Abilene...the city that cares

Wow. Folks in Abilene are kind. I was standing on the corner of E.N. 11th and Judge Ely today shooting video of the intersection for a story on road improvements. A person drove up and asked if I wanted any money. I said no, then they asked if I needed a burger or something. I didn't think I looked like a homeless person, but I guess I did. I had the camera and tripod set up. Oh well...kind of funny.

Technology brought you the earthquake

If you are reading this blog, chances are you've already checked out our coverage of the Haiti earthquake. If not, see that portion of our website:

http://bigcountryhomepage.com/content/aid_to_haiti

It's incredible. Per my previous blog entry, the way we bring you the news is changing. Every report from Haiti was brought to you via I-phone. We also used FTP to send some video, but the I-phone is what really counted on this story. It enabled Katherine and Tim to QUICKLY shoot a piece of video and have it on the way to the station almost immediately. They had no time to stop and edit/feed video. They were also able to send constant updates using Twitter. Without that phone, much of what you saw on our air between Sunday and Wednesday would not have been possible. We would have had to wait for them to return to bring you the video.

It's hard to appreciate what Katherine and Tim did over the past few days without going through it yourself. I know that from covering Hurricane Katrina. I don't know of any other local TV station in a city our size that sent a crew to Haiti. As an added bonus, our reporters were embedded with the military. Even the networks couldn't make that happen. The point is...what you saw is absolutely INCREDIBLE...and EXCLUSIVE. Watch for our video on the national news...CBS, NBC and CNN. We sent it to all 3.

Oh..just so you know...I was not on the Haiti trip. Katherine and Tim shot all their own video.

The Magic of Live Television

One really cool part about our jobs is that we get to witness events firsthand that most people only see on the news (because we're the ones putting it on the news!).

I've been in this business for many years, but one of my most memorable moments happened on live television.  On Monday, November 16, 2009, a large warehouse on the east side of downtown Abilene caught fire.  Coincidentally, the fire was reported about 5:20pm, and Goose and I were already downtown with two of our live trucks preparing for 6pm live shots from the AISD building.  So we just moved the trucks a few blocks to the fire, and we were up and broadcasting well before the 6pm newscasts started.

Goose was taking care of the KRBC live shots with Tim Johnston, while I was teamed up with Victor Sotelo for the KTAB shots.  Bob and Angela came to us many times during the show, but here's a link to what happened during one of our live reports:  Wall Collapses on Live Television

Luckily, there was no one in the warehouse, and no one was injured.  If you watched the clip, you noticed that Victor, who was standing beside me, was talking about the heat from the fire.  It was quite chilly that evening, but as soon as the wall collapsed, a blast of heat hit us.

I've covered countless fires in my career, but this was one of the "big ones."

Wave of the Future (or present!)

Last night, I brought you Katherine Lane's report from Brownwood at 6PM via an IPhone. Those of us in the business are well aware that this is the direction our business is heading in. As a viewer, you are probably aware of it too, but I thought I'd bring it to your attention just in case you aren't. Why are we heading this way? Because it's cheap and easy. To get video back from a remote location (what we call "feeding") requires a signal between the station and the remote location. Locally, we do this with our live trucks, which operate using microwave signals. The trouble with this is range is limited. We can feed you video or a live report using one of our 3 microwave trucks (which have been referred to as ENG-9, ENG-32, and the Chase Lab in previous blog posts by Andrew) from about 20-30 miles away from the station. It all depends on where the hills, trees and buildings are. All of those things will block a signal. When you are in an area where no signal is possible, in the past, the only way to get a signal would be to use a satellite truck. We do not have one readily available in Abilene. If a big story breaks, we have access to one at our Lubbock sister station. Satellite time is VERY expensive. It costs $5 to $10 a minute depending on whose satellite you buy the time on. The average story requires at least 10 minutes...5 to feed video and 5 for a live shot. That's $100! It adds up fast. The advantage to satellite is you can get a signal from anywhere in the country, provided you have a view of the southern sky, which is where all the satellites are. And, any station in the country can pick up your signal if they need your video. In the age of new technologies, we have found ways to feed cheaper. The first way is via FTP over the Internet. FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol. Basically, we create a video file using a laptop and send it over the Internet. The drawback to this is it takes time. The file has to upload on the remote end, then download on the station end and be imported into our video system. The speed varies. The whole process generally takes at least 30-45 minutes. You need an Internet connection on both ends of at least 12-15Mbps to make it efficient. The average cable connection? 6-8Mbps. DSL is even slower. At about 20Mbs it becomes as efficient as feeding over microwave or satellite (which happens in real time). Connections that fast are far and few between. Oh...by the way...you have to be in a remote location with Internet access to make this happen...an air card, even at 3G speed, is WAY too slow. The quality of video sent via FTP on the air is generally the same as what I shoot in the field. Sometimes it degrades a bit depending on the type of compression used. Using FTP is free. So, while all this technology is being perfected, along comes the I-Phone and other "smart" phones. It works on the same principle...We shot the video using the phone's camera and sent it over the Internet using the phone's 3G network. This is MUCH faster, except the quality is not near as good. (the phone shoots low resolution video). The point of all this? You will be seeing a lot of lower quality video, not just on our station, but on stations across the country. News is becoming more and more URGENT and about what's happening RIGHT NOW. It is also more competitive. Technology gives us the tools to bring you the news faster and as it's happening. The technology will improve. Someday, you will not know the difference between cell phone video and that shot by a $3,000 camera. Until then, enjoy live news from places we couldn't have even dreamed of 10 years ago. If it hadn't been for the IPhone, you would not have seen any video from Brownwood until 10PM. And by the way, you can help us cover the news using this technology. See the "SHARE IT" section on bigcountryhompage.com to send us your pictures.