Live From the Scene, and in HD

Stations and networks want high-definition to hit the road.

High-definition satellite newsgathering (HD SNG) has been used by some networks to cover major news events, such as political conventions. For the most part, though, HD remotes have remained a novelty because of the extra bandwidth and expensive transmission gear they require.

That may be changing. HD encoding and decoding gear has become both cheaper and small enough to be integrated into the latest generation of compact news vans. News-truck builder Wolf Coach of Auburn, Mass., has built more than 20 HD-capable SNG trucks, most of them “Sprinter” models based on a small, light Dodge van and costing about $600,000.

“If you are going to build a truck today, it has to be HD,” says Thomas Jennings, director of broadcast sales for Wolf Coach. “We've designed a way to do high-def out of a Sprinter and keep the vehicles under 10,000 pounds.”

That is important, because an uplink truck with a gross vehicle weight of 9,990 pounds (Wolf Coach's vehicles are usually delivered to customers as much as 2,000 pounds lighter, to allow for additional equipment) doesn't require a commercial driver's license to operate it, nor does it need to be weighed in frequently, according to Department of Transportation regulations.

A true-HD SNG truck costs about $150,000 more than a standard-def unit, because of the HD wiring and monitoring infrastructure required, not the transmission gear itself, says Jennings.

Wolf Coach has built or is building two HD uplink trucks for ABC; two such trucks for NBC for use in NFL coverage; and HD-capable units for Hearst-Argyle's stations that will require only an encoder upgrade for them to go fully high-def.

The company is also building HD units for freelance truck operators that provide transmission services to major news organizations. Jennings says about 50% of freelance operators are “doing some form of HD.” Some vendors, such as Peak Uplink of New Castle, Colo., are investing in trucks that are capable of transmitting HD in both the C-band and Ku-band frequencies.

Jennings concedes that running HD SNG trucks is not always easy. “They are not all performing 100% all the time, and they are going through some growing pains,” he says. “It's more complex from an operator standpoint. It's not more complex from the equipment standpoint, but you're dealing with things like embedded audio and analog audio. And the interoperability between different brands is often a little laborious.”

Wolf Coach just completed building an HD Sprinter unit for freelance operator VideoLink. The Boston-based truck, which is nicknamed “Lobster,” is targeted to customers in the Northeast.

The unit is capable of simultaneously transmitting dual SD and HD feeds and is equipped with a wealth of the latest transmission and production gear. Included in the equipment are a 1.8-meter Vertex Antenna; Tiernan HE4000 encoders capable of HD and SD; Tiernan HD4040 HD/SD integrated receiver/decoders (for monitoring and return paths); MCL transmitters; a satellite phone; RTS and Telos communications systems; 2,000 feet of Telecast Viper fiber cabling; and Panasonic DVCPRO HD recording decks, in addition to standard-definition Sony Beta SP and SX decks.

“We're trying to bridge the gap between HD program transmission and HD newsgathering, a gap which seems to be more of an economic gap,” says VideoLink VP/General Manager Howard Miller.

The few morning news shows offered in HD, notably Good Morning America and Today, find it too expensive to insert HD remotes into their high-def studio programming, says Miller. So VideoLink is packaging an HD camera crew with the Lobster to try to offer a cost-effective turnkey service.

Network executives say HD satellite newsgathering is still relatively unproven ground. “HD satellite, we've done a little playing around on that,” says Matthew Braatz, regional VP of technology, NBC TV Stations. “HD satellite is a lot harder than SD, as you need so much more bandwidth. There is still a lot more experimenting to be done. HD takes a lot more work and a lot more tweaking.”

HD remotes for GMA have been “somewhat rare” since the show went to high-def a year ago this month, according to ABC VP of Telecommunications Rich Wolf.

Although ABC regularly uses third-party vendors like Video­Link for analog-feed operations, the network has preferred to contract directly with encoding vendors to set up HD links, mainly because of the complexity involved.

Nonetheless, ABC is encouraged that third-party uplink vendors like VideoLink are investing in HD gear. And Wolf says that the bandwidth required, although still higher than SD, may not be as onerous as many people think.

Whereas ABC typically uses the industry-standard “DS-3” rate of 45 megabits per second (Mbps) for high-definition links, says Wolf, “we have gone as low as 18 Mbps with acceptable HD quality for news feeds.