Big Green Light For The Gray Model

Since joining Gray Television from Pappas Telecasting three years ago, VP Technology Jim Ocon has set about overhauling the station group’s operations by making greater use of automation and replacing legacy proprietary hardware systems with more IP-friendly, open-format gear. Another part of Ocon’s streamlining strategy is to have the same system, and sometimes people, handle multiple jobs, such as using a single server to handle both news and spot playback under the supervision of news technical staff.

Ocon first implemented the new “Gray model” at WOWT Omaha, Neb., with an upgrade to HD news production and a retooled master control. He is now rolling it out across the group, which operates 36 stations in 30 markets and also oversees seven stations for Young Broadcasting as part of a management agreement. Upgrading to HD news in multiple markets is the big priority, as Ocon explains to TVNewsCheck Contributing Editor Glen Dickson in this interview, and Gray has the capital budget to do so after closing 2010 with record fourth-quarter financial results.

An edited transcript follows:

What does your technology budget look like this year? Are you up or down compared to 2010?

We’re remaining aggressive. We were investing even last year when things were looking bleak. But you’ve got to build for the future. So we actually managed to accelerate some of our HD rollouts, just because a lot more people have big TVs.

What are some of the big projects you’re doing this year? Or is it just a continuation of what you were doing last year?

Right now, we have eight or nine different [HD news] builds going out in various stages. I don’t want to say where, as we are in the competitive battles of getting HD launched in these markets. But we are rolling out quite a bit.

How many stations are currently producing HD news?

We have 36 stations, and close to half right now, are doing HD news. Most are doing widescreen if not HD. We do have a couple that are still standard-def analog [4:3], but we’re getting to those as well. It’s sort of this constant transformation. We’ve got at least half our stations that are well on their way to not only doing HD news, but they’re also completing the rest of the plant as well, the non-glamorous stuff such as changing out automation systems and things like that.

Are you doing HD acquisition in the field, or is that still standard-def for now?

At the minimum, we’ll do widescreen in the field. But we have four or five stations that are doing HD acquisition in the field, and that includes ENG shots as well. What we typically like to do is the studio control rooms first, then we take in 16:9 content to the newsroom. And then in the next phase, we go into the newsroom and give them new [field] cameras.

What about editing systems? Are you upgrading those too?

Yes, we’re looking at a lot of our legacy-based systems. We’re able to squeeze a lot out of them, because a lot of the systems that we bought even 10 years ago were widescreen capable. But because of the new workflows that we’ve initiated, we’re moving towards a lot more desktop-based editing systems and laptops in the field. I’m a big believer that the news happens outside the newsroom. I’d like to see smaller newsrooms, and more people in the field pushing content back to the station via FTP, hotspot or what have you.

Last year, you were rolling out a lot of Sony XDCAM, in smaller-format cameras like the EX-3’s at some stations. Have you continued to do that?

Yes, actually with the EX [EX1R handheld] cameras, we’ve gotten even more aggressive on that. We’re finding that the ratio of smaller to larger cameras is something that’s growing. We’re only allowing just a couple of the larger cameras with the bigger lenses, the [shoulder-mounted] EX 3’s, because we still need occasionally to get sports or some long shots. But most of the stuff that we do is interviews and close-up type stuff. In fact, one of our stations came back to me and offered to give back some of their newer, larger cameras for a larger number of smaller cameras because they’ve realized that not only is the quality the same — I mean, the viewers can’t tell — but the VJ’s, the photo journalists, like the smaller cameras.

What editing systems are you using on the laptops?

We have several out there, but lately we’ve been moving towards [Grass Valley] Edius. We use a lot of Edius, and I’m experimenting with Sony’s HDXchange system, with some other development work that I’ve done with Sony on automated ingest capabilities in the newsroom.

Is there a server you’re bringing this content to?

We’re using a Fibre Channel-ed, storage-area network from Facilis [the TerraBlock] that works in concert with the Harris Nexio playback server. So we set up watch folders on the Nexio, do a load-balance of the newsroom, and then drag the content in. We’re finding that this process is very robust, so we’re happy with that.

You have implemented a pretty broad rollout of the Ross OverDrive production automation system. How has that worked out?

Great. I have my stations fill out vendor report cards for all the vendors, like what you got in grade school, and I like to give the report cards once a year back to the CEOs of the companies. We’re finding that the Ross setup is getting A pluses and A minuses, and we’re pretty critical folks. Their support’s been impeccable. Ross OverDrive has been central to our HD rollout plans in the studios, and I can’t count how many we’ve put in. I think we’re up to maybe a dozen by now, and by the end of 2011, we’re going to have around 15 systems.

In the markets where you’ve put OverDrive already, have you reduced staff? That’s one of the common drivers for putting the system in.

Well, for the financial types, I think it might be a driver. For me, I’ll say unequivocally it’s never been about the body count; it’s about the quality of the news. I think that OverDrive gives you better quality. I would never have supported or recommended we buy OverDrive unless I thought the news would be a better product.

The body count is secondary to the product to me. But the answer to that is, yes, we’ve had some dramatic reductions in our staff with OverDrive. But also, it takes a lot of process and cultural shifts to get into that model. We refer to it as the new Gray model. It’s based off of the test station we put together in Omaha [WOWT], where we pretty much changed everything out and started from scratch.

What are you doing for graphics?

We’re using Vizrt, primarily because of the flexibility of something called Transition Logic [the Look-Ahead Transition Logic feature that simplifies transitions been graphic elements]. While Vizrt is a very capable system, it’s a bit to take in, I think, for smaller markets. But because of their philosophy towards open architecture, it’s allowed us to be very flexible with it. Once you get people trained on it, the looks that it gives you and the capabilities you have from a brand-name, revenue standpoint are very dramatic.

What exactly are you doing on the master control side of the house, and is that concurrent with news?

I’m eliminating master controls, essentially. And that’s a sacrilegious thing to say. Now, you may hear from another city, you can’t do that here because we have a helicopter. But I don’t subscribe to that notion. I think there’s a lot of waste that goes on in larger markets because of the culture. What I will tell you is that you have to embrace automation, and Gray is pretty much using the news technical folks to also provide commercial playback, to baby-sit the automation. But we want them to focus on the news. We’re not trying to make them master-control operators. We’re just combining the two.

Are you doing any hubbing?

We use the traffic hub, but we don’t do any centralcasting. I think centralcasting makes sense financially if you don’t do the news. If you’re doing the news, then why not set the automation up close by where the studio production is and have them take care of it for you?

Are you upgrading the playout gear, such as your commercial playback servers to handle HD spots and syndicated content?

In limited cases, we’re doing some upgrades. But we’re finding that it’s better to kind of start over, and to provide one “bit-bucket” with some redundancy. And that one-bit bucket serves both the requirements of news playback and commercial automation.

And what is that bit-bucket?

We’re using mostly Harris Nexio and some Omneon.

And is it Harris automation?

In a lot of cases, yes. We’re a large group, so we’ve got several automation systems out there. But we’ve been trending towards [Harris] ADC automation. We do have a smattering of Florical, Sundance, and there might be a couple others out there.

My main push is to standardize Gray’s TV technology. I’ve been with Gray about three years, and so this is akin to turning an aircraft carrier. But we’ve managed to get a fairly decent group of stations pretty much on the same page when it comes to ingest, both for news and for commercials, and then the playout systems themselves. And we’re finding that’s helping us accelerate our deployment at other stations, because we’re now working from the same playbook.

Where do you stand on mobile DTV? I know WOWT went up relatively early with mobile DTV broadcasts. Do you have any other stations on the air now, and what’s the plan for the rest of the year?

We have three stations on the air with mobile signals. We have a VHF in Lincoln, Neb., KOLN, which is a CBS affiliate; WOWT, which is an NBC affiliate; and then we have another CBS affiliate we just launched a few weeks ago in Colorado Springs, KKTV, which is interesting because it’s a million-watt signal on top of a tall mountain with UHF circular [polarization]. So the signal coverage is amazing.

I think that it’s time for stronger language from the broadcast community [on mobile DTV], especially in light of the spectrum-repacking issues that are going on. Technically, and speaking for the OMVC, we’ve proven the technology. It definitely works. I’m reticent to say that I’m disappointed that you have groups like the Mobile Content Venture forming their group within our community, and then you have the Mobile 500 [of which Gray is a member]. I don’t think it serves our best interest to divide. I think that the cell phone companies are more than happy to see that.

The technology works. I’m anxious to see devices with the chip embedded. If we see the devices out, we will be very aggressive with our mobile rollout. We’ve done our part in testing, improving and showing that we want to be a part of this. But I can’t put up any more mobile signals unless we get some devices out there. It’s kind of the chicken or the egg. But obviously, we have very strong opinions about mobile, and we see this as the future. Especially UHF — not VHF.

How has the VHF signal worked for mobile DTV in Lincoln?

Terrible. Now, if we raise the power, there are some things I think we can make work. But if you’re asking people to switch between UHF and VHF, I think that’s getting difficult for the end user. I won’t go as far as to say that VHF will never work. I’ll say that things like smart antennas and the technology needs to evolve a little better for VHF. We’re finding that the performance that we’re getting with our digital signals on VHF has been lackluster. And we’re sort of between a rock and a hard spot. The simple answer is, we’ll just raise your power. Well, the problem is we can’t raise our power in a lot of cases because of adjacent [channel] interference issues with other markets. So we cannot raise our power without going into that. That goes to the FCC. If the FCC wants to move us to VHF, then they’re in for a battle.

Have you switched assignments at all in any markets since the digital transition in 2009?

Yes, we’ve done at least two, and asked for a few more. We switched out WKYT in Lexington to a UHF signal, as well as KKTV, primarily because of a lack of performance on the new assigned VHF channel. But it’s come at huge expense to us. You know, it’s not cheap to buy a new transmitter and a new antenna, and maybe modify your building. It can run into millions of dollars.

And obviously, that station’s electric bill goes up significantly, too, right?

It does, but there are a lot of people that are wasting money. I mean, VHF may be less expensive to operate, but if no one’s watching you, then you’re wasting the money. I was always a strong proponent for UHF with 8-VSB [conventional DTV]. Forget about mobile. And I’ve got personal experience. We’ve got stations that were begging to go back to their temporarily assigned digital U that was lower power, because people weren’t complaining on the low power. They could see them. But then, we went to the full-powered V, and guess what happened. The shit hit the fan. And I’m convinced that we’ve had a lot of viewer apathy in the VHF markets where they just plain give up trying to get you.

We’ve really doubled and even quadrupled our efforts to reach out to viewers, and help them with their antennas, and do anything that we can to make sure they’re able to receive our programming. We’re having almost no issues with the UHF signal. It’s the Vs I’m having trouble with.

It sounds like you’re pretty far along with your master control and HD news upgrades. Any other new technologies you’ll be exploring at NAB?

I would say probably the cellular-ization of ENG. I think that’s going to be a hot item this year. Everybody’s got a box that can connect to a cell tower to get video back to the newsroom. I’m looking for that, and I’m also looking for ways to tie in a closer relationship between our production automation and our newsroom systems when it comes to publishing to the Web. And I think that the legacy companies out there had better watch out. There’s going to be some product development that will come from outside of the two main newsroom systems out there that everybody likes to talk about.

I’ll also be looking at the capabilities of smaller cameras — I’m looking for cameras to have streaming outputs now as opposed to having baseband video come out of cameras. I’ll say a bold thing. I think that baseband video plants are going to go away. I think you’re going to be all-IP here very soon. That includes the switchers, even though you get a few gasps across the spectrum: ‘Oh, you can’t do that! That’s not going to work!’ But again, the areas I’m going to be focusing on are ways to get rid of my live trucks completely.

When you talk about streaming cameras, I assume you’re talking onboard encoding. What sort of format would you like to see come out of the cameras?

Hopefully, open format. While the capture folks, the Sonys and Panasonics of the world, want to start off with their codec, from a transport basis I’m looking to not have to flip and reflip video. And I want to try to move us towards open standards as best as possible; MPEG-4, advanced video coding, things of this nature. I don’t think it’s that difficult to load in a Windows Media encoder, which is free. Why not have Windows Media? I want to see an RJ45 connector on a camera, not just an SDI connector. I want both. I definitely want to see cameras that have a connector that allows me to go directly to an Ethernet switch. Makes sense, don’t it?

Are you using any IP newsgathering tools today? Do you use things like Streambox?

We’re experimenting with a couple of them out there. You’ve got guys like Streambox, TVU, LiveU and I think there are going to be others that are coming out of the woodwork, guys that are going to provide backpack solutions and that are news friendly.

What sense are you getting from vendors about how the market’s faring this year compared to last year?

Well, I think we’re kind of bouncing along the bottom. Political [advertising] has been really good for us, and I think we’re starting to see some uptick. I mean, we’ve had a good earnings call lately, but we’re not letting our guard down. We want to continue to lower our operational costs. In the economy this year, we’re seeing a lot of positive signs, but I don’t think we’re out of the woods by any stretch of the imagination.

Read the other stories in our Capex 2011 series here.