Local News in HD?

[John L]

I wonder at times since our local stations chs 4, 6, 12 and 58 are always competing who has the best news, newscast, stories, features, etc.

What would be more brilliant to a news broadcast is by offering it in High Definition.

I wonder who will be the first station to offer local news in HD?

My bet goes out to WTMJ-TV seeing they are basically the first in everything.  First TV station in Milwaukee, possibly the state. First TV station to broadcast in color. Also the first commercial TV station in Milwaukee to broadcast in Digital.

-John L.

[digdugm]

If I had to guess (which I do), I would say WISN-DT, since they just did a major over-haul of the station. If they have any sense, they would have built in the capabilities to do so. Well it will be interesting to see who's first, I bet I know who will be last (at least the last to be seen OTA).

[Kevin Arnold]

Gotta wonder what the expense would be. They would have to purchase all new in studio HD cameras, tape and disk machines, all new editing equipment as well as updating all their ENG trucks and portable cameras. It wouldn't look right if the stories they received from the network were in SD so the big boys would have to update too. Maybe they could take out a "station improvement loan" from the bank while interest rates are low....
I think it will be 3 or more years before any of the locals do anything with this unless equipment prices go down dramatically.  Better chance of WITI using their patented Fox ® Widescreen™.

[foxeng]

WRAL did it for about $10 million I hear. That is HD everything from the studio cameras to the field cameras and editors and microwave and sat trucks. The only thing that is SD is the feeds that come in from non WRAL sources.

It ain't cheap.

[gyoung]

Not to mention all the money spent on makeup and lighting and possibly new newscast members.

One of the obstacles is that the newscaster may not have the best skin in the world but makeup and non-HDTV don't pick it up.

HD would pick it up right away.  You would see a lot more people moving from TV to radio!

[John L]

Originally posted by gyoung
Not to mention all the money spent on makeup and lighting and possibly new newscast members.

One of the obstacles is that the newscaster may not have the best skin in the world but makeup and non-HDTV don't pick it up.

HD would pick it up right away.  You would see a lot more people moving from TV to radio!

Well it may not happen anytime soon, but I expect by 20 to 30 years from now all TV programs, local programming to commercials everything will be strictly HD.  There won't be anything airing in SD.  Just like when Color Tv came out in the 50s.  It took 20 years before everything went color.  Now just about every program on TV today is in Stereo.

-John L.

[SRW1000]

Twenty to Thirty years?  Yikes!  I can't wait that long.  I want everything in HD now!

OK, I can wait a while, but I'd guess it'll be closer to ten years.  Technology is moving so quickly these days that I think it will be a much faster transition than color was.

I'm surprised that more commercials aren't being shot in HD, just to make them stand out against the blah, old SD stuff.  

Any local anchors concerned about their skin problems can just have one of those Barbara Walters lenses put on the HD cameras.  That should take care of it.

Scott

[foxeng]

Originally posted by gyoung
One of the obstacles is that the newscaster may not have the best skin in the world but makeup and non-HDTV don't pick it up.

HD would pick it up right away.  You would see a lot more people moving from TV to radio!

WRAL had to soften the studio cameras up because the talent complained about how bad HD made them look! The talent voted to go back to SD on the news! Of course that didn't happen! :eek:

[Skipjack]

WRAL had to soften the studio cameras up because the talent complained about how bad HD made them look! The talent voted to go back to SD on the news!

:rofl: