You might not have noticed, but… we’re losin’ a lot o’ sleep over pleasing a bunch o’ dentists. Sheesh.

We’ll get to the dentists in a minute; but first, a story.

It’s a red-letter day around our place when an actual, real, live visitor gets walked through the studios—over the years, the number of civilians eager to watch the sausage being made has plummeted like an outdated holiday panettone off a grocery shelf. And I’m sure the antisocial nature of the technical staff hasn’t helped; who wouldn’t thrill to a detailed explanation of the PSIP protocol by a gassy, coffee-stained engineer?

This visitor, though, was a bright, older fellow… an engineer in his own right, although not attuned to TV. As I led him through room after room of the aging and/or obsolete equipment we all use (if it’s not already obsolete, it will be soon), I was yappin’ about the standards and formats we’d spooled-up over time—SD, HD720, HD1080i, 1080p30, 4K, HDR…

“And 3D?” the visitor added.

I laughed out loud. “Oh, that 3D nonsense,” I grunted. “Lucky that never went anywhere…”

TURNING INWARD

Not accustomed to self-examination—there are few mirrors in Mario’s world—I nonetheless found myself pondering my own kneejerk reaction some hours later, after copious doses of limoncello lubricated the thought processes. OK, so 3D was an awkward, kluge-y attempt at a theatrical novelty act; but I felt that the issue was bigger—it was about the bandwidth.

Now, I’ve used this space several times before to rant incoherently about this dichotomy of small versus big, regarding formats, screens, bandwidth… you name it. But for technologists worried about the future of over-the-air (OTA) TV—and there ain’t nobody left except us these days—this is the burning question: How can you possibly keep pace with algebraic leaps in next-great-invention bitrates?

I know, we’ve got our 6G-SDI and our IP infrastructure; but how many more times will we be able to pull the HEVC rabbit out of the hat… tighten down that compression valve until the bitstream trickles like a shopping mall water fountain? Our elected officials are auctioning spectrum out from under us, which made OTA 3D an even crazier thought—tie up multiple broadcast channels just to watch the snake pop out of the peanut brittle can? At the same time, I’m willin’ to bet that the brain trust at Japan’s NHK Laboratories, aghast at a mere 8K resolution, is putting the finishing touches on OTA 16K transmission.

I don’t know about the rest of youse, but my bandwidth budget is in the red.

LOOK TO THE FUTURE

Let’s pause for a brief (and rare) engineer-pat-on-the-back moment: Even though our original technology has mighty long whiskers, we were able to catch up and meet the OTT whiz kids on their own turf. We learned to send some content via RF, and push other content via cable, mobile and IP platforms… yay, us!

Now, it’s time to take it up a notch, and do what the non-technical types love so much: look at the consumers—our viewers—and see what they really want and need. What’s the one thing we’ve got that the whiz kids don’t got? It’s those towers! We may hate ‘em, we may love ‘em, but they’re the essence of what we are as broadcasters. To use their new-speak jargon, we’re hyperlocal.

We live and work in the communities and regions we serve, and we’ve got boots on the ground. There’s value in that. And until the day our beloved Commish sells out and allows one or two giant corporations to own us all—and to feed content from a single playout server—we’re independent, and we’re diverse. Some of us drawl like rednecks, some have that Cali chill goin’, and others of us sound like a table read for a Sopranos episode (who you thinkin’ bout?). We’ve got texture… local color… and a viewpoint that people wanna hear. Why aren’t we cashing in on that?

And here’s something no one can argue with: our next-gen audience doesn’t seem to give a hoot about high-bitrate streams, HDR and 4K… most of them are content to squint at their wireless devices. Sixty-five-inch 4K screen for $2,000? That’s for the dentists! Back in the days when high-end audio equipment took off, the term “audiophile” was synonymous with “rich guy”—cash to spare. Dentists. Today, the bleeding-edge video gear and high-bitrate services play to the same audience.

As broadcasters, we’re saddled with a pretty skinny bitbudget; but that doesn’t figure into what we really do best. Armed with ATSC 3.0, more modest pricing on production gear, and a love of community, we can make limoncello from the lemons we’re dealt, and keep on pumpin’ our stories into the ether.

Mario Orazio can be reached attvtech@nbmedia.com.

You might not have noticed, but… some things ain’t worth protectin’.

Now, I’m not talkin’ about your sister’s honor, or about the protection my cousin pays for running that mozzarella store downtown. I’m talkin’ about the kind of protection that really gets under my skin: wasted effort, extra work and a nonstop stream of ugly.

I’m done protectin’ 4-by-3.

Now, I’m as nostalgic as the next guy… probably more so, considering all the museum-grade circuitry stuffed into my apartment. But these days, whether shooting, editing or packaging shows for distribution, the extra work required to keep the legacy SDTV zone “safe,” and the rampant creative compromises that result, are enough to make me blow a fuse.

When will we admit 16:9 is the law of the land, and stop protecting 4:3?

BRIDGE TO NOWHERE

Transitions are hard, I know. The NTSC transition from black and white to color, intended to protect legacy TV owners, was a messy affair, commercially and technically—and one that wasn’t ever really solved until the final analog carrier dropped on June 12, 2009. Of course, at that time, high def and 16:9 flat screen receivers were already well-entrenched… a majority of U.S. homes had opened their pocketbooks and moved on up.

But a majority ain’t everybody, and since then, we’ve helped smooth the transition, so they tell me, by pushing the “important” content to the center of the screen, and pretending the rest of our newfound real estate doesn’t exist. Station bugs magically appear near the middle of screen. Talk show sets are built extra-wide so panelists number 1 and 5 aren’t chopped off on legacy CRTs. We’ve tried our darndest to accommodate.

And now… enough is enough.

BY THE NUMBERS

A centercut-safe template, reprinted with permission from Aberdeen Broadcast services If you’re of the “no-viewer-left-behind” mentality, it’s time to climb down off that perch, too. We’re engineers and technologists, and evidenced-based data trumps all the warm-and-fuzzy you can muster. Sure, it’s possible to summon up a mental portrait of old Aunt Ethel and Uncle Al, out past the last cable drop, with nothing but digital hash on the screen of their mighty Magnavox. Touching? Perhaps. Realistic? Not in the least.

First, there’s the most unimpeachable source of data you’ll ever find… your ol’ Uncle Mario. For reasons I can’t properly explain, I’ve sat in the pre-dawn parking lot of a big-box store on Black Friday, and watched the great unwashed literally drag, without benefit of shopping cart, 50-inch flat screen TVs out the doors by the hundreds. In most cases, their new set was worth twice the value of the car that carried it home. And if the DTV transition was a solid investment in this socioeconomic stratum, you can bet there’s ongoing broad adoption.

Don’t trust my keen observations? Well, the good folks at the Leichtman Research Group have been tracking this sort of stuff since the DTV transition, and their numbers tell the tale. In 2010, a bit more than half of U.S. households had an HDTV; that number passed 80 percent by 2015, and continues to grow as prices drop. It’s done, baked. Stick a fork in it.

And there’s another factor, too. Even if Aunt Ethel had actually overcome her hatred of the government, and had sent away for their free DTV converter box, and if she’d sent Uncle Al up onto the farmhouse roof with a new DTV-optimized Yagi, she still couldn’t prevent the ravages of time. A gassy tube will let go one day, or that ol’ flyback’s gonna pop, and soon; and the Philco repairman don’t make house calls any more. Problem solved—even a pensioner can afford a new 40-inch flat screen.

EYES WIDE OPEN

So let’s get to it, and drop the blinders that keep significant action out of the periphery. Imagine an unfettered world where a person can walk on from the left edge of the screen… and walk off the right! Sheesh. Pure poetry.

Having put my stake in the ground, I hereby begin the next battle: to get the centercut provisions struck from the hundreds or thousands of production guides and tech-spec sheets in use at stations, networks and content delivery platforms. Put the bugs back in the corners, and let the DPs and camera operators put our wonderful widescreen world into the proper perspective.

Mario Orazio is the pseudonym of a well-known television engineer who wishes to remain anonymous. Email him atmorazio@nbmedia.com.

SOMEWHERE, TO BE SURE—Felicitazioni! The new year is about to begin; your equipment budget’s been planned, and now you’re stressed out about parting company with all that cash. Pretty pictures—that’s the mandate from production. Better choose wisely, or your salary gets used to rent the kind of gear you shoulda bought!

Fear not, my phobic friend, and take a tip from ol’ Uncle Mario: Don’t sweat the camera; go for the glass.

Face it… it’s almost 2016. There are plenty of great cameras with giant chips and more creature-features than a ’68 Caddy. Odds are, no matter what you buy, you’ll own something that beats the pants off 99 percent of all cameras ever made. You can’t go wrong, no matter what you buy.

But your new cine-super-camera-ultra-whizbang toy ain’t gonna look like much without some gorgeous glass. The lens, that last analog interface between photon and pixel, is the place where the magic happens, and it’s the wrong neighborhood for pinchin’ pennies.

LENSES IN THE LIMELIGHT
Readers over a certain age will recall a time before high definition when two technology curves crossed: the cost of high-end, standard-definition broadcast television cameras, and costs for the broadcast-optimized lenses that got stuck onto the fronts of these cameras. Ol’ Mario can see it as if it were yesterday… a price quote from Uncle Sony for a $24,000 Betacam head, attached to a second quote for a $25,000 lens. That was a bit of a flip for us. We were used to the fancy-pants camera head costing plenty, but the lens… isn’t that just an accessory?

Get with it, grandpa. They’re not accessories—they’re the stars of the show! And the venerable B4-mount lens, staple of the broadcast industry, is just one of the many optical performers you’ll need to own. Based on your business and your equipment locker, it’s fairly likely you need everything from old SLR lenses to cinema primes, manual zooms and beyond… way, way beyond.

Part of the challenge comes in selecting your kit, choosing the full complement of focal lengths required to cover any scene. You’ll do that while balancing a bunch o’ factors—think of ’em as “multipliers,” ’cause that’s what they do to the price list. Factors include basics like the prestige and cachet of a famous German or Japanese pedigree (gotta have the best, right?). How about a zoom that bridges several of those focal lengths, so you’re not swappin’ ’n’ droppin’ in the middle of the shoot?

Then there’s the question of mounting flanges and adapters, trying desperately to bridge all the proprietary mounts and quasi-standards around your shop, so that you don’t wind up with five matching sets, one for each flange.

THE “F” WITH NO STOPS
But the biggest black hole in which to throw money is the black hole in the center of the lens itself, the aperture. How fast is fast? How sensitive can a lens actually be? The number after the little “ƒ,” signifying the widest aperture on the lens, is the to-die-for statistic; lowest is best! Many a soul has pried open the gates of debtors’ prison in search of an ever-lower number… it’s that kind of obsession. A wonderful German 50mm prime, for instance, with an ƒ4.9 rating is relegated to bright daytime shooting, maybe nature films, while an off-brand Japanese lens of the same focal length, but sporting an ƒ1.6 rating, is treasured and revered above all others for moody, dingy, short-focus work. And the pricing follows suit.

After years of watching shooters mixing and matching oddball formats and focal lengths, premier lens designers have stepped into the fray with “gold standard” models. That means you need to own plenty of gold to purchase the standard model.

Fujinon 19-90 Cabrio lens

But what price perfection? Here’s a clue: Fujinon’s 19–90mm Cambrio lens boasts a molto bello ƒ2.9 aperture—impressive for a zoom—and a gorgeous nine-blade iris; and includes a detachable sidemount zoom servo, reminiscent of old-school TV lenses. The cost? About five times the price of Sony’s newest 4K cine cameras, or $42,000. And they come with lenses.

As my old compadre used to scold me, if you have to ask, you can’t afford it. And thanks to a recent boom in affordable lens rental businesses, you don’t necessarily have to… with a little forethought and planning, you can pick and choose the right set of lenses for a specific project without breaking the bank. And you’ll be makin’ pretty pictures, just like they told you, without dippin’ into next month’s salary.

Mario Orazio is the pseudonym of a well-known television engineer who wishes to remain anonymous. E-mail him or her atmorazio@nbmedia.com.