WCCO Good Question – Why don’t they broadcast in HD?
Jason DeRusha of WCCO has a nifty segment called “Good Question“. I thought it would be funny to give him a hard time and ask why WCCO broadcasts some shows in HD but won’t broadcast their news in HD. I didn’t expect an answer and I certainly didn’t expect WCCO to air any part of my question. To my surprise on 02/18/2008 on the 10:00pm news WCCO decided to explain exactly why they don’t broadcast their news in HD. Here is that segment:
WCCO 4 news Good Question Segment on HDTV
You may have noticed a few edits in that segment where I came in. That’s because my original question was a lot longer and clearly not designed to ever hit air. For fun here is the original I submitted to Jason in its entirety:
Original question for WCCO 4 News
Fun things I noticed:
- It looks like WCCO uses SlingBoxes as a confidence monitor to ensure that KCCO and KCCW are playing nice
- The shot as Jason watching me ask my question as he sits at his desk makes him look very Dr. Evil. I was expecting him to turn around and say “MWAAA HA HA HA HA HA HA”
- I submitted the segment in 720p h.264 HD and they decided to record it off the screen via a camera rather than bring it in to the NLE
- The VTRs look like DVCPRO decks, I would guess DVCPRO 25
- Even if KCCO and KCCW are not ready for HD today, so long as the metro area is ready it is possible to broadcast HD here then donconvert for the other markets
- If you look at my desk you can see a mixer which shows that yes, I actually do have wiring closets “in my house”
- While I am happy that Jason thinks I have the best looking home office ever, in fact that was my actual desk at the real office (with studio lights)
- WCCO’s segment was a blast! Cariann and I laughed all the way though. Well done guys, well done indeed!
Well done.
Shelby wins again.
[...] from BenCredible.com got his “Good Question” answered on WCCO’s “Good Question” segment with Jason [...]
Incidentally, KSTP e-mailed me today telling me they haven’t announced a launch date for HD News nor is there a target date. So the Hubbards won’t definitely beat us!
Haha! Nice going, never thought you’d actually make it on.
Absolutely priceless.
Jason, even though they won’t publicly announce their HD plans, and to be frank I have no idea if they actually do have something planned, I don’t believe for a moment that they are just sitting still. Hubbards (Sr. and Jr.) are big in to being first, first color cameras, first SNG and now they got beat by KARE at being first to HD. I doubt highly that they are sitting back and doing nothing, I suspect we’ll see some HD announcements shortly.
No insider info other than working for Hubbard many moons ago. While they have many properties, KSTP is their baby.
[...] that long ago I sent in my own Good Question to WCCO asking why they were not broadcasting their news in HD. The beautiful irony is that I send in that very question in, wait for it… [...]
WCCO is now airing news in 16:9 SD thanks to their new HD field cameras. WCCO is going to install a new HD production switcher sometime in May. During the Summer they will get their field reporting equipment updated. This will allow them to do HD field reports as well as HD studio reports. Then once thats done they should be ready for HD. They plan on having HD news in the 2nd half of September.
A bit funny as I was able to start streaming live HD content to the Internet before they were able to switch out their own studio. LAME!
I just wanted to say that I found your site via Goolge and I am glad I did. Keep up the good work and I will make sure to bookmark you for when I have more free time away from the books. Thanks again!