WCMH HD News

[mey]

When is WCMH news going HD ?

[Scott]

Not for some time. Just last year they purchased SNLs cameras before SNL went HD.

[Allfirdup]

I ran across this recently in the dispatch

Excert from
WBNS dominates in ‘sweeps’ month
By Tim Feran THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH


"NBC 4 looks forward to an exciting end to 2007 with the launch of NBC 4 newscasts in high definition," said Rick Rogala, vice president and general manager. "Our momentum will continue in 2008 with the launch of 4 on the Square, the NBC 4 studio in Downtown Columbus, and the continued growth of our local news and information programming."

[Scott]

I ran across this recently in the dispatch

Excert from
WBNS dominates in ‘sweeps’ month
By Tim Feran THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH


"NBC 4 looks forward to an exciting end to 2007 with the launch of NBC 4 newscasts in high definition," said Rick Rogala, vice president and general manager. "Our momentum will continue in 2008 with the launch of 4 on the Square, the NBC 4 studio in Downtown Columbus, and the continued growth of our local news and information programming."

The end of 2007 is only a couple weeks away. I wonder if they are just going to "turn it on" with no marketing :confused:

[Allfirdup]

Thats my guess, they have been making changes to the set for the last month or so. lots more color to it, add new graphics and its a good fill untill the downtown studio is done early 2008

[Robbiee19]

I was wondering if they were upgrading. In front of the news desk is a HDTV and the weather guys have a much bigger desk.

[zelig2]

Well we need another HDColumbus tour if they are going HD.

[Clint]

They are building new studios down town at Broad and High. I'm thinking they may wait until the move.

[CommTech]

Well we need another HDColumbus tour if they are going HD.

Count me in on that one!!

I thoroughly enjoyed the WBNS tour.

[festivus]

I would love to see the wcmh studios. I missed the wbns tour.

[Guy Smiley]

They were HD at 6PM on Saturday. New intros, bug and everything. They even had feild HD cameras, not just studio ones.

[Robbiee19]

Just saw Marshall McPeek with a weather update at 8:10 am in HD!

[festivus]

Yep. The 9:00 newscast is in HD. Looks great.

So now we 2 of our 3 local newscasts in HD. What's the over/under on Sinclair's wsyx doing this? I say it will take 2 years.

[Robbiee19]

Funny NBC4 has some field HD cameras, but CH 10 still doesn't have any from what I can tell.

[DublinDoodah]

I noticed the field cameras too. Very impressive.

Watched this morning and several of their SD scenes, e.g. sports, had side bars but the SD scene was unnaturally stretched. Very bizarre looking.

[Gimpy McFarlan]

Congrats to WCMH for going HD. :hdlove: Saw the morning newscast this morning and the studio and field cameras looked great. Little disappointed the weather graphics appeared to be in standard def though. :confused: Can't wait to see them in the new studio! :D

[jpdublin]

Surprised they didn't do any advertising for the launch unless they wait until they move into their downtown studios. Looks good, though and Sinclair will drag it out as long as possible.

[SpaceGhost]

Saw this tonight as well looks great. Thanks.

[Scott]

I'm going to send an e-mail asking for an official press release if one is available.

[pdqgp]

Happy to see this as well. Gym Ganahl is heavy already, but stretching him in perspective mode caused him to take up half my screen :p

[Dbailey]

i am glad they went hd, but i think it is very soft and not nearly as crisp and 10tv, dont get me wrong it looks good, but 10tv still has the crown as best looking news... Just my opinion...

[TVBoy]

A little backstory for you: CMH rushed to get HD on the air by the end of the year. Staff weren't even made aware of Saturday's launch until Thursday/Friday. Much different than 10TV's many weeks-long public buildup.

The field video, as is pretty obvious, is not true HD. It's SD shot at 16:9, although their cameras are capable of shooting in HD. I've been told it mostly has to do with the fact that they're still doing analog microwave transmission back to the station from the field. I still think it looks great. I'd rather watch it than the bookends on 10's field video.

New set should premiere this weekend. I'm withholding judgment on the quality until I see it with the new set -- the current set, which is a 10+-year-old hand-me-down, looks horrible in HD. And don't confuse the "new set" with the downtown studio, which will only be used for morning and noon newscasts when it debuts in a few months.

[hdtvnewbie]

New set should premiere this weekend. I'm withholding judgment on the quality until I see it with the new set -- the current set, which is a 10+-year-old hand-me-down, looks horrible in HD.

You really have to give Media General credit for "stepping up to the plate" and going HD so quickly. After paying so much for the stations and reporting a loss in the first quarter of this year, I thought they would hunker down for awhile. It's also about time WCMH had a swanky-looking set like you see in other markets.

I also can't wait to see Live Titan in HD.

As to graphics, WFLA has the most attractive version of their new graphics package. Hopefully they will use the WFLA version instead of what you see on WJAR and WVTM, which seems to be a toned down version.

I'm wondering where these stations are in the Media General pecking order. Have any other stations gone HD other than the ones mentioned?

[hdtvnewbie]

i am glad they went hd, but i think it is very soft and not nearly as crisp and 10tv, dont get me wrong it looks good, but 10tv still has the crown as best looking news... Just my opinion...

I've also noticed this even when watching network programming a couple of weeks ago. I was watching snippets of a golf tournament and the picture didn't seem very crisp. I thought this might just be the way WOW compresses the signal ...... or maybe its reduced bandwidth to accomodate WeatherPlus? I don't have an HDTV yet, this was on a new plasma at my parents' house. Maybe I just caught it at the wrong time?

[hdtvnewbie]

http://www.tampahdtv.com/tpahd-vb/showthread.php?t=22146

MEDIA GENERAL (WFLA) GETS THE LOCAL HD BUG
Tech one on one with Ardell Hill
TVNEWSDAY, May. 3, 5:47 AM ET

Login required: http://www.tvnewsday.com/articles/2007/05/03/daily.1/

The chief of broadcast operations says the 23-station group will begin offering HD newscasts this year in Tampa, Fla.; Spartanburg, S.C.; Roanoke, Va.; Columbus, Ohio; and likely one other market.
Media General owns 23 stations covering nearly 10% of the nation’s TV homes. Its markets range from No. 12 Tampa, Fla., to No. 179 Alexandria, La. All but one is a Big Three affiliate.

Responsible for keeping all those stations functioning properly and efficiently is Ardell Hill, senior vice president, broadcast operations.
In Part I of a two-part interview with TVNEWSDAY, Hill explains why Media General is suddenly jumping into local HD news, why he is already planning for HD field acquisition and why he believes Panasonic’s P2 camcorder is the best tool for the job.

In Part II, which will appear next Thursday, Hill talks about Media General’s system of centralized station monitoring and graphics production and the potential of in-band mobile video.
An edited transcript follows:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
What was the big story at NAB this year?

The thing that struck me was the landscape shift from last year to this year. I thought it was quite dramatic. Last year, we all were talking about how [local] HD was going to happen and that it was just a matter of time.
This year, there was a groundswell for doing local HD now. It was pretty darn dramatic. It became a very big issue. I mean it was just throughout the floor. It was the predominant theme.

Media General has not been a local HD leader. Are you accelerating your local HD plans?

Absolutely. By year’s end, Media General will have high definition on in at least four, if not five, markets. We will have it on in Tampa, Fla., at WFLA; in Spartanburg, S.C., at WSPA; in Roanoke, Va., at WSLS; and in Columbus, Ohio, at WCMH. There will likely be a fifth, but, because it may be the first in the market, I’d rather not identify the station right now.
Then, we’re likely to bring another three to four markets online in 2008.

Why those four markets this year—Tampa, Spartanburg, Roanoke and Columbus?

We’ve reached a point where the differential in the cost of HD components has minimized. There’s still a differential, but it’s certainly minimized.

And technology is now allowing us to mix and mingle, allowing us to have hybrid plants that can manage both SD and HD signals simultaneously. So that’s helping us transition at a more measured pace with the implementation of the equipment.

In these particular markets, we had equipment that needed to be replaced, and so as we’re replacing that equipment, we’re replacing it with high definition. And, in some cases, we’re responding to competitive issues in the marketplace. Tampa, Fla., is the 12th market in the country. All of our peers in that market are going high definition. So, you’re not going to sit there with your competition doing it and just turn a cold shoulder and say, well, it doesn’t make any difference.

Only a handful of stations are doing HD from the field. Do you have any idea when you’ll get to the point where you can do HD from the field?

The cameras we bought this year, for example, are SD/HD. The cameras we’ll be buying next year are SD/HD. The issues with HD from the field involve upgrading the infrastructure.

I’ve got to have a higher-end application running on the editing system. The HD files are much larger. My storage and archive for that content have to be larger. My microwave equipment and my ENG trucks have to be upgraded in order to make that HD path happen.

As I said, last year doing studio newscasts in high definition was just a matter of time and this year it is happening. I likely will be having this conversation with you next year saying, well, you know field HD all of a sudden happened.

That will be the next groundswell?

It’s amazing to me how quickly consumers have come to see and realize the difference. I don’t know what your own personal experience is, but, for most of the folks that I talk with, it goes from, well, it’s kind of neat to they expect it. When they switch off a high-definition program and go back to a standard-definition program, they think there’s something wrong with their TV.

During my interview with Cox Television’s Andy Fisher a couple of weeks ago, he said that when he was young TV newscasts mixed color from the studio with black and white from the field and they got away with that for a number of years.

We feel the same way. The signals we’re shooting in the field now with digital cameras have literally no loss from the image sensor to the storage device, through the editing process, to air.

As a result, when you upconvert a digital image captured in the 16-by-9 SD format to a high-definition image, the average individual would be hard pressed to detect the differences between that image and a high-definition image. The image quality is very striking. That’s what Andy was speaking to. The images we’re capturing in the field these days are just striking.

But before you were saying that people do notice the difference between HD and SD.

I’m saying it will be hard for them to notice my upconverted digital SD signal from the field. I think people do recognize that there’s a difference between standard def and high def, but the upconverted SD image looks very, very good, very crisp, very sharp.

How big an obstacle is the fact that you don’t have the new ENG microwave radios installed yet?

That’s a significant piece of it. If I can feed the standard-definition signal back to the studio, I can upconvert it. I haven’t changed the bandwidth of my transceiver and receiver and my link back to the station.
But if I’m going to feed a high-definition signal from the remote, I have to have the full bandwidth capacity of that transmitter at the truck, the receiver at the tower and the transmitter at the tower.

And even with the [Sprint Nextel] BAS relocation program, they’re not going to pay to upgrade me to high definition. So many of us are taking an approach where we may be paying a $200 premium to get a better radio that will do high definition.

That must really complicate the deal.

It does complicate a lot of things. In some cases, it is so complicated that it doesn’t make sense because we’re all very nervous about the BAS relocation and how far behind that program is already. We don’t want to throw any more curves that might slow it down.

You’ve been buying Panasonic P2 camcorders for SD. Can I assume you will continue buying them as you move into HD?

Yes, absolutely, absolutely.

Why P2? Why not Sony XDCAM? Why not Grass Valley’s Infinity?

One of the important parts of the transition to digital acquisition is work flow. Take out of the equation for a moment the quality of camera A versus camera B. Take out for a moment whether I’m storing it on device A, B or C. It really does not matter a great deal where it’s stored. What matters is, once I’ve captured that image, how quickly can I move that content into the work flow.

And the challenge I’ve seen from day one with the concept of our good friends at Sony is that their system has just traded a videotape for an optical disc. Yes, I gain quality, and, yes, and I gain all of the things that I can do with the digital file.

But, in fact, I now have that content stored on a piece of media. In order to get the content off of that media, I’ve got to spin the disc. I’ve got to transfer it off of that disc to get it onto my editing platform and to be able to share it.

But as a data file, that P2 card mounts as a data drive into the system. As soon as I plug it in, I’m going to access it. I don’t have to transfer it. I’m not waiting on the bottleneck.

Sony proponents also say the cards are so expensive you don’t want to ever take them out of the camera.

It’s not true. I’ll just give you some numbers. We’ve got nearly 200 P2 cameras in the field. Each camera has two sets of cards, which means there are 2,000 P2 cards in the field. Those cards range in size from a 2 gig card all the way up to an 8 gig card.

With over 2,000 cards in the field to date, I have had three cards disappear, lost, can’t find them. I’ve had two cards that were damaged. Somebody dropped them, stepped on them or ran over them.

As we started into this process, the big criticism of P2 was that it didn’t have enough storage in the camera to be able to capture everything you need. Well, the reality is that my photographers rarely use the second set of cards.

Most of them never fill the camera with five 8-gig cards. Most of the time there are a couple of 8s, one or two 4s and one or two 2s. The camera has the ability to manage the clips within the camera. By simply moving an icon, by pushing a button on the side of the camera, the photographers can move the files onto a single card, pop a card out and hand it to a reporter. The reporter can then pop it into a laptop and transfer the files very quickly and hand the card back to the photographer.

And out of that quantity of cards, with nothing larger than an 8-gig card, I’ve never had a reporter or photographer complain of a lost story as a result of a failure of a card, never had anyone complain that he couldn’t get the story done because he didn’t have enough storage on the cards. That includes sports, football games, press conferences, you name it.
I’ve never had anyone come back and say to me that this process is flawed in any way.

The guys in the field have learned the tricks of the trade. They can line those clips up and pretty much spew out an edited story that only needs to be trimmed and cleaned just a bit to have it go to air.

You’re talking about doing that inside the camera?

Inside the camera. So, without sounding like too much of a Panasonic salesman here, the differences between the work flow management of the Panasonic format versus the format of Sony are dramatic.

The Sony proponents also like the idea that reporters can take their stories with them on the discs as they now do with tape.

I respectfully see a different side of it. We loaded DVD record decks in our reporters’ machines and in our laptops. Reporters can plug the card into the PCMCIA slot or plug a USB or firewire cable into the camera and transfer it to a standard DVD. A standard DVD holds about 4.7 gigs and costs about 50 cents. A [Sony] Blueray disc, granted, will hold about 15 to 20 gigs, but it probably cost $10 in the quantities that broadcasters are buying them. There’s a large difference between 50 cents and $10.
Now, I can go to a typical Comp USA and I can buy a terabyte of storage for about $600. A reporter can throw a terabyte storage device on his home PC and store all of the video that he’ll shoot almost in his entire career on that one device. If he wants to back it up, he can buy a second one.

[rossl]

... the picture didn't seem very crisp. I thought this might just be the way WOW compresses the signal ...... or maybe its reduced bandwidth to accomodate WeatherPlus? ...

I haven't tested this recently but I measured bitrates last year. WOW, Time Warner, and OTA were all practically the same.

Unless something has changed since then, WOW doesn't compress the signal.

see the data at this thread:

http://www.hdcolumbus.net/vb-hdtv/showthread.php?t=2499

[festivus]

Lots of glitches on this morning's newscast. Must be working out some bugs. Periods with no picture, no sound, etc. Also, with the caption showing the school closings, it was just about impossible to see the current temperature. The font was tiny.

Still I'm glad they went HD. I do applaud them for that even with some bugs to be worked out.

[hdtvnewbie]

The noon news seems to be shrinking down 16:9 video to 4:3 for my NTSC TV. Looks really weird and everything looks skinny.

[pdqgp]

absolutely agree. I hadn't read your comment until just now, but make the same remarks to my wife as we were flipping between the two. 10TV seems to have a remarkably crisp image. kuddos to them for the colors too. really has a 3D effect.

i am glad they went hd, but i think it is very soft and not nearly as crisp and 10tv, dont get me wrong it looks good, but 10tv still has the crown as best looking news... Just my opinion...

[jtliedtke]

When I watched 4 on the HDTV There were so many glitches. It seems like they haved not rehearsed at all

[MeHDTV]

I watch 4 News HD exclusivly now. I hope the glitches don't go away anytime too soon. It's like watching hockey and waiting for a fight, or waiting for a crash in a Nascar race.
I'm totally serious, it's great TV!

[Captain_Rob]

I prefer WCMH's News, but I typically end up watching it on my SD TV. Since the HD switch, it really bugs me they can't get the 4:3 formatting right on their SD channel. When they show some field shots, they sometimes squeeze it down and make everything look tall and skinny. When they show other field shots, they stretch it out and make everything look short and fat. I'd rather see them letterbox all their HD 16:9 shots to 4:3 SD if they can't properly shoot/crop their 16:9 shots for 4:3. The distorted aspect ratios literally hurt my eyes, so I often end up switching to WBNS News instead.

Another thing that bugs me is when watching their News in HD 16:9, their logo bug is in the middle of the screen (ok, maybe not the middle, but where it would be on the 4:3 SD channel on a 16:9 screen). Also their bottom screen graphics/text on HD is positioned way to high on the screen, about 1/3'rd up from the bottom, with video showing below it.

[jtliedtke]

Did anyone watch NBC 4 last night (1/16/08)? They did a terrible job with camera cues and showing video. They messed up so much.

[MeHDTV]

Did anyone watch NBC 4 last night (1/16/08)? They did a terrible job with camera cues and showing video. They messed up so much.
It rocked! It was like watching the audition rounds of American Idol! We never watch the show past that.

[jtliedtke]

I agree with your way of putting it. It is just like the auditions of American Idol. There ratings at channel 4 just went down!!

[Captain_Rob]

WCMH had a short segment on the 5pm news tonight in which they apologized for all their recent glitches since their transition to HD. They gave a brief behind the scenes view of the studio and control room. I thought the segment was good, and it was cool to see they now have robotic cameras in front of the news desk.

[Robbiee19]

WCMH had a short segment on the 5pm news tonight in which they apologized for all their recent glitches since their transition to HD. They gave a brief behind the scenes view of the studio and control room. I thought the segment was good, and it was cool to see they now have robotic cameras in front of the news desk.I saw the segment too. I think it was good they came out and said yes we are having problems, but here is the reasons why. Also, it seems the PQ has been getting better the last days to me. Now I guess the pressure maybe on CH 6 to go HD. I wonder if they have any plans or not.

[geneo3]

I heard that CH-6 wasn’t going to go HD with the news; instead the information that I was given was that they were going to just make their cameras wide screen.

[Robbiee19]

I heard that CH-6 wasn’t going to go HD with the news; instead the information that I was given was that they were going to just make their cameras wide screen.If thats true, I think that will be a bad move by them. Just my opinion.

[MeHDTV]

I heard that CH-6 wasn’t going to go HD with the news; instead the information that I was given was that they were going to just make their cameras wide screen.

Fox Widescreen 480p! That's all people want, right Rupert?

How Sinclair typical.

[betona]

How Sinclair typical.

My thoughts exactly. They're so cheap.

[geneo3]

My thoughts exactly. They're so cheap.
It will be interesting to see how the whole thing plays out. The history of CH-6’s various ownership’s over the years has typically been that the viewing audience won’t care how live broadcasts are presented.

[jtliedtke]

The thing is. . . .does channel 6 have any viewers left?

[geneo3]

The thing is. . . .does channel 6 have any viewers left?
Touche! :D

[reefbone]

Is it just me or does the audio on NBC news blow? I've had problems from multiple 'cable' providers. I have DirectTV now NBC4 news sounds like it's coming from the bottom of a well. Very echo-y. Not sure about the OTA signal but I had similer issues with TW WOW and Insight. I like/prefer their news but can't suffer through the audio and often change the channel.

[geneo3]

Are you running your DirecTV audio through a surround amp or directly into your TV? If you are running you audio through a surround amp you might want to try to change your surround settings. Those amps have a lot of audio choices for different effects according to your taste and your audio environment.

[reefbone]

Are you running your DirecTV audio through a surround amp or directly into your TV? If you are running you audio through a surround amp you might want to try to change your surround settings. Those amps have a lot of audio choices for different effects according to your taste and your audio environment.

I have it via HCMI to Sony STR-DG910 HDMI to 40XBR4. Everything else sounds great. It's just NBC 4 news.

[geneo3]

First you might want to check those settings to see if that might eliminate your problem.

If that doesn't work the next question is; Do you have the audio turned on the TV and the Sony, or just the Sony? If you have both on that will give you delay problems that will give the symptoms you are describing.

Otherwise I have found that you get better results running your HDMI cable directly to the TV from your DirecTV receiver, and then running a fiber optic cable from the TV digital audio out to the Sony, and turn the TV audio all the way down on the Sony. If that doesn't work try running the fiber optic from the DirecTV receiver straight to the Sony.

[jtliedtke]

Hey. .
I watch NBC News on my tv OTA. The sound is ok, but every time they break to go to a commericial (dont know if that is spelled right) there is a really bad static click. It drvies me nuts and they cant figure out how to fix it.

[geneo3]

Your spelling works just fine. I know what your talking about, (By the way OTA is the best choice) the static clicks are not your equipment. It is a problem with the switcher most likely a software issue. If you remember HD 10 had the same issue. Hopefully the problem will be fixed soon, but the equipment and software are allot different.

[reefbone]

First you might want to check those settings to see if that might eliminate your problem.

If that doesn't work the next question is; Do you have the audio turned on the TV and the Sony, or just the Sony? If you have both on that will give you delay problems that will give the symptoms you are describing.

Otherwise I have found that you get better results running your HDMI cable directly to the TV from your DirecTV receiver, and then running a fiber optic cable from the TV digital audio out to the Sony, and turn the TV audio all the way down on the Sony. If that doesn't work try running the fiber optic from the DirecTV receiver straight to the Sony.

HDMI is a better connection that optical. The sound issue is only when the news is on. The commercials and other shows sound fine. My TV speakers are off btw.

[geneo3]

What HDMI does do, is add security to the signal. This is why the industry has moved to HDMI as the premium HD video connection. All HI-DEF video players (whether in the form of HD-DVD or blue-ray) use HDMI. The motion picture industry would not move forward with content that could not be secured because they would lose money through illegal reproductions. HDMI also adds the convince and simplicity of an all-in-one connection. Every version of HDMI supports full 8-channel uncompressed audio, so if your player or receiver can output it uncompressed then it's the same as optical. HDMI 1.3 adds support for direct transmission of the compressed Dolby or DTS stream, so if your player doesn't decompress then you need 1.3 to get the same quality as optical. However “HDMI 1.3” benchmarks out at the higher data transfer rate, but can only be appreciated when you have a source that is capable of providing the audio format called “Dolby True HD” which is kind of rare at this point. The most important thing for every person that has a home theater system is that they enjoy it and they are happy with what they have put together. I can tell you love what you have put together and that is all that matters.:D

[Maurice Clarett]

HDMI is a better connection that optical. The sound issue is only when the news is on. The commercials and other shows sound fine. My TV speakers are off btw.

The sound quality will be the same for both HDMI and optical.