[quote="sahonen"]I'm sure people will start calling them by the Thomson-approved term when people stop [url=http://www.adobe.com/misc/trade.html#photoshop]using Photoshop as a verb[/url].[/quote] Too bad the inventors of velcro and the zipper didn't have Adobe?'s Legal Department? -Tom ?2006 All Rights Reserved

[quote="brad fisher"]Of course, the "switcher" must have been something basic like a cut-buss; it musn't be the Kalypso at fault, or they would have called it a "Video Production Center".[/quote] I'm sure people will start calling them by the Thomson-approved term when people stop [url=http://www.adobe.com/misc/trade.html#photoshop]using Photoshop as a verb[/url]. [quote="Mike Cumbo"]Stephan, you are thinking logically, stop that.[/quote] Oh shoot, I hate it when I do that, thanks for letting me know. I could've just kept on being logical and screwed something up. [quote]the EIC didn't realize that the router fed the switcher until he loaded a bad default setting.[/quote] Ouch, that would be a nasty suprise. Mobile TV Group did the right thing when they bought BAT 1 & 2 from Juntunen, they hired the EIC who ran the trucks under Juntunen and had him go over the wiring with the MTVG EICs who would be working those trucks. No suprises that way. I really feel for the guy there, too, he probably can't rewire because the truck's on the road so much. I'm in a control room now where I hate how the place is wired but I can't fix it because we use it so much.

Stephan, you are thinking logically, stop that. I used one of those trucks I was referring to in my earlier post last year. This truck had changed ownership and the EIC didn't realize that the router fed the switcher until he loaded a bad default setting. EVERYTHING except internally generated sources went away. OOPS. Lucky for us, this happened seven hours before game time, but it still showed what will eventually happen. I have heard the rationale behind using the router to feed the switcher was "gee we have this massive router, let's use it to it's fullest." Oh, we had a truck loose it's router maybe two months ago, lost 2/3 of the monitor wall and tape was crippled. At least the open was on the Fast Forward.

Of course, the "switcher" must have been something basic like a cut-buss; it musn't be the Kalypso at fault, or they would have called it a "Video Production Center".

[quote="sahonen"]It's a time like this when I wish print journalists were a bit more tech-savvy instead of printing stuff like "a 'switcher' in the station's computer froze." The quotes in the article talk about a switcher, but we can't be really sure.[/quote] That's probably the excuse they were fed by the station's marketing people when the print people called for comment.

Using the router to feed sources you use all the time like cameras, tape decks and graphics doesn't really make sense to me unless you're REALLY hard up for inputs on your switcher. Keep the essential stuff hard-wired and only use the router for things you could do without if it caught on fire. I worked at a station that used the router to feed microwave/satellite remotes, traffic cameras, and other things of that nature into the switcher, but if the router died they could monkey around a little in the patch bay and keep going (the routings generally did not change at all mid-show). Their master control switcher also talked to the router and could access any source in the facility, but the essential ones like network feeds, program playback and the control rooms were hard-wired. It's a time like this when I wish print journalists were a bit more tech-savvy instead of printing stuff like "a 'switcher' in the station's computer froze." The quotes in the article talk about a switcher, but we can't be really sure.

There are a few trucks still on the road where the router feeds the switcher. If the router dies, any source, other then anything internally generated in the swicther, dies as well. There is a client of mine that has eight or ten inputs to the Kalypso and audio board fed from the router. This always a bit of flexibility but the entire control room isn't at the mercy of the router. There are some master switchers that basically are extensions of the router. The sources are fed via router. If that usually reliable box takes a serious dump, good luck to all.

[quote="Mike Cumbo"]I once worked in a place where the CE thought that patch bays were unreliable[/quote] It's true, last night my patch bay went down and took me off the air. Had to reboot it and reinstall the software. Slightly more seriously, it's probably more likely that a component will fail in the director than in the patch bay, since a director has many more moving parts and generally isn't maintained as well. The only thing the director has going for him is the fact that he's had several million years of software revisions to work all the bugs out. [quote="Sean"]Last I checked out master control switchers (which is recently) they still all had that capacity.[/quote] I have to agree with you there. Since master control is a fairly entry-level position, though, perhaps the operator that day was pretty new and couldn't handle the change in routine? Or, the master control switcher I've worked with talked to the router to get the video sources it needed, maybe the router went down too (unlikely, but perhaps the same event that took out the switcher affected the router as well) so the master switcher couldn't get video sources without patching. I've managed to find a video online showing what they did manage to air: It sounds like they're having audio problems too, like they can only put one mic on the air at a time. Notice when a new person speaks they sound distant for a little bit (and you can hear more room noise as the compressor boosts the audio) then all of a sudden they cut in, like they're being heard from the other anchor's mic until someone manages to switch it over.

But still...what about master control? If "all" that was lost was Kalypso, that should mean that even if there is not access to studio mics in master control, you could still do video from master and split the audio to take production control. Last I checked out master control switchers (which is recently) they still all had that capacity. Heck, I bet many of the folks on this board at some point in their news days had to do just that. If we go back to the "I'm Bored - worst equipment failure on air" thread there's several examples of this sort of thing. Sean Kelly

I once worked in a place where the CE thought that patch bays were unreliable, yes he trusted his entire facility to a router. I wonder if this was the case here as well.

Matt, to answer your original question - WHDH is on a Kalypso...

On the plus side, at least the [url=http://media.spikedhumor.com/44363/wakeup.swf]teleprompter didn't go down[/url].

I'll bet you it was a ParkerVision system that crapped out. Lots of stations are talking about going the ParkerVision - Ignite - OverDrive route and it is scary. Having one person running everything during a newscast? It can be suicide.

If you read the first link, though, you find out that the station's GM was just trying to spin the situation as not being as bad as it really was. [quote="TFA"]Although Carson claims ``our coverage won the time period," the ratings show that the overall broadcast actually finished third, with WCVB-TV (Channel 5) nudging out CBS4 for the No. 1 spot, and Channel 7 trailing by about 35,000 households.[/quote] When all else fails, just lie, I guess. You can even get other publications to print your lies as the truth.

Published reports in the Boston Herald said, "Channel 7 still managed to stay on top of the ratings with 25- to 54-year-old viewers Wednesday night, as people tuned into MSNBC?s coverage of the Ramsey case." Typical. Reminds me of the night Monday Night Raw on WWF was still tops in ratings with nothing more than a trouble slate and QKT line the whole show.

My guess is that the issue's more complicated than just a switcher going down, because any engineer worth his salt should provide a way to keep things going without a switcher. Cut it on a router, cut it on the master control switcher, cut it on a 12x1 analog punch-panel, hot-plug sources in the patch bay, anything! If your station doesn't have a way to get around a single piece of equipment failing, no matter how important that piece of equipment is, you shouldn't be on the air. Maybe it's a Parkervision station and the PV computer died. Or perhaps the staff that day were just trained button-pushers who couldn't handle it if anything went wrong. Maybe the news packages came from a DDR that had to be rolled by a command from the switcher. Maybe all of the above.

I was wondering if they had a spare processor card and a current backup of their base setup? I mean a backup NOT on the switcher HD. Rick, judging by the issues the graphics people have, I am glad the switcher is as reliable as it is.

Not that this would have helped... who knows, but I wonder if they even thought of rebooting! Station switchers are ALWAYS on! As we all know, all of the newer switchers are computers and no matter how you look at it, they sometimes need to be rebooted! Maybe it was the blue screen of death ... then again, they should just make all the switchers run on OSX :D