My Fireside Chat with TV6 VP/GM Chuck Steinmetz

[Tom Snyder]

Finally getting the time to write about my conversation with Chuck Steinmetz, VP and GM of Channel 6.  

Because of my time in broadcasting (which incidentally included time as program director at WEZW when we pitched and landed a partnership with them to provide us our on-air weather and news), we had lots in common. Being able to communicate as peers made the conversation cordial and informative. As you may know, he and I had been exchanging emails, when he decided to simply pick up the phone and call me. We spoke for about 45 minutes.

Would Chuck love to flip a magic switch and turn on a full-time HDTV signal that covered the entire southeastern corner of Wisconsin? Yes, emphatically.

What prevents that?

Several factors. Chuck is just celebrating the first anniversary of his position as GM. What means is that he has been operating the station with a budget that a previous GM put in place. Since he's been there, he's been doing everything he can to implement a full digital roll out. The major factor working against him is the fact that the 6 tower in Estabrook Park needs major reinforcements to support a digital antenna. The process takes a lot of time, resources and dollars, and the weather at 1000 ft hasn't been kind. For all intent and purpose, Winter is now here, and so work can't resume till next Spring.

Why not mount the antenna on the community tower? Control and expense...Having your signal at the mercy of a landlord is pretty dangerous, and so for most operators, renting space is only an option if they have no other choice. Mounting your antenna on someone else's tower, especially if you already own one is indefensible from a business standpoint, as is temporarily putting a full power antenna up there temporarily is also just not good business sense.

The FCC May 1st deadline required only a predicted 41 dbu signal strength to cover the city of license (City of Milwaukee), and they were able to accomplish that with the low power antenna mounted on their relay tower. Are they happy with the coverage that gives them? No. But given the hand Chuck was dealt, that was the best he could do.

He understands our passion and our frustration. But one thing that he hoped we'd understand is that HDTV isn't the only issue he has to deal with. His goal is to satisfy the largest possible audience he can. And right now, HDTV owners make up tiny fraction of the audience. Divide that fraction among all the other stations (both digital and analog), and the fraction gets even smaller. And as of now, no one has any real measurement of the size of the HDTV audience. Neilsen doesn't measure the viewing habits, and none of qualitative audience measurement services even test to see how many sets there are. And while one gauge of measurement is the number angry letters, his stack of letters complaining about the loss of Scott Steele on their morning news show garnered ten times the letters in the few weeks it was an issue than he's gotten about their digital programming or lack thereof in the 5 years it's been an issue.

Will more angry letters make it happen any faster? No. The full power signal will happen when it happens, on the weather. And that's not an attitude, it's unfortunately just a fact.

I reminded him about the fact that the roll out of digital was certainly no surprise, and that with 5 years to get this done, his major network affiliate competitors somehow managed to get it done. He agreed with me, however he reminded me that as a Fox owned and operated station there are political and business issues that he is bound by. And because he knew that our conversation was going to become part of a public forum, I understood the position I was putting him with any further questions down this path, so I stopped there.

The good news is that he's also in negotiations with Time Warner for carriage. He's working really hard to get that done, because he knows, like the other GM's, that rooftop and bow tie antennas aren't what will help HDTV reach critical mass.

I invited him to participate in a live chat, and offer that he appreciated, but felt that, as a non technical guy, he didn't feel he'd really be able to contribute much of value. However, he did say that he'd continue to monitor the forums, something that Don Hain (his local engineer), and Earl Arbuckle (the corporate engineer responsible for rolling out all the Fox digital channels) already have been doing.

So there you have it. Don't know if there's anything here that we didn't already know, and probably some stuff that we don't want to hear. My intent isn't to rally the angry villagers, or try to carry water for Fox, nationally or locally. But, like Walter Cronkite used to say...that's the way it is.

[This message has been edited by Tom Snyder (edited 11-16-2002).]

[StarvingForHDTV]

Did the conversation ever reach the issue of current picture quality being broadcast on their low power digital signal?  Any ideas why graphics, text, etc. vibrate causing eye strain?  Any ideas why the signal was switched from stretched to fill 16:9 screen to 4:3 with imbedded sidebars, then back again?  I guess I'm one of the few who picks up their weak signal at this time, so not many people can relate to this.

Thanks for posting,

Starving

[Tom Snyder]

Oh yeah... I forgot about that part.

They're not passing through the digital signal from the Network yet...the equipment to do that should all be in and set up by December.

That's what Chuck told me. But I thought I saw somewhere else (AVS?) that that seems to be a coporation-wide directive.

[Matt Heebner]

I am not an engineer, nor do I even pretend to understand all the circumstances regarding broadcasting, and running a station but.....
Maybe I didnt see it above in Tom's post, but what is stopping FOX from just boosting the power on the signal? I understand that they dont want to go full power on a temporary antenna, but they cant even boost it more than it is? I was getting FOX at about a 66 signal on my DTC-100 with a DBTie in the attic. Since WISN came on, knocked FOX right out.....down to a solid 22.
That way atleast some of the people in MILWAUKEE will be able to get some sort of signal. Is this not a feasible compromise? Like I stated before, I know nothing about broadcasting, or the technical aspect to it, but I would think they could turn the power dial another quarter turn atleast.

Matt

[Tom Snyder]

That is an excellent question. I wonder if it's a radiation issue. The tower is right at their studio, and maybe lotsawatts at only 125 feet will cook the employees. I'll ask...

[mcq]

Tom... Thanx for that. The real irony is that as we view Fox6 as a "johnny-come-lately" the rest of the viewing world will hardly notice as digital becomes more pervasive. We know "6" as bungling digital dolts, yet noone (the majority of viewers) will really notice, thus lessening their exposure and risk...Pretty savvy business, if you think about it, (or even disagree.)

I especially hate the prospect of getting cable in order to get in early   I have been "cable-free" for 6 years and proud of it.

mcq

[StarvingForHDTV]

They took a step in the right direction today.  Part way into the Packer game they switched to Widescreen.  The aspect ratio was nice, no stretching like their past attempts to play around with stretching a 4:3 signal to trick both of their viewers.  On the other hand, they still haven't figured out how to stop the jittery effects on their signal.  Even the goal post was vibrating...  I did pop in a progressive scan DVD after the game, and I think they need to keep working on their end to get their picture quality improved enough to be on par with a  decent 480p signal.  To get a feel for what I am seeing these days, you could drop the refresh rate on your video card down quite a bit and stare at your monitor for a while.  That may be a little more intense than 6-DT, but similar in my opinion.

Nonetheless, I can give them some credit for finally passing a Widescreen signal.

Starving

[techguy1975]

 

Originally posted by Tom Snyder:
That is an excellent question. I wonder if it's a radiation issue. The tower is right at their studio, and maybe lotsawatts at only 125 feet will cook the employees. I'll ask...

Probably has a lot to do with radiation, and possibly increasing the power on the DTV xmitter will cause interference to their STL link, ENG recievers, and Doppler radar, all of which call that relay tower home

[Tom Snyder]

An answer from Earl Arbuckle, Engineer Fox Network:

 

Turning up the wick seems like an easy thing to do, although DTV transmitters are measured in terms of average, rather than peak, power, so they get big really fast, requiring lots of electricity and cooling.  The 500 watt DTV transmitter at WITI-DT is roughly the same size as a 2000 watt NTSC transmitter.  Allowing for antenna gain, the effective radiated power of WITI-DT is about 16 kilowatts.

But that's not the real problem.  Antenna height is really the key to coverage, which is why we are reinforcing our main tower to allow us to put the DTV antenna there.  Even multiplying that 500 watt output to 5000 watts would have only a small impact on coverage.  Increasing the antenna height (on the transmitting end OR THE RECEIVING end) has a far more dramatic effect.  Line-of-sight is the best predictor of coverage, since UHF radio waves do not "bend" easily.  Getting both transmit and receive antennas above the ground clutter also minimizes the losses that impair reception.  That's why an outdoor antenna GENERALLY works much better than an indoor antenna.  Unless there is a problem with the coax connecting the antenna to the receiver.

We take great pains to see that our transmitter, transmission line, and antenna are properly impedance matched at our frequency.  It is equally (and especially) important to do the same thing on the receive system.  Unfortunately, "F" connectors are not the best performers (they were designed for quick, low cost assembly in a cable TV system, where the signal levels are much higher than OTA).  If they are not crimped with the proper crimp tool (i.e. with a pair of pliers instead), they are even worse.  Also, most people want a broadband receive system capable of receiving all channels equally well.  By definition, this is impossible.  Transmission line systems have impedances that vary with frequency, affecting losses and matching.  So do antennas, by the way.  Another problem is that a transmission line can act like a transformer; a quarter-wave section will invert the impedance at its resonant frequency.  Thus, an "open" becomes a "short" and vice-versa; this is the basis for "stub" filters!  I relate these things because sometimes they go a long way toward explaining why one viewer gets reception and his neighbor does not, even though they have nominally similar systems.  Just the fact that they might have different coax lengths can have a big effect and shorter is not NECESSARILY better for reception of a given channel.  Unfortunately, it is very hard for the consumer to determine just how good or bad his system might be, unless he has a network and/or spectrum analyzer available for testing.

Hope this sheds some light on the "black magic" of RF.

[This message has been edited by Tom Snyder (edited 11-18-2002).]

[StarvingForHDTV]

Just an update on 6.1 as a viewer.  They are getting closer to delivering a better picture, in my opinion.  24 is one of my favorite shows on network TV.  Last night it was sent out for the most part in the Widescreen mode.  Unfortunately the audio did not accompany the video for the vast majority of the show.  For the last 10 minutes or so, both the Widescreen picture and sound were available.  I have to admit it looked pretty good.  Too bad they were monkeying around during the rest of the show though.  

I think we are getting closer here.  Hopefully all of the picture/sound issues will be resolved before they broadcast their digital signal to a wider audience.

I did call the station during the first part of the show, but all I could get was an automated voicemail system.  Too bad there isn't a way to get to a real live person at night to tell them to flip on the audio etc.

Just my 2 cents,

Starving

[Tom Snyder]

Whenever CBS58 forgets to flip the switcth I call their news tip line and tell them. HD is on within 30 seconds...