Brad on Broadcast

Tom Hanks and Shelley Long starred in the 1986 movie “The Money Pit.” For those of you under 40, it was a movie about a young couple who purchase what at first seems to be the perfect home. Only later do they discover all the many hidden problems that must be fixed. The movie leads our couple through long list of home repair disasters and their accompanying costs. Hence the name, “The Money Pit.” If you’re a homeowner, the movie is certainly worth a rental as you’ll quickly identify with Tom and Shelley as they attempt to manage an unending stream of contractors, repairmen and bills.

So, what does this movie have to do with content creation and broadcast facilities? I’ll be willing to bet you have your own money pit, but just may not realize it. Your money pit could be your facility’s storage and business computing systems. If your station or production house is using a business computer or video server more than five years old, you may be staring at a business disaster just waiting to happen. more

The boom boom began at about 8 p.m. At first, I thought I’d left a TV on in the basement. One step onto my patio revealed the true source of the racket. A neighbor two blocks away was having a pre-Halloween party, complete with an outside stereo and huge flashing lights. Although he hadn’t invited me to the party, I guess he thought I’d enjoy his party-level atmosphere. more

My friend and Broadcast Engineering magazine’s longest writer, Don Markley, died on Oct. 22 in Peoria, IL. Many longtime Broadcast Engineering readers will recognize Don for his 30-plus years of writing articles in the magazine, many under the column titled “Transmission and Distribution.” more

At the last Broadcast Engineering News Technology Summit, I asked our dinner keynote speaker, David Smith, CEO SmithGeiger, about broadcasters sharing resources and technology to reduce both CAPEX and OPEX. He replied that stations were only now beginning to change their decades-old proprietary ways and share resources. He continued that this new way of doing business must expand if TV stations expect to survive. A recent wave of articles confirms his viewpoint.

One article was titled, “Cats sleeping with dogs? Rival news orgs share content, revenue.” The article examined the experiment by AP sports editors to begin sharing sports stories among both online and print properties. The AP isn’t alone in such tests. Next year, the “Washington Post” and Bloomberg will launch a co-branded business section on the paper’s Web site, offering content from both organizations. more

An August 2009 report from In-Stat may provide some guidance for stations looking to enter the mobile TV business. The report focuses exclusively on analog delivery of mobile television. Even so, the authors claim it may offer hints at how digital mobile television may be used. more

Okay, it’s an over-the-top headline, but I wanted to capture your attention. I’ve recently been struck by the seemingly absurd ways company managers try to cut operating costs. Sure, we’ve all read or experienced the layoffs, staff reductions, salary cuts and furloughs. And most of us are now struggling to do more work in less time with smaller budgets and staff to do it. Even so, companies continue to try to squeeze every penny from OPEX budgets.

Here I’ll show you two examples, but I need you to tell me some of the things your company is doing to try to save money. What cutbacks and cost savings are you enduring? I’ll post some of the better ideas in this blog. more

Rep Anna Eshoo, D-CA, must really be trying to look busy — witness her repeated introduction of another worthless government mandate. Her goal is to force broadcasters to control loudness. more

The battle for stereoscopic TV delivered to the home just got hotter this month as key players began staking out territory in what promises to be the next VHS-Beta war for supremacy.

A study from the CEA and Entertainment and Technology Center at the University of Southern California claims that 3D is a growing force. The survey shows that 16 percent of respondents wanted 3D films and 14 percent wanted 3D video games. More than 50 percent said they would be willing to wear 3D glasses. Fifteen percent of the respondents said they would be willing to pay a 25 percent premium for a 3D television set. more

Closing keynote speaker at the Broadcast Engineering and B&C News Technology Summit was Ron Stitt, vice president digital media, Fox Television Station (FTS) Group. Stitt is responsible for online operations, business development and strategy for the FTS Group in NYC. He’s been responsible for helping the FTS Web sites grow to an average of almost 10 million monthly unique users.

Stitt began his presentation by saying that the term “TV station” has become a semantic problem for the industry. He said that future success for broadcasters will require stations to radically rethink what they provide and how they provide it. Stations will have to supply much more than just an OTA signal. Going forward, a successful TV station will have to supply owned and branded content to a multitude of platforms, formats and devices. “You can’t be just a TV station,” he claimed. more

There is an absolutely awful movie with the title, “I know what you did last summer.” Well now that kind of “know all” function may about to be installed on your TV. Your TV set will know where you went and when you were there. For some people, that may not be a good thing. For others, it opens a whole new world of features and functions. more