HD studio newscasts are slowly being unveiled by stations across America. Some of these same stations are using HD to cover local special events. In San Francisco, for example, KTVU recently shot the annual Chinese New Year’s Parade in HD.
“We did it all live, and frankly it looked very pretty,” said KTVU news director Ed Chapuis.
However, when it comes to day-to-day ENG, KTVU is still using Panasonic SD P2 camcorders. “A month before we launched our HD newscasts, we started converting all of our P2 camcorders to shoot in 16:9 wide aspect SD,” said Chapuis. “That’s what we are shooting in today.”
KTVU isn’t the only station to stick with SD ENG. In the Dallas/Fort Worth, TX, area, WFAA continues to shoot SD ENG using Sony DV and Beta SX tape formats, with the footage being upconverted to HD prior to broadcast. “The 16:9 SD ENG footage looks really good on air,” said WFAA president and general manager Kathy Clements.
WFTV in Orlando, FL, is also shooting SD ENG, even though the newsroom has Sony HVR-Z1U HDV camcorders in its arsenal. “In the field, we’ve been doing 16:9 SD with some limited stories being shot in HD for sweeps, specials and some promotions,” said Dave Sirak, WFTV’s manager of news operations. “The 16:9 SD stands up well on air.”
RESISTANCE IS...FRUGAL?
Why are these stations and others sticking to SD ENG, even though their studio newscasts are already in HD? The short answer is money: Having spent millions to upgrade to DTV within the FCC’s tight schedule—with no additional ad revenues to offset the expense—broadcasters are looking to save where they can.
“It’s the cost that holds us back,” said Clements. “We’ll slowly migrate to HD ENG over time, but we have to do this in affordable phases.”
“Why aren’t we shooting HD in the field? It’s a cost issue,” echoed Peter Diaz, He’s president and general manager of Houston’s KHOU, a station that has not only moved to HD newscasts, but has installed an HD camera in its news helicopter. (So has WFAA.) “Besides, the 16:9 video being shot on our SD ENG camcorders looks pretty good, frankly, and I don’t think that most people really know whether they are seeing HD or 16:9 SD on their HDTVs when they see it.”
Today, you can buy a 3-CCD 1080i HDV camcorder for under $6,000. Compared to previous generations of Betacam analog camcorders, models like Sony’s Z1 are almost criminally inexpensive. So why are broadcasters balking at buying low-cost and higher-end HD ENG units?
The answer is that there’s much more to producing HD ENG than just shooting HD video. These days, ENG crews typically tote along laptop computers loaded with NLE software, so they can edit their stories while still in the field. From there, stories are uplinked back to the station in ready-to-air form.
Not only does this approach reduce lineups at the station’s own edit suites, but it ensures that stories are produced as soon as possible. It’s a big improvement from the old days of ENG, where reporters would have to fight distance, traffic or both before they could begin editing tape back at headquarters.
Ironically, it is precisely this infrastructure that is posing the biggest roadblock to HD ENG. Devised for analog, the current system has worked because SD files can be easily edited on laptops, and will fit within the microwave spectrum (using existing transmission equipment) that was established in the analog 20th century.
The same is not true for HD: Like a supertanker that is too big to fit through the Panama Canal, HD files ask too much of the existing system. (Yes, technically you could use HDV, but there are integration issues with microwave equipment.)
“There are a number of issues that broadcasters have to resolve before switching to HD ENG,” explained Sirak. “First, what format should you shoot in, HDV or something less compressed with better resolution? Second, can you edit HD ENG footage in the field using laptop computers? Third, how are you going to transport the HD stories from the field to the station?”
“At KTVU, we have seven microwave receive points that we employ to receive ENG video,” said Chapuis. “Switching to HD footage would force us to upgrade all of them. That’s a very expensive proposition.”
There is also the issue of data storage. A minute of HD footage shot at 100 Mbps takes up about 1 GB worth of space on a Panasonic P2 memory card. “This means that five P2 cards can only hold 30-40 minutes of HD video,” said Sirak. “The file size is just huge.”
Taken as a whole, upgrading to HD ENG involves far more than just replacing camcorders. This is why broadcasters are hesitating to make this move, especially when 16:9 SD video passes muster with viewers.
“We get a lot of feedback from Texans about our HDTV newscast, because Texans love to talk,” laughed Dave Muscari, WFAA’s vice president of product development. “So far there has not been any groundswell of people complaining about our SD ENG video. Frankly, I doubt they even notice the difference between it and our in-studio video.”
LOOKING FORWARD
Having stated their support for SD ENG, broadcasters are quick to say that HD ENG will arrive some day. “It’s just a matter of time,” said Diaz.
Broadcasters are resisting HD ENG because of the overwhelming financial and technical challenges of making such a switch, rather than any real devotion to SD ENG. After all, if they liked it so much, they wouldn’t be shooting special events in HD.
The day will come when HD ENG is a fact of broadcast life, just as primetime HD programming is today. In fact, Detroit’s WXYZ-TV recently purchased five JVC GY-HD250U HD camcorders for just this purpose. Sources at the station say they still haven’t decided when or even if to shoot HD ENG. (Currently, WXYZ is testing the JVC units for town hall meetings and using one for ENG in DV mode.)
When HD ENG’s tide turns into a torrent, don’t be surprised to hear broadcasters trumpet that their newscasts are “all-HD,” while talking trash about their competitors’ use of SD ENG. You read it here first.
James Careless covers the television industry. Contact him at jamesc@tjtdesign.com.
