For Election 2020, It’s IP In A Landslide

[kofi123]

Here's an interesting article sharing the perspectives of ABC, CBS, Fox News, Meredith, and Hearst about the methods they intend to use in backhauling live events related to the 2020 elections. Unsurprisingly, given trends over the past decade, the overwhelming majority of all feeds will use IP, but traditional DVB satellite will still be used for certain purposes.

TVN Tech | For Election 2020, It’s IP In A Landslide

Stations and broadcast networks alike are heavily turning to IP contribution to cover the presidential primaries this year as past contention problems have largely dissipated and cellular networks greatly improved. For some, however, dedicated fiber and satellite trucks will still play a key role.

tvnewscheck.com

 

[cpalmer2k]

This part of the story was pretty interesting: Hearst is unique in that it still has a dedicated Ku-band transponder that it uses to cover breaking news across the group.

Anyone know where that "dedicated" transponder is?

 

[comfortably_numb]

Anyone know where that "dedicated" transponder is?

Yep, it's on 89 Ku. My local Hearst ABC affiliate KMBC uses it all the time.

 

[N5XZS]

I have yet to find where KOAT-DT's raw feeds yet.

Must be on other birds or worse on ip fiber.

 

[N6BY]

TVN Tech | For Election 2020, It’s IP In A Landslide

Stations and broadcast networks alike are heavily turning to IP contribution to cover the presidential primaries this year as past contention problems have largely dissipated and cellular networks greatly improved. For some, however, dedicated fiber and satellite trucks will still play a key role.

tvnewscheck.com

I am very curious: What is a "fiber truck" as discussed in the TVN Tech article? How can a truck out in the field use fiber optic cable?

 

[harshness]

How can a truck out in the field use fiber optic cable?

Many venues that live cast their events have a fiber connection to the Internet. You just have to plug in.

 

[comfortably_numb]

The article also mentions that Fox's Ku feeds will be switching to HEVC soon. I wonder if that means the feeds on 99 will go to H.265?

 

[N5XZS]

I was thinking about HEVC feeds on 99W* and other birds for news feeds too.

For some reason HEVC's codecs is easier to lock in depending on SNR or heavy traffic on the birds.

I noted that on 65W* is loaded with HEVC and it's very weak signal coming in New Mexico at upper 20 to 30% and still able to locked in with good pictures.

Of course the they have technical problems on their part from somewhere in Caribbean.

That's about what I see HEVC looks like in real signal environment even though it's a wideband signal carrier.

We shall see what ENG narrowband HEVC's looks like and hopefully easier to lock in.

 

[harshness]

For some reason HEVC's codecs is easier to lock in depending on SNR or heavy traffic on the birds.

As HEVC is a CODEC rather than a modulation scheme, it shouldn't make a whole lot of difference reception-wise.

I reason that it is possible that they're spending some of the bandwidth savings on more FEC, but what's on the carrier shouldn't significantly impact the ability to capture the carrier.

Forcing those to deliver the programming to transcode seems like bad policy.