Broadcast television engineering related tech topics, rants and motorcycles!
Scott Adams wanted to make a topical comic about the recent iPhone 4G drama that’s been all the buzz recently and realized that his normal outlet (a newspaper) has a propagation delay of about a month. “I worried that the story would become stale before my comics would work through the pipeline.” His only option [...]
I was recently talking with a sales rep I deal with and we got on the topic of the aging TV engineering workforce. He told me a rather depressing story about a recent SBE chapter meeting in his area where one of the old timers started poking fun at a couple younger members who were [...]
It’s been about five years since I bought into Sirius satellite (paid) radio. At the time, like many initial customers, I was spending a lot of time in a company truck. For me it was driving from hilltop-to-hilltop working on transmitters or to various studios within “driving distance” and I quickly became fed up with [...]
A new article in Broadcasting & Cable highlights the American Cable Association’s attempt to sway the FCC via a December 11th letter by the ACA President Matt Polka (in addition to the regular lobbying of cable-related issues through their PAC) to eliminate “Must Carry” rules so that they can “offer Internet speeds as fast as [...]
Recently our congress has passed legislation to delay the DTV transition/analog shut-off yet again – this time to June 12th of 2009. For those that aren’t already aware this makes the 2nd time the date has been put off. The original date (created in 1997) for this to happen was December 31st, 2006, but in [...]
Regardless of what some liberal arts students or free-love hippies may tell you, you don’t get something for nothing. Or, better yet, as the redoubtable Robert Heinlein coined, “TANSTAAFL” (There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch). This simple truth frames the cold, hard realities about to face broadcasters after the current mobile DTV [...]
As broadcasters continue to face eroding audiences, lousy programming, declining ratings, a lackluster fall line-up and pending changes in FCC rules regarding ‘localism‘; here comes another punch in the gut. Joss Whedon of Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Firefly and the Serenity movie fame created a three part mini-musical (!) video netcast called “Dr. Horrible” that [...]
A writer’s strike, shitty programming and the Internet. Oh my! Viewer’s are leaving appointment television by the droves and broadcasters are scrambling to do something, anything to keep them firmly planted on the couch during prime time. I’ve covered the topic of declining viewers in the past, but the trend in hemorrhaging viewership of major [...]
Sezmi is a startup out of Belmont, California that hopes to win subscribers from cable and satellite providers by providing a cheaper, on-demand and real-time television viewing service for a select selection of the more popular broadcast and “cable” channels. This new company is born from the ashes and founders of the defunct USDTV service [...]
First, let me say that this will not work for everyone and those teenagers that have their parents footing the mobile bill, unfortunately, will not feel the financial pain of owning a cell phone. At least, not yet. However, many people are in the same boat as myself carrying a work cell and a personal [...]