wabceyewitness 767 Posted December 12, 2006 Share Posted December 12, 2006 ABC, CBS INCREASING HD NEWS IN TOP MARKETS TVNEWSDAY, Dec. 1, 7:49 AM ET If the network TV groups follow through with their rollout plans for HD production, TV viewers will soon be able to watch HD news on at least two stations in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and San Francisco and on at least three in Philadelphia. By Harry A. Jessell If you live in one of the top five TV markets—New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia and San Francisco—go ahead and buy that HDTV set you’ve had your eye on. In addition to all the network programming in HD, you will soon be able to tune into HD newscasts on at least two stations in each market. Within the next 90 says, ABC stations in New York (WABC), Chicago (WLS) and San Francisco (KGO) will begin offering HD news, says Dave Converse, the engineering executive in charge of making it happen. The ABC stations in LosAngeles (KABC) and Philadelphia (WPVI) already have HD newscasts. Meanwhile, CBS is in the final stages of rebuilding its stations in Los Angeles (WCBS), Chicago (WBBM) and Philadelphia (KYW), says Bob Seidel, VP, advanced technologies/engineering, CBS. The new facilities have been outfitted top to bottom with HD gear and, when they go into operation within the next few months, the stations will make the leap to HD news, he says. Other stations in the top five markets with HD newscasts: NBC’s WNBC New York, Cox’s KTVU San Francisco and Fox’s WTXF Philadelphia. So, if Seidel and Converse make good on their promises, sometime in the first quarter of next year, there will be two HD news stations in four of the top five markets and three in Philadelphia. According to Seidel, 23 stations now broadcast news in HD. All but two are in the top 25 markets. Converse and Seidel revealed their station groups’ HD intentions during and following a panel session at the HD World Conference & Exposition in New York Thursday. A third panelist, Jeff Johnson, VP, technology, Gannett Broadcasting, says his TV group now has seven stations on the air with HD newscasts, but he declined to say how many more would follow in 2007 for competitive reasons. The largest of the Gannett stations with HD news: WUSA Washington (DMA 8). Like many of the other pioneering HD stations, the Gannett and ABC stations do not offer full HD newscasts. The studio production is all HD, but most of the news footage from the field is standard-definition video with a 16-by-9 HD aspect ratio. The video is upconverted—that is, enhanced—to narrow the SD-HD quality gap before it is incorporated into the HD newscast. Converse says that KABC will be first of the ABC stations to go HD from the field in “about 12 months” when it introduces new ENG gear at the station, “probably” Sony’s XDCAM HD. By contrast, CBS’s HD newscasts will be all HD—studio and field—from day one. That’s because it has already begun introducing Sony’s HD-capable XDCAM HD ENG gear at all of its stations. Seidel says the Sony rollout is on an 18-month schedule. Chicago is fully equipped and Philadelphia and Los Angeles will be by the end of December, he says. After that, the Sony gear will be introduced at the other CBS news-producing stations at a rate of one per month. Seidel says CBS is outfitting its stations with the new Sony gear not so much for the sake of HD, but because the existing DVCPRO gear is, after nine years, coming to the end of its usefulness. It’s fully depreciated and the maintenance costs are rising, he says. “It’s hard to keep it on the road and reliably working.” Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NBC 5 Chicago 164 Posted December 12, 2006 Share Posted December 12, 2006 Interesting. But i didn't know WBBM had HD stuff already. WLS i know does you can see the HD on some of their cameras in their studio. I thought WBBM wasn't going to go HD until they finish building their new set on block 37. Which BTW is not even close to being done... which means their studio must now be equipted with HD stuff.. Interesting reading. Thanks for sharing! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spring Rubber 611 Posted December 13, 2006 Share Posted December 13, 2006 Interesting. But i didn't know WBBM had HD stuff already. WLS i know does you can see the HD on some of their cameras in their studio. I thought WBBM wasn't going to go HD until they finish building their new set on block 37. Which BTW is not even close to being done... which means their studio must now be equipted with HD stuff.. Interesting reading. Thanks for sharing! That's what I thought, too. Does it make sense to outfit a soon-to-be-abandoned studio with HD equipment? Maybe the new studio is going to take *that* long to get done? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bixpchiphead 105 Posted December 13, 2006 Share Posted December 13, 2006 Now if i am reading the initial piece right, what 'BBM has are HD field cameras (minicams) and possibly their live trucks are either new or have been upgraded to be digital capable (D-ENG, D-SNG). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kjohnson 15 Posted December 23, 2006 Share Posted December 23, 2006 Shoot, I might have to move to Chicago to get more choice in HD news. St. Louis is pretty stagnant with just KSDK in HD. KMOV and KTVI aren't showing any interest in HD news yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hopdevil 1 Posted January 7, 2007 Share Posted January 7, 2007 Now if i am reading the initial piece right, what 'BBM has are HD field cameras (minicams) and possibly their live trucks are either new or have been upgraded to be digital capable (D-ENG, D-SNG). WBBM, like many of the CBS O&Os, is switching over to Sony XDCam for SD/HD field acquisition. Also, as is the case with almost every other station doing HD, BBM's live trucks can only send an 16:9 SD signal from the field. This is due to a massive technical delay brought about by Sprint/Nextel. Go here for more -- http://www.2ghzrelocation.com To make a long story short, live trucks broadcasting via microwave need to be outfitted with completely new equipment that will enable them to transmit HD signals back to the station. As a condition of Sprint's purchase of certain broadcast frequencies, Sprint must reimburse local stations for the purchase of this new HD equip. It's a long complicated process that is taking place market-by-market. While things are progressing, many stations still can not do live HD from the field. For instance, WPVI in Philadelphia is HD in studio and for pre-recorded field packages. But can not beam back live HD signals, just 16:9 SD. As you can imagine, it is noticeably different than the studio and pre-recorded stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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