Milwaukee news in HD?

[jeffski]

Does anyone know of any local channels planning to broadcast their news in HD? I was in Atlanta last summer and they have their NBC affiliate that has local news in HD. I hope the first one that does it isn't WISN :bang:

Actually, Atlanta has 2 local channels that broadcast their news in HD my brother just told me. C'mon Milwaukee, get with the times.


Yeah. I agree. Our small market keeps getting smaller. Lake Michigan to the east is to blame for that in large (literally) part.  I do recall channel 12 broadcasting the lakefront fireworks on July 3rd in HD. Whoopee


Loadstar, because I don't care for their news,that's all.

[gparris]

Nice to dream, but Milwaukee is not in the top markets, its DMA is ranges in the 32-34 numbers, it is definately no Atlanta, Chicago or New York.
Our local TWC thinks so little about adding new HD channel additions since it assumes no one cares about it, so why would, given this "mindset", the local network stations start broadcasting in HD, even for news?

The one station in Milwaukee that has always been in the forefront technologically has been WTMJ, starting with colour TV when no one had it, stereo sound and so on, IMO, so they would be the most likely station to do HD news.
Whether or not any of the big four network affiliate stations are even planning to HD local broadcasts is probably in-house knowledge for now, as it is still somewhat expensive given our (assumed) "limited" HD viewing audience.:rolleyes:

[FiberOptic]

There is color TV on TWC?

[psubill78]

Does anyone know of any local channels planning to broadcast their news in HD?

My god, could you imagine. "Fox 6 wakeup, wakeup it's fun" There are no good reasons for Milwaukee tv to go HD. The news coverage is horrible.  

ABC from Chicago HD is nice though.....

[Gilbert]

Nice to dream, but Milwaukee is not in the top markets, its DMA is ranges in the 32-34 numbers, it is definately no Atlanta, Chicago or New York.

And neither is Cleveland, OH which just got its *third* station doing its newscast in HD.

[gparris]

Cleveland?
I wonder how many other cities out there are doing local HD if Cleveland has it.
The production costs and equipment must be coming down, too, just not low enough for our town's conservative "posture".

[LoadStar]

Does anyone know of any local channels planning to broadcast their news in HD? I was in Atlanta last summer and they have their NBC affiliate that has local news in HD. I hope the first one that does it isn't WISN :bang:

Why do you say "I hope the first one that does it isn't WISN"? I don't get it.

[wxndave]

I still think the cost for doing HD news is high.  Your are talking about a complete station equipment change out.  New tape decks, field cameras, digital routing systems, new editing systems and video servers with at least 24 TB of space.  Most production quality HD tapes have a bandwidth of 170 Mb per second.  Standard def is around 25 Mb per second.  Here are the prices I know for equipment so far.

Sony HD Tape deck $60K
Field camera  $60K
HD len  $30K  
HD Editing system $200K
HD server 12TB $150K
HD Studio camera $100K Plus lens

I know most stations have at lest six or more field cameras.  Each news live truck needs to have at least one HD deck to feed tapes back to the station.  If you need to edit you will need two decks or some computer editor with enough HD space to record a couple hours of video.  I know I might be missing something.

Dave

[Tom Snyder]

Do the current microwave transmitters on the trucks that send the signal back to the station have the available bandwidth to transmit HD?


BTW, wxndave: the email address we have for you is not correct, please update in your profile.

[wxndave]

Currently Nextel/Sprint is paying to change out the truck microwave equipment to a Digital.  They are only providing standard def equipment.  Depending on the equipment, you would have to change modulation equipment plus add an HD encoder.    On the receive side you would need to add decoders and change out the microwaves from the tower back to the station.

Sorry about the email.

Dave