WCCO News may not be HD but they could be new media moguls
Not 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… HD!
Today I found out that while WCCO news may not be HD (yet) they do have a twitter account for breaking news stories. Ok, cool and good first step to getting my attention. Then I dig a bit deeper and find that not only do they have a Twitter account but they also have at least one N95-3 cameraphone that they are playing with.
WCCO is not sure how they are going to use it yet. Does one go for the Qik angle and stream breaking news directly from the phone? Should they walk the studio during a live broadcast and give a behind-the-scenes view of the show? Is there another angle that they can use the device for and really push the boundaries of new media? I don’t have an answer to these questions yet (mostly because they don’t know either) but I have a feeling that they will be doing something very cool, very soon.
My suggestion to WCCO News: do it all.
WCCO News isn’t known for getting the younger crowd but I think if they start to hit all of the new media markets they will slowly get there. I’m speaking as someone in the 18-30 year old demographic here. Go HD (don’t tell me it is expensive, I used to do R&D for HD studios far larger than yours, I know exactly how expensive it is, suck it up). Get on Twitter not only for breaking news but for other station personalities as well. Get on Facebook and MySpace for all of these personalities too. Have a nightly UStream.tv broadcast using something like the upcoming version of CamTwist that will allow you to cut between multiple cameras (one in the control room with ISO/IFB audio, one in the studio pointed backwards, one in the MCO, etc., etc.) Have Qik live streams that are linked to your Twitter account and bring these cameras out with you in the field. Bring us, your audience, in to the conversation. Make the news a community driven event again. Make your broadcast a social network in and of itself! Be innovators in Electronic News Gathering, push the envelope, force the other local stations to take notice. Heck, make CBS take notice. These technologies are incredibly inexpensive or in many cases free. All of them open you up to a whole new audience, some of which is even outside of Minnesota.
This is either going to be very exciting when WCCO starts to move forward, or they are going to get scared, back down and do something lame. Here’s hoping they just do it all.
Thanks for the encouragement and great ideas! Please keep them coming. Whatever we do… we will do it well.
-John
Great ideas, BenCredible. Let’s see some more of that stuff here too, yo.
Hey there Mr. Kohler, no calling me out on my own blog!
Yeah, Ben. When was the last time you actually used UStream yourself? Looks like months ago. Did you get scared?
See, now you were expecting me to say something like “oh well, last time I used UStream was months ago” but in reality the last time I used UStream.tv was for the STS-122 launch and for the entire flight. So yeah, not that long ago. With STS-123 launching in early March I should be streaming again soon. ;P
Ben – great post on WCCO. Can’t wait for John and his team to start Qikking
KGTV (ABC), KSWB (Fox), and KFMB (CBS) are broadcasting news in HD in San Diego where I live. KNSD is still in the process. KNSD is tied to KNBC in LA even though the station is in San Diego. As for WFTC and KMSP well who knows. Fox did Convert KTTV, KCOP, and WNYW to HD and they supposedly have a couple of other stations that went HD. KSWB isn’t owned by Fox btw. KMSP and WFTC will proably go HD but maybe in 2009 or 2010. Even WWOR the largest MNTV affiliate is going HD until early 2009.
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WCCO news is now 16:9 SD. They need to install some more equipment and they should have HD news up and running in Mid September. The Studio cameras are now HD. All they really need is updating the HD field reporting infrastructure which means they are going to have HD field reports. The final thing is the HD production switcher which will happen this May. The Field camera infrastructure will be worked on this Summer. KMSP is going to launch HD news very soon. In the next few weeks. KSTP will probably go HD this Summer. I expect KMSP to launch their HD news operation soon. Probably in the next few weeks.
Yeah, sounds like Alpha Video got the contract for KSTP. Means that KSTP, in my opinion, will probably have one of the coolest HD rigs around.