[quote="jwillis"]Then when 1 heavily compressed link can take down all the feeds - where 2 "normal" ones would have been enough for main output and a spare - where does the security of delivery go? When you link Olympics back a couple of commercial spots pay for all you need in terms of security and bandwidth, but if you try to drop the price of less important material which would never have paid the premium circuit costs anyway surely you trade off price against total failure and the balance moves towards total failure.[/quote] Once more fibre is layed though that isn't a problem at all. A 10gbit connection would be a truck load more then you would need for a small to mid size OB.

[quote="Curt"]The glass is half empty approach I admit, but if there aren't as many TD's traveling, more will be around w/ more availability. If these are in smaller markets...there may be a surplus of TD's anyway due to parkervision/ignite etc.. ( as Bob has mentioned in another post) Could mean less work out there potentially.[/quote] There is more crew then just TD's though. Your forgetting about VT, GFX, the Director and to a lesser extent Audio. I say lesser extent for audio because you would still need audio assistants at the venue but the rest wouldn't need to travel. You would only need CCU operators, Eng and the floor crew at the venue. Also the cost of the trucks would be massively reduced. But you are right it would mean less work is out there.

[quote="hosko"]If fibre is used then most of the issues sahonen has mentioned are somewhat negated. With two way fibre you can even have tally and return pictures sent back to the venue. I see it as the way of the future. Sure people talk about redundancy but some organisations don't have backup feeds of their actual program output at some OBs here so how much redundancy are you really losing? End of the day for a TD does it really make a difference? I can see it being advantageous, firstly you don't have to worry about loading up effects and clip animations they would be there from last week in the studio, you don't have to spend so much time on the road, you use the same equipment every week, you could do two matches in the one day if they were from different time zones.[/quote] The glass is half empty approach I admit, but if there aren't as many TD's traveling, more will be around w/ more availability. If these are in smaller markets...there may be a surplus of TD's anyway due to parkervision/ignite etc.. ( as Bob has mentioned in another post) Could mean less work out there potentially. just a thought. Curt

Yes, I do believe effects were mixed on site and there was a delay in video and tally's. One full transponder I think. What happens when VOIP catches up to the game? They might try multiplexing 12 HD signals over my Iphone 3g :) I'll have to change my name.

If fibre is used then most of the issues sahonen has mentioned are somewhat negated. With two way fibre you can even have tally and return pictures sent back to the venue. I see it as the way of the future. Sure people talk about redundancy but some organisations don't have backup feeds of their actual program output at some OBs here so how much redundancy are you really losing? End of the day for a TD does it really make a difference? I can see it being advantageous, firstly you don't have to worry about loading up effects and clip animations they would be there from last week in the studio, you don't have to spend so much time on the road, you use the same equipment every week, you could do two matches in the one day if they were from different time zones.

With MPEG-4 I can see 7 SD feeds fitting on a full satellite transponder and still looking pretty good, especially with statistical multiplexing. I don't think the college has fiber connectivity (didn't seem like the kind of place that would, last time I was there...) Difficulties I can see: If you want to interview players you still have to send a reporter out there. Or find some local college intern to do it. Also, the delay between the director calling for a shot and seeing it on his monitors back in Minneapolis, with the satellite delay, has to be excruciating, even if intercom is going over phones so the command gets through fairly instantly. Same thing coming back the other way, when the camera guy hears the director say "take" it's his footage from a second or so ago that's actually been taken. No tally lights, and return is delayed. Were effects being mixed on site with just the announcers being mixed in at the studio? It doesn't surprise me that FSN North is trying out inventive cost-cutting measures, they're having a pretty tough time right now... The terrible performance of the Timberwolves since they traded away all their good players combined with the state of the economy means ad time isn't getting sold. Last time I checked, the T-Wolves halftime show is going the entire time from the end of 1st half to the beginning of 2nd half with no commercials.

How much did they spend on sending those signals back? How much redundancy did they have for the system? Were the signals sent via fiber or satellite? As for graphics, when I started most shows did graphics back at the studio. Made life interesting when the talent was talking about something and the director had me put something different on air.