Wednesday, December 16, 2009
How Many Households Actually Receive HD Programming?
According to a study by Frank N. Magid Associates, about 28% of US households have HDTVs and receive some sort of HD program service. (With thanks to Broadcast Engineering.)
Friday, December 04, 2009
Master Of The (Communication) Universe
And a shout-out to Steve Mendelsohn, the frequency coordinator for the New York City Marathon and game day coordinator for the New Jersey Jets. Steve is a veteran of two networks. When the com signal leaves, you need to call Steve. (And he's got the tales to prove it.)
(Photo from the TV Technology feature "NFL Finds the Right Frequency".)
Saturday, June 13, 2009
One Acorn Too Many
I guess us TV engineers don't visit YouTube often enough. Funny video about repairing a microwave fading problem:
(Courtesy of www.Tech-Notes.TV)
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Experience
"Experience is a wonderful thing. It enables us to recognize our errors each time we make them again."
(From some engineering magazine that I read while I was trying to become an Electrical Engineer.)
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Man Crushed Under Weight of 34 TeraBytes
More of a reminder to me to read this post about Final Cut Pro Asset Management than anything else. Looks interesting.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Retroactive: Four Days Notice
Wednesday, February 04, 2009
Splice Is In, Switch Is Out
Years after I saw the first Master Control program stream splicer at NAB years ago in the A.F. Associates booth comes this pearl of wisdom from John Luff in the January '09 issue of Broadcast Engineering: "One might argue that a splicer is not a master control system, but to be perfectly honest, it isn't far from one."
Just think of how much better the picture quality would be if we used 2-pass MPEG-2 encoding on our primetime shows. (Or even better, how many more digital program streams we could stat-mux if our main program had a lower bitrate.)
DTV Transition Delayed
With the countdown at T-minus 13, Congress has reset the clock to June 12th. The nations electric companies are the only sure winners - some UHF stations face five figure monthly bills for keeping their analog transmitters on. Paula Kerger, CEO of the Public Broadcasting System, said that the total figure for all the PBS stations was $22 million for the four months.
Friday, October 17, 2008
HD World: SD, SxS Cards Are In
I was looking at small consumer "DV" type cameras at HD World to buy for my "shooters" (VJ's). Even JVC is looking like it might license Sony's flavor of XDCAM EX MPEG-2 to use on SxS cards.
In an adjacent area in JVC's booth they had "camera under glass" (probably Plexiglass). This camera, not much bigger than their original JY-HD10 model looks like it could get three 1/3" chips in a very compact package.
On the small consumer side, the Canon HF 100, HF10, HF11 series is interesting for a 1/3 inch one chip sensor camera. We own one at work and it makes nice pictures for its size.
Over at Panasonic, I was hoping to see the AG-HMC150 SD Card camera in the 'flesh' Alas, they only had it's P2 cousin , the AG-HPX170 on the show floor. Big difference in the cost of media.
And at the Sony booth, the HVRZ5U and the PMW-EX3 each have their strong points.
Edited on: Saturday, October 18, 2008 2:29 AM
Categories: TV Engineering
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
When Less Is More...
For those of you who did not see the original Broadcast Engineering article subtitled "Less can be more in the world of DTV broadcasting", here's the link. Check out the related links on CNET and on CarltonBale.com
Friday, April 18, 2008
Solder City
One of our contract engineers was in my office neatening-up my computer cables when he sees the headline: "Iraqi Troops Quit Sadr City Fight". He says:
"I always think about electronics when I hear about Solder City. Isn't that in the Silicon Valley?"
See, that's what I miss about television engineering...
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Something to Read While Waiting for That NAB Flight
(OK, this was funnier two weeks ago... )
From: aedigitaltv@mac.com
Reply-to: FinalCutPro-L@yahoogroups.com
To:
FinalCutPro-L@yahoogroups.com
Sent: 4/1/2008 8:12:22 A.M. Central
Standard Time
Subj: [FCP-L] changes for NAB
From UPI/Reuters
LAS VEGAS, NV USA April 1, 2008
<snip>
For the 2008 convention, NAB is expected to unveil two new proposals of transmission standards for continental US television: ANALTAL, and DIGALOG. Combining innovative features of wideband analog signals withthe lossless potential of digital schemes, these new standards will be incompatible with existing viewing technology but ready to usher in a new decade of progress, particularly with respect to monitoring, in 2010. ANALTAL presents the SDI signal in biological, rectal-linear/biologarithmic space, while DIGALOG displays will make use of highly viewer-specific iterative-mechano-precise responses, based on feedback, as provided by probes. Universal, Sony, Thomson/Grass Valley, and Microsoft have endorsed DIGALOG, while Disney Studios and Time/Warner have formed a consortium backing ANALTAL. Microsoft has adapted DIGALOG in a proprietary manner, thus possibly forming a third option for 2010. "These new standards have everything we need to face a content-oriented future, and will prove a boon to manufacturers and vendors alike, when the technology is ready," stated NAB Director Phyllis Diller. "The market will decide, and we're confident the more powerful consortium will be the best."
<snip>
Andy Edwards
Not Heading for NAB...
It's my own fault, I guess. I made a decision to move from engineering to production management. Now a victim of corporate belt tightening, I know that if I want to go to NAB in the future - it will be on my own dime & on my own time.
So I'll be sitting here in New York reading everyone else's NAB blog. Check back daily for links to the most interesting items for my fellow news junkies.
Here's one for starters:
http://blog.digitalcontentproducer.com/nab/
Tuesday, April 08, 2008
Arabic Proverb
“He that knows not, and knows not that he knows not is a fool. Shun him
He that knows not, and knows that he knows not is a pupil. Teach him.
He that knows, and knows not that he knows is asleep. Wake him.
He that knows, and knows that he knows is a teacher. Follow him."
(Arabic proverb)
Thanks to Andy Mees (on the StudioDaily Blog)
Saturday, April 05, 2008
MPEG Suspected In Lip Sync Errors
Deborah D. McAdams writes in in the March issue of Television Broadcast:
"Lip sync is notoriously bad in digital broadcast television, making a lot of content resemble the original English-dubbed Godzilla films...."
Interesting is the information appearing in the print but not the on-line version of the article: "...Others [individuals knowledgeable about the issue] point out that splitting audio and video from the get-go...was a bad idea in the first place."
No, really? Embed that audio ! That's my motto. I've seen too many 'engineers' running around like chickens without a head (sorry, poor choice of imagery) because they were sending analog audio through the plant with their HD-SDI video and wondering why it was out of sync.
But That Would Take An Engineer...
Sorry for giving away the punchline at the begining of the story, but you have to read the Editorial in the March 2008 edition of Broadcast Engineering®. Makes me shudder at the thought of people with IT backgrounds and no TV production experience running TV engineering departments.
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Causing Panic In The Streets
"What gives them the right to force me to buy a new TV?" demanded my sister-in-law's cousin at Easter dinner. The trigger for this outburst was a discussion of how Verizon FIOS was pulling the plug on providing analog feeds of metro New York City TV stations and giving out free 'mini' converter boxes for use on customer TV's that currently have no box.
Cousin Lizzy (a pseudonym) had obviously seen those "end of analog" PSAs that strangely leave out the words "over the air" when saying that all TV must be digital by February '09.
"Money", I quickly shot back. "The Federal Government is looking to make billions of dollars selling soon to be unused TV channels to cell phone and internet companies. But wait, you have cable, don't you?" I asked. "Time Warner", she said. "Then you're fine" I said. "All you have to do is wait for the letter from Time Warner saying that you have to get cable boxes for the sets that don't already have them. The only people that have to worry are the people that are getting their TV with rabbit ears or antennas on the roof. They are the only ones who are going to loose their picture. They need to get one of the government's $40 coupons for a digital converter box."
Cousin Lizzy was disarmed but still indignant, so I added "Because they can. They're from the government and they are here to help you." And child of the '30's Cousin Lizzy understood.
Sunday, January 13, 2008
Hiring a VP of Engineering
Gee, if this blog entry (from Union Square Ventures) wasn't about hiring a CTO for a web service, you'd think it was about hiring a TV Chief Engineer !
Monday, January 07, 2008
Here Come the CES Announcements !
Sharp and Samsung do deals for limited internet content on their TVs.
Streambox will introduce a software-based product for mobile use and as well as other products.
(Thanks to Lost Remote and NewTeeVee.)
Edited on: Monday, January 07, 2008 12:54 PM
Categories: IPTV, TV Engineering