Christopher Cormier

MPH prototype based on LG Voyager

With the onset of the digital television transition it was established that the ATSC standard as it stood was not very forgiving for vehicles in motion. This limited audiences to fixed locations, a big setback from the more forgiving old analog broadcast.

Several contenders tried to fix this shortcoming with the idea of bringing over-the-air broadcasts to smaller handsets including cell phones. The service that seems to have come out on top is called MPH, which stands for Mobile Personal Handheld. MPH is poised to be serious competition for VCast, as well as the other subscription-based mobile TV providers. The MPH service provides free over-the-air broadcasts originating from the same broadcasters who have always provided free TV. The MPH carrier is multiplexed into a broadcaster’s existing ATSC carrier using the Hughes MPH encoder and mux and is a joint venture between LG and Harris.

WRAL, in Raleigh, NC, was one of the first test sites for the MPH service and the only broadcaster currently transmitting the MPH service in the area at the moment. Before NAB this year, WRAL performed demonstrations of its more practical uses by installing a system using the MPH service aboard a Raleigh city bus.

I recently received the latest prototype handset. Based on the existing LG Voyager flip handset this is a vast improvement on earlier designs. I took the handset home to Durham to test its range and performance. The one thing that stood out was how much faster the unit acquired our carrier. From Power ON to TV watching was typically within 15 seconds and starting the TV app was usually just a second or two to get to the program guide which would list the available stations and a few more to acquire and buffer the station you choose. The one upsetting change has been that there is no reliable reception with the antenna retracted.

Heading out to Durham I didn’t experience any drop outs until I reached the I-40/147 interchange which is ripe with terrestrial interference and often affects my Sirius radio as well. However, there was no need to fully extend the antenna until I was deep in Durham. I experienced strong service well into Durham despite being over 30 miles from the transmitter as the crow flies. The reception became a bit spotty inside regardless of the antenna position. The handset seemed to get much better reception in all cases when the antenna was oriented vertically as opposed to horizontally. On the way back into Raleigh the next day I experienced occasional drop outs as I headed towards the transmitter, which seems to corroborate a known issue with Doppler shift. I think a little buffering is likely to cure that (I know, easy to say, a little harder to implement.)

I am rarely an early adopter of technology but I really am encouraged by this prototype and I’m seriously looking forward to the first commercial releases.

It’s FINALLY here!!! Months overdue in my humble opinion…

If you receive any US television station over the air, and you don’t have an ATSC compatible television or converter box after tomorrow I assure you that you will be staring at static. Not just from WRAL but EVERY station. If you receive all your programming from cable, DirectTV, Dish, ATT or some other means than this doesn’t affect you.

If you are already prepared for the transition, you aren’t out of the water yet. You may have to turn off or rescan your TV or converter box in order to receive the new channels as each station moves to their new frequencies.

Why? Well in order to release the frequencies the government plans on re-purposing for public safety it was required to play an elaborate game of musical chairs. For example, WRAL which now broadcasts on Channel 5 and Channel 53, tomorrow at 1PM WRAL will turn off its Channel 5 analog transmitter and move its digital carrier from Channel 53 to Channel 48. At this time you will have to rescan in order to see WRAL at its new home.

WRAL waited until the last day to give people as much time and information as possible to take the appropriate action. Several stations have already turned off their analog carrier, mostly to save the thousands of dollars of electricity it takes to run two transmitters. This doesn’t mean that they won’t be moving frequencies, if you seem to be missing channels the best advice is to RESCAN!

Here’s a general guide to rescanning from our resident converter box guru, Tyler.

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How do I rescan/reprogram channels?

All converter boxes and HDTV’s are different in terms of rescanning procedures. The following is a general guide, but the steps or the terminology may be different for your device:

1) Press the “Menu” button on your converter box, converter box remote, HDTV, or HDTV remote

2) Go to “Setup” or “Settings”

3) Go to “Installation” or “System” or “Channels”

4) Go to “Scan channels”, “Program channels”, “Autoscan”, “Autoprogram”, or “Autotuning”

5) Press “Select” or “Enter” or “OK” to start the scan

Note: Typically, you will need to press the right arrow button or “Select”, “Enter”, or “OK” to choose an option. The up/down and left/right arrow buttons or the up/down channel and volume buttons should move you through the menu choices.

Note: As a precaution it might be a good idea to rescan again on June 13 in case some stations had interference issues in the process of transitioning.

Have Fun!!!

We put the new(ish) CBS rack from Chicago online today. I’m happy to say it seems to have solved the horrible 5.1 drop outs that we’ve been getting using the CBS prescribed Harris Net300/Dolby DP572 configuration (crossing fingers).

Even kicking a 5M antenna we were still occasionally getting audio drops from that insane 9/10 FEC. Sure you can mash 80Mb/s down a single transponder but at what cost quality, not ever station can benefit from the little brain trust we got stashed away here. Seriously, by the time we wrap it in ATSC the absolute BEST bitrate (which no one would be stupid enough to use OTA) would be 32Mb/s. Where do you think the rest of that information is going???

FLUSHHHHH!!!

Apple Issues… Editing movies for air we encode 10bit uncompressed into Final Cut to maintain the integrity of the CC. Editors need to Send to Tape using the Input Passthrough in order to maintain the CC on output.

Terry Kirk is bringing the 5 meter transportables up here tomorrow, trying to outrun the hurricane. The dishes will go out to WILM when they finish the yard. The fiber mux’s are still about 2 weeks out.

Still haven’t heard from Telestream on a FlipFactory visit. This will be the path for HD commercials.

Doing backups of archived stories from the BitCentral system to Overland tape back up drive.

Setting up Flipfactory to flip SD and HD commercials from DG Systems distribution to the Omneon servers. Eventually the plan is to flip VYVX, Pathfire and the other IP based media distribution through Flipfactory to cut out the need to dump anything to tape.

A few weeks ago I stopped by our baby sister station WILM. If you ever thought that a TV station needed some sprawling campus to transmit, this place would change your mind. These studios are located in a tiny strip mall in the suburbs of Wilmington, NC.

Wilmington, NC was selected by the FCC to be a test market for the upcoming shutdown of standard analog television service in advance of the official February 17, 2009 shutdown date.

As it stands now, WILM doesn’t broadcast ATSC but we hope to get them online in the next few weeks.

Priced out a new Mac Pro for the graphics guy. Two quotes, Apple Ent and a local outfit. The local Mac joint was nearly $1000 cheaper, same warranty. We may look to these guys for stewardship while I upgrade all the Macs to Leopard. Why the upgrade? Primarily so the editors can check email. Leopard supports MS Mail Exchange.

Worked on the Automation triggers for the Fayetteville repeater. Trying to consolidate pre and post delay GPI’s so the MCO’s only Currently we run 3 automation lists locally. I don’t know if I could count all the ways and formats signal gets out of here.

While I’m sure most people are dreading Feb 17, 2009, all I know is we get to turn off half this plant that day. Will we maintain Standard Def for cable? I don’t think so.

The dishes for the CBS netfeeds for WILM should be in this week, still waiting on word regarding the fiber mux’s. We are less than a month away from Wilmington’s analog switch. I don’t know how well prepared the other Wilmington stations are, I just know we are behind the 8 ball.

It’s Sunday, another 12 hour overnight shift.

The ATS board is here however the electricians don’t seem to have the same sense of urgency that we do and the part isn’t an exact match so there may be a need for support, so we are going to have to wait until Monday at 0207 when regular programming ends to do this swap.

I’ll stop by and see how the swap goes even though I’m off.

Testing Blog

Generator Issues. Might be scheduling some overnight shifts.

I put a few more computers on the network monitor.

I’ve started work as a Maintenance Engineer II at WRAL.

I don’t know exactly what the difference between a Maintenance Engineer I and a Maintenance Engineer II is other than the fact that WRAL doesn’t have a Maintenance Engineer I.

WRAL was the first Television station in the US to broadcast in HD.