Raw, but c*nsored blabbing and blogging of a young journalista
and local news producer in Southern New England.
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Sunday, February 20, 2005

Okay, my bad: PVTV and CameraMan sted ParkerVision

Okay, I blew a lot of smoke without doing any research, in the the entry "On ParkerVision" (also read the comments).

ParkerVision no longer owns the PVTV and CameraMan automation systems. Thomson and GRASS VALLEY GROUP do!:

Built for cost-conscious news, broadcast and educational program production, Grass Valley PVTV systems let users get more content on air, more easily, with fewer personnel. They eliminate many human errors, improve production consistency, and can handle late-breaking and unexpected events -- all without sacrificing the look and feel of a broadcast or presentation.

Grass Valley Group has been an industry leader for decades when it comes to TV broadcast switchers -- the boards where a technical director pushes buttons and chooses what cameras and video effects go on the air. GVG has also offered video servers and video disk storage units. Grass Valley Group was once a unit of Tektronix, which has been an industry leader in oscilloscopes (waveform monitors -- which engineers use to adjust the quality of video) and hardware testing and measuring equipment.

I want to re-stress: I have never used PVTV or CameraMan but it has a bad reputation. So why am I spreading rumors? Because I don't like the trend behind the rumor.

I'm going to tone down some of the worst remarks I made in that entry. Is that right or wrong in the blogger's ethic book?

MORE PVTV LINKS: Google featured more links on "Who uses PVTV?" that kicked butt.

Webmurley.net's Bryan Murley blogs about a conference presentation Emerson College's Janet Kolodzy made about students using PVTV, ENPS and Avid Newscutter for newscasts. Murley brings up the very same thing I did: "what about those tiny stations that still don't use non-linear, which is where a lot of students will end up at first?"

In 2001, Video Systems magazine reported that ABC's network studios purchased PVTV automation for some breaking news coverage.

Some of the folks in Legal (a.k.a. "my conscience") worry about the fact that I singled out WTNH as a PVTV user. In 2002, Broadcast Engineering magazine reported that KBAK in Bakersfield installed PVTV, and has even used it for live non-news applications in studio. Broadcast Engineering also reported in 2001:

McGraw-Hill Broadcasting Group is also using a ParkerVision system, the PVTV Studio News 24 Plus!, for ABC Network affiliate stations in Denver, Indianapolis, San Diego and Bakersfield, CA.

Those stations are KMGH Denver, KGTV San Diego, WRTV Indianapolis and KERO Bakersfield, according to a Jacksonville Business Journal article from August 2001, which also has a daub of history about the ParkerVision company. This article also says WAWS and its UPN sister station in Jacksonville (owned by Clear Channel) are using PVTV. WWNY also has PVTV, according to Broadcast Engineering.

More from the Jax Biz Journal, who reported in 2001 that ParkerVision was hoping to start making money from its whopping investment:

NBC affiliate station KGET in Bakersfield, Calif., switched to the PVTV system early in 2000 and eliminated three camera operators, an audio operator, a technical director and a teleprompter operator from each of its newscasts.

"We do as good and clean a newscast as we ever did," News Director John Pilios said. "And we have the obvious benefits of reduced overhead."

Although detractors criticized PVTV for cutting jobs, some client stations use the freed-up staff to their advantage.

After implementing PVTV, WWTI in Watertown, N.Y., boosted its in-house production from 10 half-hour shows a week to 39 without adding staff. Stations keep all advertising revenue for in-house productions, rather than paying portions to networks or syndicates.

PV Notes reports ParkerVision has never made money from its juggernaut, selling it to Thomson/GVG. This Jacksonville Business Journal article echoes that, as of 2001: "The company, which went public in 1993, has never shown a profit."

That's got to be some kind of karma at work. No?

Labels: Originally published

... Scribbled by Bill T ... 2/20/2005 12:25:00 PM ... Email this entry ...
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