Tag Archive for 'HD Transition'

7News in HD Imminent

Yes, people! Finally, 7News will end stretchovision madness and launch real HD.

Here’s what I learned:

- rehearsals were happening Friday evening
- the plex will/receive(d) subtle changes, nothing major
- anchor desk has grown a bit. The 7 logo at the front was replaced
- the blue duratran between the floors is going back to
how it was before, small. Or at least smaller than it is now.
- flat screens will be added to it?
- monitor wall may or may not change. WHDH replaced theirs
with almost a dozen large flat screen tvs

Graphics
- “very ESPN-sportscenter ish”
- “LOTS of swooshes and flying 7s”
- “everything looks like its flying out of the screen”
- the new opens are much shorter
- color scheme is blue, black, red with chrome

Music
no info but I’m working on it. My guess, something original
by Chris Crane, naturally

Field photogs will be shooting in 16×9 SD which will be upconverted
to HD. NO stretchovision and as few sidebars as possible.

Don’t expect any more major changes after this. Even with holding nearly 20% of the local tv ad market WSVN is still pinched by the bad economy.
They like every other station are having budget problems and allegedly won’t be filling open positions.

Doesn’t appear like they’ll acquire the WTVJ building at this point in time. Of course you never know but at the moment it doesn’t appear likely (maybe it never was?)

Sunbeam is still in litigation with the company that wants to build condos right next the studios.

7News HD will swooshhhh in with a bang sometimes during the first or second week of December.

And now you know. Thanks to the tipster for the info.

WHDH in High Definition

WHDH finally fliped the HD switched at Noon today.
This is a pretty good preview of what to expect from WSVN whenever they get around

/hat tip Andy from Boston/

more video, the embeding feature and player have not been officially released so you might have to try and play the video more than once.

Breaking News bump

updated news desk

developing story bump

WHDH in HD on Monday; WSVN Ummm Whenever

WSVN’s sibling in Boston is turning the HD switch on Moday at 4pm (or tuesday at the latest) according to Boston media blog The Scoop and btvn

They just got done re-modeling their newsplex. The video wall behind the anchors with all the little monitors was shortened a bit and in their place are several large flat screen tvs.

The 2nd floor has a projector screen like WSVN’s with blue columns on each side.

The light boxes in the middle between the floors are now all red instead of blue! And the anchor desk has received a rather nice update.

WSVN is expected to probably do similar changes to their newsplex, but unfortunately couple weeks ago I was told they’ve pushed their HD transition date from August into the fall. I don’t know what caused it or if it’s definitive delay or what, yet.

Two Fort Myers Stations in HD by August 8

WBBH-NBC2 and WZVN-ABC7 in Fort Myers will flip the HD news switch by August 8 when the Beijing Summer Olympics begin.

Waterman Broadcasting owns WBBH and operates WZVN via a local marketing agreenment (LMA).

Both stations currently broadcast in 16:9 but not in high definition, they’ve broadcast network programming in HD since October 2002.

/hat tip Anonymous tipster for sending the link/

WSVN’s HD Control Room

Yesterday during the 4pm news Reed Cowan popped up from the recently renovated for HD control room.

As part of the transition to digital and WSVN’s move to broadcast news in HD they swapped the tiny CRT monitors with broadcast-grade LCD monitors.

Sorry about the camera photo my DVR is being Comcastic again.

A WSVN HD Update

I have a minor update on WSVN’s HD transition.

No exact date still but most likely before or after the Olympics, which begin August 8.

One of the last things delaying them is the lack of HD graphics. WSVN’s graphic department is too busy with everything else. Several creative directors leaving hasn’t helped things either

I’m told WHDH and WSVN’s graphics package will be almost identical though.

Speaking of WHDH, Boston TV blog The Scoop says WHDH will be HD by July 15th. They’re putting up a green screen behind the anchor desk after sweeps with a pre-recorded loop of the newsplex while work is being done to the studio. Mainly removing the TV wall and replacing it with a giant projection screen!

More Details on WPLG’s Move and DTV Transition

A TVnewsday article today details WPLG’s DTV transition plans (reg. required) and move to a new studio.

The interesting bits are that Channel 10 bought Ikegami SD/HD cameras and those are going to be one of the few things that will be moved to the new studios. But it looks like there will be no Local10 News in HD until the move and live reports will be in SD for some time due to the costs associated with upgrading live news trucks.

WPLG and WSVN will have their digital transmitters on the same tower, a new one, both stations will be putting up soon.

WPLG GM Dave Boylan expects the new building to be done by December of this year. Equipment will be installed during the first three months of 2009 and the first staff will be in the new building sometime in April 2009. All staff will work from the new location by June 30, 2009.

/img Reese Associates/

WLTV Univision 23 in HD?

WLTV is going high def today.

One reader dropped me a message saying Univision 23 will be HD on Monday.

And a little bit later another reader said the station ran a promo that said changes were coming on Monday.

So it appears at least at this time that Miami will have its 4th station broadcasting local content in high definition.

Comcast Adds More HD Channels

Just saw a message on the DVR box that says Comcast added AMC HD, ABC Family HD, CNN HD, Disney HD, Science Channel HD.

Science Channel HD has been available for a while though so not sure why they’re announcing it now.

WTVJ NBC 6 HD Video Caps

ok a few of you were asking for video caps of NBC 6 HD in action so here they are from last night’s newscast.

not in full HD however but resized in half for this post as the PNG files were around 50MB

there are a couple nice shots in there - one from the control room and all the screens and gadgets and a steady cam one where you can see the HD camera.

Click the thumbnails below for a full image:

Continue reading ‘WTVJ NBC 6 HD Video Caps’

Can you notice a difference?

7News is running on new HD robo cams that were turned on the other day, in SD mode. The difference is quite noticeable, to me anyway. The image is much more sharper than it was before especially on shots that are a bit

except lynn’s ever changing hairdo you notice a visible difference?

top screenshot is from a few weeks ago, bottom is from yesterday’s 4pm newscast

7hdcamsbeforeafter1.jpg

and two more before and afters below:

WSVN HD cameras running SD mode

WSVN HD cameras running SD mode

DTV stretch-o-vision comparison

WSVN DTV HD Camera Comparison

West Palm HD Now on Dish

Dish Network has turned on the HD for West Palm market. Dish Network Adds HD Local Markets, NESN HD

WSVN HD: Almost Upgraded; HD by May sweeps?

An insider was kind enough to send some new details on WSVN’s progress to HD.

According to this tipster WSVN’s control room is now completely HD-ready. They have just finished installing plasma displays replacing the monitors they had before. The HD studio cameras are almost ready as well, the control system is being finished. Some layoffs are expected in the next couple of weeks unfortunately as the new cameras are going to be automated.

New weather computers are being installed, and newsplex changes are being finalized - look for more flat screen TVs around the plex.

The tipster guesses WSVN might be in HD before May or early April. May sweeps begin exactly 30 days from today.

I noticed recently the latest promos have been re-shot and are 16:9 HD using the graphics from the promo that debuted during superbowl. So they’re definitely speeding ahead, hopefully the graphics team won’t be rushed too much

update 8:37pm: ok so the saga continues. another insider jumped in to clarify some things - WSVN will probably not be HD until around August because “they have ways to go”. And the 3 people being let go knew their jobs were only temporary.

WKMG Orlando In HD

Reader Wayne from Orlando was kind enough to drop me a note that WKMG in Orlando has gone HD. The station is doing something similar to NBC 6 turning on the hi-def and not saying a word about it for a while.

WKMG is owned by the same company as WPLG Local 10, Post-Newsweek.

WPLG however will not broadcast their newscasts in HD until they move to their new building in Pembroke Park this or next year. And I’m hearing that when it happens they’ll be HD in the studio and in the field i.e. photogs, copter, ENG trucks will be HD-capable

Chopper 6 HD

Here’s what this baby is made of.

* Six HD monitors.

* Two up front on the passenger side
* One up front on the pilot, Dean’s, side
* Three in the back with me.

* HD receiver for my on air reception
* HD encoder to switch our signal from analog to HD
* DVC Pro HD recorder
* HD talent cam in the back but can be moved up front if necessary
* FLIR HD CAMERA with a TOUCH SCREEN display on the laptop controller

several photos after the jump below
Continue reading ‘Chopper 6 HD’

NBC 6 Finally Mentions Their HDTV Digs

They finally mentioned their HDTV transition during the NBC 6 News at 6 a while ago. And there’s a promo for the switch, which oddly is running in 4:3 with curtains.

there is a nice behind the scenes look at WTVJ’s HDTV transition on NBC6.net including video tour of the Chopper 6, also in HD.

Photo: Experience The NBC 6 HD
Video: NBC 6 Goes High Definition
Video - Choper 6 HD behind the scenes tour with photojournalist Robin Russell