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Meet us Wednesday, February 18, 7 p.m. Social time starts at 6:30.
It's at the Murray Cabinet building in Lemon Grove, 6360 Federal Blvd., off SR 94 between the Federal Exit and College Blvd exits on the north side of the street. Directions: Take 94 east to Federal Blvd. Just a little down the street to 6360. If using 94 west. Take College, turn south and then right on Federal to 6360 Federal Blvd.
For more information, call coordinator Ron Foo at 619-715-3235 or Dennis Murphy at 698-4658.
Ladies and gentlemen, this is the current cutting edge. Imagine real-time editing from four simultaneous streams of video and up to 16 streams of audio, as if directing a live sporting event, without starting a tape deck. We're not talking about a 90-second limit or 6:1 compression here. You have 5 hours, and "Digital Betacam" quality. And the interface is more than a keyboard and mouse. This system is made for Hollywood, industrial-strength applications. The statistics were impressive: editing time for a 10-minute segment of a famous situation comedy has been cut from two-hours thirty-minutes to 20-minutes.
Lightworks, a veteran in Hollywood and now a wholly-owned subsidiary of Tektronix, designed the software. Tek built the accompanying Profile server. We got to see an impressive demo of real-time editing by Andrew Schneider of Lightworks. Thanks to Ken Tondreau of Tektronix for all the hard work and for the pizza.
Mike Tosch of KPBS-FM and Scott Stinson of KPBS-TV led us on a fantastic journey of how a modern broadcast center should be built when you have the time, budget, and space. Due to grant timing, their construction project has been stretched over years, but after radio completed its move last year, the television side is finally coming together. We saw seemingly miles of cable under acres of computer flooring, with dozens of racks. The heart of the plant is a new eight-level Philips Venus router,and Clear-Com communications matrix.
How did all that radio equipment get into the Stadium area without conflicts? NOT BY ACCIDENT! Mike Tosch of KPBS took time out to tell us what all is involved with field frequency coordination, when joined by John Weigand of KSWB (TV) San Diego, and Karl Voss of KPNX (TV) in Phoenix. His narrative is posted on a special page , with photos. Do read it!
Here's what engineers reported:
KNSD/NBC, by Oscar Medina
Superbowl went very well for us with all of our plans coming together without much of a hitch.
We used a combination of microwave and fiber to deliver signals from the remote sites to our studios on Engineer Road.
We *did* provide assistance with the link used by the "Tonight Show with Jay Leno". NBC had fiber installed from Qualcomm Stadium to KNSD and from there we routed the signal to NBC Burbank via our backhaul to NBC.
NBC 7/39 engineering also provided consulting services and assistance to some of the NBC affiliated stations that traveled to San Diego for game coverage. The engineering staff performed remote site surveys for the stations planning on being here and assisted with technical planning. Some of the stations utilized our editing facilities for putting together their packages.
There were *no* interference problems, but we didn't anticipate any due to good planning.
Jacor, by Ron Foo:
Jacor San Diego did about 40 remotes from about 10 different venues for the five days. We did not do anything on Sunday. It was pointless. Each remote lasted an average of 4.5 hours.
We also had several simultaneous remotes from the same venue. KOGO was dialed up on B-1 and 91X was on B-2 on the ISDN line at one time.
Jacor Denver did 8 remotes over the 6 days from about three venues.
We rented five Zephyrs and tried to buy a few, but Telos didn't have any in stock. Between the NFL and NBC, they were cleaned out.
All the remotes I was involved in (about 10) none of the ISDN lines failed us. The folks at program services and data services did a fine job. Thanks dudes and dudettes!
The Shadow helicopter, taking in a few shots of the practice field early in the week, raised the dander of the Denver team, who accused it of spying and threatened to pull all credentials.
We had four different live shots on two ENG frequencies after the Bowl. The new relay site just west of the stadium came in handy. Cellular sites in the valley were so tied up and the TV carrier was so buried in multipath that we had to use a space phone for cues during one feed before game time.
Congratulations to Bob Vaillancourt of NBC 7/39 (KNSD - San Diego)!
Bob, a member of SBE Chapter 36, has been promoted to "Engineering Manager" at NBC 7/39. He brings 17 years of broadcast engineering experience to the position, and will be a big contributor to the continuing success of NBC 7/39.
Bob also recently certified with the SBE as "Broadcast Engineer - TV".
Both are wonderful steps in his career advancement.
Way to go Bob!!!
(from Oscar Medina, KNSD)
Of the 15 business classifications whose labor practices are regulated by the California Industrial Welfare Commission, only five actually must follow the new rules, though these five apparently constitute most employees under IWC jurisdiction. Broadcasters are expressly exempted, as are those covered by collective bargaining.
http://www.dir.ca.gov/dir/Labor_law/DLSE/order11x.htmlKFMB employees were notified of the new overtime rules in late January, only to recind them a week later when the exemption was found.
By the way, shortly after the IWC made the rules, they disbanded for lack of state funding. Enforcement is under the Department of Industrial Relations.
[GS]
Everything takes longer than you think, except growing old. --Mike Bellah, www.bestyears.com
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For more information, or to make suggestions or comments, e-mail sbe36@broadcast.net . This newsletter was edited by Gary Stigall, but I appreciate your contributions. You're free to redistribute or quote, but please attribute our original material, as you would have us attribute unto you. Updated 1/31/98.