Viewpoints: Pioneers
By Kevin Lovell / ABC-7 General Manager
Technological advancements make pioneers of us all.
When I started in TV in Amarillo in 1978, I mixed chemicals in a dark room to process 16 mm film which I spliced together for video during newscasts.
Then came the breakthrough of 3/4 inch video tape followed by Beta tape and DVC-Pro tape and now we shoot video on discs or even on internal hard drives.
Microwave live shots offer field crews the ability to deliver live remotes when within line of sight of the microwave receive site which in El Paso is on a tower high atop Ranger Peak. The use of satellite uplinks gives broadcasters the opportunity go live with a clean feed from anywhere in the world.
Satellite requires access to a clunky uplink truck and expensive rental of satellite time. But now, the Internet is presenting a Wild, Wild West opportunity for innovative broadcasters. Encoding and transcoding video for transport over IP systems provides a rugged new source for live reporting and video feeds. There may not be another TV station in the country that is as aggressive in presenting Broadband internet lives as KVIA.
Broadband internet live capability has allowed KVIA to go live outside the scene of a death row execution in Huntsville and major out-of-town El Paso high school and UTEP college sporting events. Last weekend, KVIA shakily put its best foot forward to present exclusive live shots and video from the Miss U.S.A. pageant in Las Vegas. It was rough going for Miss Texas and Miss New Mexico as neither survived the first round cut.
It was also rough in parts as reporter Jill Galus and photographer Miguel Mendez got their first exposure to the complicated and delicate adventure of trying to get an internet live shot on the air. We unfortunately had some lip sync and poor video quality issues.
But, we had some nice moments and we were there to bring our viewers unique content that would be cost prohibitive using traditional satellite uplinks. There?s still much to learn, more mistakes to be made. But I am absolutely committed to maximizing Broadband to provide out-of-town content of relevance to our viewers.
