• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

HD broadcasting in Atlanta

R

Rick Rose 2.0

Guest
Now that our local news on all 5 stations is in HD I find it odd that only 2 11 & 36 carry any syndicated programming in HD. Considering that channel 69's master control is in Norfolk with other CBS owned stations I am wonder why they don't show CSI Miami or Two &a Half Men in HD though they show CW primetime and locally produced Frank & Wanda in HD. I thought CBS would find a way to allow every thing available in HD would be in HD on Owned & Operated Stations. At least Channel 46 master control is here in Atlanta though other Merideth stations (like WSMV Nashville) will be run out of Atlanta. Being a top 10 market we should be further along with syndication in HD.
 
Rick Rose 2.0 said:
Now that our local news on all 5 stations is in HD I find it odd that only 2 11 & 36 carry any syndicated programming in HD. Considering that channel 69's master control is in Norfolk with other CBS owned stations I am wonder why they don't show CSI Miami or Two &a Half Men in HD though they show CW primetime and locally produced Frank & Wanda in HD. I thought CBS would find a way to allow every thing available in HD would be in HD on Owned & Operated Stations. At least Channel 46 master control is here in Atlanta though other Merideth stations (like WSMV Nashville) will be run out of Atlanta. Being a top 10 market we should be further along with syndication in HD.
Click to expand...

WAGA and WGCL just upgraded to HD news. WSB-TV and WXIA upgraded three years ago, and since then has upgraded to HD local commercials (all WSB-TV promos are HD now). WAGA and WGCL have to catch up.

In the case of hubbing, local programming generally has to come from a local source that interrupts the master control feed from out of town, unless it can be uploaded to a server that is out of town. In the case of Frank and Wanda at WUPA, I would suspect the tape (or hard disk recording) is coming from WUPA's studio or transmitter site. Computers have to be automatically switching between CW national HD/WUPA Norfolk Control/WUPA local HD. I don't have any knowledge of how this is being done, just an educated asumption based on my basic knowlege of computer systems.

I also heard WXIA/WATL is/will be hubbed from Jacksonville and WTLV/WJXX (and WMAZ out of WFMY/Greensboro). Can anyone confirm?

Before we know it, the only commercial station that will be switched out of Atlanta will be WSB-TV. And if Cox decides to hub other stations at a later point, you can bet that hub will be in Atlanta.
 
jal41 said:
In the case of hubbing, local programming generally has to come from a local source that interrupts the master control feed from out of town, unless it can be uploaded to a server that is out of
Click to expand...

I would suggest that hubbing is likely to result in a station that wasn't carrying syndicated programming in HD beginning to do so.

The (rather extensive!) cost of upgrading satellite receivers and video servers can be spread among the stations being hubbed. You don't need to downlink and store CSI-HD five times, once at each of your five stations - you downlink & store it once and then play it out five times.

From what I've been told there are two ways to handle live local programming in a hubbing system. Either you have a switch at the local station that goes between the feed from the hub and the local studio control room, or you feed your live local program "backwards" up the return feed to the hub, and they switch it back down to you like any other program. In the systems I'm aware of, any *recorded* local programs are fed back to the hub after being produced & played out from the hub like any syndicated program.

Though I would certainly hope there would be at least limited local playback capacity for the contingency when the hub (or link) goes down, and if there isn't that much recorded local programming it might indeed make sense to play it out from there.
 
This is my understanding of HUBs (the following are examples, I can’t tell you if any Atlanta station does this, but I know one HUB does the following exampe here in the US):

The servers/tape machines are located at the WXXX studios. They have an automation there, which can be controlled either at WXXX or at their HUB in Bumpass, Alaska. The “HUB operator” manipulates the playlist, and just monitors when they go to break during network time, they have no switcher in front of them, they might only have a “digital switcher.” Otherwise, they just monitor the playout. If something should go wrong, the operator at the HUB has two choices: 1: Take next, and skip over the event (which if there is a problem with a program, they will be 30 minutes short) or 2: Staying on the air in black or trouble slide and calling someone (either an engineer or someone from the news department) at WXXX to go into the server/tape room and see what the matter is (I’ve actually seen scenario 2 many times.) In the event that that HUB goes down: you still have the automaton running at WXXX, so the viewer will never be able to tell that something has gone wrong. For news, production control room has a HUD (Head’s Up Display) and a button (either control by the producer or director) in which when they are ready for break, they will push the button and the switcher will switch to server and roll the breaks automatically. It is the responsibility of the director/producer to count them back into news (since they don’t have a MCO there...I’ve seen them sit in black for a bit because they forgot to pay attention to the HUD.) For syndicated feeds: it is recorded automatically by automation with someone putting in points and out points at WXXX and relaying the info over to the HUB.

That is how I understood one HUB is currently working here in the US.


Also, don’t forget that WPCH’s Master Control is still here Atlanta, GA.
 
notalkallstatic said:
This is my understanding of HUBs (the following are examples, I can’t tell you if any Atlanta station does this, but I know one HUB does the following exampe here in the US):

The servers/tape machines are located at the WXXX studios. They have an automation there, which can be controlled either at WXXX or at their HUB in Bumpass, Alaska. The “HUB operator” ...
Click to expand...

I can't rule out someone's doing it that way, but the hubbing systems I know about locate the servers and the automation at the hub, not the individual stations.

If the servers are at the individual stations, any material that airs on more than one station has to be stored in more than one place. You're going to need a lot more storage space overall than if the server was centralized. That's troublesome in SD and downright expensive in HD.
 
I just happen to see that channel 69 is showing Two & a Half Men re-runs in HD so progress is being made.
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom