Brad on Broadcast

Do you consider yourself successful? In today’s business environment, one definition of being successful might be just having a job. While that answer applies to millions of people, better times will return, and when they do, will your feelings about what you’ve accomplished change? Let’s examine some choices people make that help them define success. more…

As if broadcasters and other tower owners don’t have enough to worry about, the bird huggers are back in the news. I spied the Internet article “Will the FCC ever deal with bird-killing mobile phone towers?” on the ARS Web site. Being the ever vigilant editor, I clicked on the title and was greeted with the typical “the sky is falling and our little-bitty, teeny-weeny feathered friends are needlessly being killed by those big bad broadcast and cell towers” story.

The article was weak in information and long in diatribe and vitriol. The focus claim was that millions of birds are needlessly dying because of those horrible broadcast and cell phone towers. Unfortunately for humans, there is a 1918 Migratory Bird Treaty Act, which requires protection for these flea-infested, poop-dropping interlopers. That law is now being used as a club against tower owners. more…

In the last blog post we discussed how a staff may react to the use of new technology. While management holds the ultimate authority, the implementation of any changes are carried out by the workers. Without the willing acceptance of those workers, the best technology in the world stands little chance of being successful. more…

I grabbed the news story from FT.com because it was titled, “U.S. TV prepares for $2 billion ad shortfall.”

OMG, what had I missed? Are broadcasters careening toward disaster? Was the sky falling and I’d missed the forecast?

The news story’s first sentence said, “The U.S. television industry faces a $2 billion slump in advertising revenues during the next four years as advertisers turn away from broadcast and cable networks, according to a new report.”

The second sentence continued, “Digital video recorders that allow viewers to skip through commercials have knocked confidence in broadcast and cable advertising while younger, tech-savvy audiences are deserting their TV sets to spend more time online.” more…

By its nature, the broadcast and content production industries are constantly changing. Just when you’ve got the technology mastered, things change and it’s time to regroup. For many, change is exciting — something to be embraced. However, for others change is frightening and to be avoided whenever possible. This difference in personalities (neither is inherently good or bad) is sometimes visible in how people embrace everyday technology. more…

“Now that all those greedy broadcasters have had to give up those free channels the government gave them, we can get some real products and services in that space.”

I wanted to crawl through the PC monitor as I read the above excerpt from a blog post. The writer was complaining that TV stations had been sucking up all the spectrum for their greedy owners and was only now reluctantly giving it up because of government mandates. The post was probably being written by some goofball who wouldn’t know Hertz from hurts. more…

In this article, we’re going to examine a totally environmentally safe, aka “green,” solution to UPS needs. The focus will be on what are called rotary UPS or flywheel UPS systems. These solutions differ greatly in how they operate, but have unique benefits to both the user and the environment.

In this series, we’ve assumed that the UPS system would be driven by a bank of batteries and backed up by a generator. As explained previously, both battery and generator solutions are not particularly environmentally friendly. They pollute. more…

Are you sick of your phone ringing? Do you get tired of looking into the screen of your PC or laptop? Does the Palm or Pre demand more of your time than you prefer?

Well, according to a recent study from the Pew Internet and American Life Project, a nonprofit research group in Washington, you may not be alone. The report, written by associate director of research John Horrigan, claims that 7 percent of Americans use the Internet as their primary means of social communication, but they also feel conflicted about that fact. Horrigan calls these individuals “ambivalent networkers.” They are so connected, they feel like they can’t quit. more…

In the last column, some issues of selecting and installing a generator were discussed. If you remember anything from that column, it should be to turn to the experts for advice and help. Don’t feel the need for a DIY facility-wide backup power system. Let’s continue on by looking at key generator components, starting with the alternator. more…

I thought I was fully prepared for the death of analog television. All of my TV sets were connected to cable. There were no old-style TV sets connected to rabbit ears. I even purchased two converter boxes in case I ever needed them to feed an additional TV set. Yep, I was fully ready for all-digital broadcast. The death of analog broadcasting wouldn’t affect me. more…