with several employees doing the same thing...what's the point?

 

The problem with hubs is you have one guy monitoring 10 stations (at best) or 50 at worst. Do you really think a guy who is monitoring 10 stations plus ingesting commercials and programming is going to notice there is something wrong right away unless it is glaringly obvious? Do you think they are going to notice that the audio is crap when it's impossible to listen to 10 or 20 stations simultaniously? Sure, the audio meters are moving but it's all garbage...

 

The lovely outsourced hubs you gush so glowingly about pay their operators about the same wage per hour as working at WalMart so they are getting people who have little to no experience in operating one television station much less 10 or 20. They have a very high turn over rate because the hours suck, management treats them poorly and they can't handle the stress. Compare that to what was required to work in a MC at a TV station. In major markets an MCO had to have at least 10 years experience to even be considered for a job because the only way you can truly learn that job is by doing it and doing it well. People who screw up have a very short life as an MCO because management won't tolerate it. Oddly enough management has always thought that a trained monkey can run a master control but they could never do the job without having to fire themselves for losing too many commercials and generally screwing up on air. Now they finally have their trained monkeys and their on air product looks like it.

 

BTW-You are wrong about 'redundancy'. There is no 'redundancy' because no one at your station knows how to run master control anymore -- the maintenece guys may know to install and fix the equipment but they do not know what is involved in actually operating the station on air. They have about as much of a clue as you do. WXmanTim mentioned there are still MCO's at his station. I can tell you what they are doing there. They are there because the network exec's have learned the hard way that the 'bright shiny object' that is automated hub and spokes isn't all it's cracked up to be so they need people there at the station to make sure everything runs correctly and be ready to step in when needed.

 

You know it's funny...Gannet is hiring MCO's. So are CBS O&O's. In fact I've seen job openings in places I've never seen them before such as New York City, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Minneapolis, etc.They are putting MCO's back in the chairs because they are getting the clue their hubs full of monkeys banging on computer keyboards are costing them more in ugly on air product, lost revenue and FCC fines then they can tolerate. The problem they are encountering in major markets is there are very few with the knowledge, expertise and experience to fill those chairs anymore. The vast majority of those they let go have either retired and gone fishing or are done with dealing with the exceptional stress and crappy hours of that job and have moved on, never to return.

[cbs2newengland 71]

 

The problem with hubs is you have one guy monitoring 10 stations (at best) or 50 at worst. Do you really think a guy who is monitoring 10 stations plus ingesting commercials and programming is going to notice there is something wrong right away unless it is glaringly obvious? Do you think they are going to notice that the audio is crap when it's impossible to listen to 10 or 20 stations simultaniously? Sure, the audio meters are moving but it's all garbage...

 

The lovely outsourced hubs you gush so glowingly about pay their operators about the same wage per hour as working at WalMart so they are getting people who have little to no experience in operating one television station much less 10 or 20. They have a very high turn over rate because the hours suck, management treats them poorly and they can't handle the stress. Compare that to what was required to work in a MC at a TV station. In major markets an MCO had to have at least 10 years experience to even be considered for a job because the only way you can truly learn that job is by doing it and doing it well. People who screw up have a very short life as an MCO because management won't tolerate it. Oddly enough management has always thought that a trained monkey can run a master control but they could never do the job without having to fire themselves for losing too many commercials and generally screwing up on air. Now they finally have their trained monkeys and their on air product looks like it.

 

BTW-You are wrong about 'redundancy'. There is no 'redundancy' because no one at your station knows how to run master control anymore -- the maintenece guys may know to install and fix the equipment but they do not know what is involved in actually operating the station on air. They have about as much of a clue as you do. WXmanTim mentioned there are still MCO's at his station. I can tell you what they are doing there. They are there because the network exec's have learned the hard way that the 'bright shiny object' that is automated hub and spokes isn't all it's cracked up to be so they need people there at the station to make sure everything runs correctly and be ready to step in when needed.

 

You know it's funny...Gannet is hiring MCO's. So are CBS O&O's. In fact I've seen job openings in places I've never seen them before such as New York City, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Minneapolis, etc.They are putting MCO's back in the chairs because they are getting the clue their hubs full of monkeys banging on computer keyboards are costing them more in ugly on air product, lost revenue and FCC fines then they can tolerate. The problem they are encountering in major markets is there are very few with the knowledge, expertise and experience to fill those chairs anymore. The vast majority of those they let go have either retired and gone fishing or are done with dealing with the exceptional stress and crappy hours of that job and have moved on, never to return.

 

I agree with your argument. You have some great points. Not sure if the Magic Kingdom O&O Groups will agree with you though.