Cox’s WFTV Orlando is at the cutting edge of field transmission, using streaming cameras on vehicles that can be remotely controlled by a tech back at the station and transmitting over a 4G link. As more stations want that kind of capability, vendors are responding with bonded cellular and other wireless gear to improve efficiencies and connectivity and are working to include high-speed 5G wireless technology.

The Federal Trade Commission on Tuesday announced that it would be launching a new task force dedicated to “free and fair competition” in the world of tech. The 17-lawyer team will investigate anticompetitive behavior in the tech sphere, according to the regulator, and will review tech mergers past and present.

Companies, selected based on their potential to revolutionize the industry, will be featured alongside select Sprockit alumni on the NAB Show floor in April.

The FAA has issued a new set of rules requiring all unmanned aircraft systems (or drones) to display official registration numbers on the outside of the aircraft. Previously, registered drone’s unique identifier could be stored inside the device in an easily accessible area such as in the battery compartment so long as it was “readable and legible upon close visual inspection.”

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai signaled Friday that the FCC is preparing to start accepting next-gen TV (ATSC 3.0) license applications and that the Media Bureau is even now working on an order to wrap up some open issues, including the local simulcasting requirement for stations without a viable partner, and a second order to resolve various petitions for reconsideration (filed by cable operators).

In addition to technology and expertise, the acquisition brings 200-plus new broadcast and magazine clients to TownNews.

The recipients of TVNewsCheck’s inaugural Women in Technology Futurist Awards — the TVB’s Abby Auerbach and LG and ATSC’s Madeleine Noland — epitomize the quality of taking a long-range view of where the television industry should be moving and figuring out how to get it there.

A new report from The Women’s Media Center comprising 94 studies details the shape and scope of women’s participation in every part of news, entertainment and digital media and finds it is significantly smaller than that of men.

The 10,000th flight occurred on Jan. 30, part of an assignment for a news report for WPMI Mobile, Ala. The drone was commanded by Robby Hughes from Sinclair’s WEAR Pensacola, Fla., with visual observer Jan Czernik stationed in Mobile.

The NBC O&Os are making audience inroads on platforms where many other station groups have feared to tread. Digital chief Lora Dennis says early moves on Instagram’s IGTV and voice platforms like Amazon and Google have been promising, and bilingual digital collaborations with its Telemundo stations are also proliferating.

Broadcasters are telling the FCC its proposal to open up the 6 GHz spectrum for unlicensed wireless is not ready for prime time, and may never be. Broadcasters use the band for auxiliary (BAS) operations and NAB says the FCC’s proposed interference protections — limiting it to lower-power, indoor operations — miss the mark, particularly since some camera transmitters used to relay footage back to stations also operate indoors and at low power, so they would be in the interference line of fire even with those limitations on unlicensed devices.

WAVY, Nexstar’s NBC affiliate in Portsmouth, Va., is in the fortunate position of having its own news helicopter on the premises as well as a drone. But deciding when to use either is a fine art. “So we see what fits best, the drone or the helicopter, and some days, we have them both out,” said Jeff Myers, WAVY’s news operations manager and chief photographer.

Grass Valley is selected by Canadian Broadcasting Corp. to provide technical systems for its new Maison de Radio-Canada broadcast center in Montreal, due to open in 2020.  It will handle more than 100 TV, radio and web channels.

Playout has taken a leading role in early IP deployments around the world. As master control technology providers work to transition customers, they are focused on providing platforms that can operate on premises, fully in the cloud or in hybrid set-ups.

Cox Television Tulsa is looking for a technical director. Lockwood’s  Knoxville Fox affiliate needs a technical director/producer. Boston’s WHDH is searching for a maintenance technician/engineering. To post a job on TVNewsCheck, click here.

The FCC has released its status report on the post-broadcast incentive auction TV station repack, which involves most of 1,000 full-powers and 2,000 low-powers in a 10-phase plan, and as FCC Chairman Ajit Pai signaled last week, the commission is ahead of schedule. It is also making available more money for the TV station transition.