DTV Transition Set for 12 noon

[contracteng]

From the FCC site

9/7/08
Wilmington North Carolina DTV Transition Set for 12 Noon Monday September 8
Following a Sunday morning telephone conference call with Wilmington North Carolina broadcasters the FCC has confirmed that the digital television transition in that TV market will take place as scheduled on Monday September 8 at 12 noon.

[Cameron]

It's the middle of hurricane season. The battery powered portable TVs in the hands of consumers are analog.
Anyone see the opportunity for an emergency analog STA if a hurricane swings through that area?
There's a 17.5kw LPTV/Translator that could stand to make some cash renting it's analog space to the highest bidder during the big wind.

[Arp2]

It's the middle of hurricane season. The battery powered portable TVs in the hands of consumers are analog.

Hey, Lester....

If the government starts handing out free digital handhelds, could you run down there, make up an address, and get me one? Thanks.




By the way, have we talked about antennas and I can't find it? I want an attractive set-top that'll get everything in a 150-mile circle from the first floor in an area low spot....ok, I'll settle for 100 miles.....


Seriously.

Anything commonly-available anybody can recommend? An omnidirectional for an attic? Amplified worth anything? I've been reading reviews, and people are acting like they're excited they're picking up stuff from a whopping 20 miles away.... ....rather disheartening......

[Clay JD Walker]

I'm going to tell you this one...I'm waiting for Directv to install the dish (Time Warner put the screws on me...long story)...they're coming Thursday, but, last week, I got my coupons for the converters, so I went ahead and bought the GE models at Target (59/each) plus a cheap pair of rabbit ears to outfit the butter knife TV (that would be the TV that Mother Theresa at The Planet gave me back in the day, that has to be controled with a butter knife) in the studio, and the other box in the bedroom (already have a HDTV set with rabbit ears in the living room)...granted, NC is flat, and I live right in the middle of the market (High Point, 1/4 mile from the Guilford/Davidson county line), but I can recieve all of my locals even with the crappy $9 rabbit ears on all of the sets...however, I've noticed that, by playing with the manual settings on the converters, and doing a bit of research online, I can get SIDs from WBT (Charlotte), and WRAL (Raleigh)...but just enough signal for an ID, nothing with a lock, no picture or sound. With that said, I've been seriously thinking about adding a yaggi to the roof of my house and distributing it across my old CATV lines left from the previous owner (Directv stated that they were running new lines), for the event that I want to drop dish, have an outage, and so I may hook my 'modified' Kenwood HiFi to DX Charlotte and Raleigh (even though most come in already).

Speaking of TV, anyone have FTA satellite in your home? I've been considering it for it's hacking abilities, but I'm not sure if it's worth my time.

But to answer your question, the converter boxes are amazing...mine make even the 'butter knife' TV look amazing...it just downconverts the HDTV signals to 16:9, and if you're lucky enough to bypass the built in RF modulator, and run composite straight to the back of the set, you're going to have a crystal clear picture.

How it would work in WV, I'm not sure, but I betcha that Randy Johnson's rig in Barboursville would pick up Columbus and Lexington..he can get radio from that point on his HiFi...

Next trip to Buckhannon, I'm going to pack one of these boxes with me to see what I can pick up...like to catch Bray's new WBOY ABC, and get the Pittsburgh stations in DTV...Mom and Dad's place is a great spot to DX...it's odd elevation and sheilding from the ridges...

[Force Commander]

http://www.tvnewsday.com/articles/2008/09/09/daily.9/

The problems have begun.

Glitches Come to Light in Wilmington
By Jim Barthold
TVNEWSDAY, Sep 9 2008, 8:39 AM ET
Trouble with D-to-A converter boxes and antennas, not a lack of awareness about the DTV conversion, drove calls to TV stations and the local cable TV provider in Wilmington, N.C., yesterday after the five-county market became the nation's first to abandon analog TV service.

"Almost everybody is aware; it's that their equipment is not working correctly," said Connie Book, associate dean of the Elon University School of Communications.

Book led a group of her students who helped local stations and Time Warner Cable answer phones after the stations cut off their analog service at noon and forced over-the-air viewers to pick up the stations' digital signals.

The students also recorded the number and nature of the calls.

As of this morning, they had logged 143 calls, 104 from people who said they relied solely on over-the-air TV.

Wilmington is the nation's 135th largest TV market (DMA 135) with about 180,000 TV households. Between 13,000 and 15,000 had relied solely on analog broadcasting.

Most of the callers to the stations had digital TVs or converter boxes, but still couldn't get a picture, according to the Elon students.

Forty-one percent complained that couldn't find a signal; 26 percent said they had trouble with the antenna; and 21 percent said they simply couldn't get their converter boxes to work properly.

All but one caller said they had been aware of the DTV transition, confirming a survey that the NAB had conducted prior to the analog cut-off.

Most of the calls were taken by Raycom Media's NBC affiliate WECT (49.2 percent) and Morris Network's ABC affiliate WWAY (36.6 percent).

"We had a few calls from people that didn't scan their converter box when they hooked it up," said Andy Combs, general manager of WWAY.

"We had a couple people call up that needed to adjust their antenna; just those types of adjustments."

The calls to the stations and Time Warner Cable do not provide a full picture.

Broadcasting & Cable reported last night that a call center at Southeastern Community College received about 75 calls and another in Bladen county received between 25 and 30. In both cases, most were complaints from people who couldn't receive WECT.

A spokesman for the FCC said that as of 6 p.m. last night the agency had received "several hundred" phone calls. "The number does not include the people that came home from work last night and turned on the TV," he said.

The FCC was expected to attract most of the calls. The TV stations did not actually cease analog broadcasting. They replaced their regular programming with a slide that explained what was happening and invited viewers to call an 888 number at the FCC for more information or help.

The spokesman said the agency should have more information on its calls later today.

FCC Chairman Kevin Martin and Commissioner Michael Copps have been deeply involved in trying to make the Wilmington transition go smoothly. Both were in downtown Wilmington yesterday at noon for the ceremonial switch from analog to digital.




The commercial stations in Wilmington, along with a low-power religious station belonging to Trinity Broadcasting, had volunteered to cut off their analog signals more than five months ahead of the rest of the country so that government officials would have a better idea of what to expect from the nationwide switch, slated for Feb. 17, 2009.

With the help of the local broadcasters and the NAB, the FCC mounted a massive campaign in the Wilmington to alert viewers to the Sept. 8 switch and to make sure they took steps to avoid losing their broadcast signals.

They were told they could sign up for cable or satellite TV, buy a new digital TV set or buy a set-top converter box that would all them to receive the digital signals on their old analog TV sets.

"Now they realize that the time is here and the channels didn't miraculously appear so they have to fix something or get better antennas," said Dan Ullmer, chief engineer of WECT-WSFX, the NBC and Fox affiliates.

It's led to a run at consumer electronics stores "and a lot of them are selling out of some products," Ullmer said.

The whole experience is providing a lesson in what must be done to avoid confusion and widespread loss of service, said Connie Knox, general manager of WILM, Capitol Broadcasting's low-power CBS affiliate.

"My suggestion is that [larger] markets get together and make the switch earlier than just waiting until Feb. 17," she said. "If they don't, they're going to have a much bigger problem on their hands."

Wilmington stations flooded the airwaves with PSAs and even the fire department, in small town fashion, volunteered to visit homes and adjust antennas, she said.

That's probably not going to happen in bigger markets and it's a reason for concern, she said.

Not all the initial feedback was negative, according to Book.

WILM was a revelation for some new digital viewers because its low-power analog signal was difficult to receive off air.

"We have a couple calls on that because people are excited about it," said Book.

Viewers are also learning that the four local commercial stations plus noncommercial WUNC now deliver 15 digital signals, Knox said.

The market's two noncommercial stations are not participating in the early switch to digital because they are part of the state's emergency communications network.

[Force Commander]

http://www.tvnewsday.com/articles/2008/09/11/daily.3/

DTV Lessons from the Wilmington Front
TVNEWSDAY, Sep 11 2008, 8:17 AM ET
Wilmington, N.C., is the nation's 135th largest TV market with nearly 180,000 homes. Of those, about 15,000 are said to rely exclusively on off-air reception for TV.

As of yesterday afternoon, around 1,500 people had called the FCC or the market's TV stations or cable system in reaction to the market's switch from analog to digital TV service on Monday at noon. Most were not happy.

Some of the callers were unaware of the switch or simply did not prepare for it, despite the extensive awareness and educational campaign by the FCC, NAB and the local broadcasters. Others couldn't figure out their A-to-D converter boxes or get their antennas to work right.

The switch, involving four network affiliated TV stations and a religious station, is meant as an experiment so that the FCC and broadcasters can figure out what to expect on Feb. 17, 2009, when the other 209 TV markets are slated by law to make the leap to digital and plan accordingly.

In the middle of it all this week was Dan Ullmer, chief engineer of Raycom's WECT and Southeastern Media's WSFX, the NBC and Fox affiliates, respectively.

WECT fielded more calls than other broadcasters in the market—around 150—because Monday marked a major shift in its coverage.

WECT's analog signal pushes northward, well into the adjacent Raleigh market. But its digital signal, which emanates from a different tower, is designed to give better coverage of Wilmington at the expense of Raleigh viewers.

So, on Monday, many Raleigh viewers could no longer receive the WECT programming.

In this interview recorded yesterday with TVNewsday, Ullmer says it it's still too early to deem the Wilmington experiment a success or failure, but shares some early lessons learned and offers some hard-earned advice.

An edited transcript:

What is the tone of the phone calls you're receiving?

They range across the board. Some people are just politely asking for help. Others are angry because they think this is a right. They had it before and they don't have it now and they think this is some kind of government plot to take away their television. It's amazing what people think.

We've had a few very positive e-mails. But you don't hear very much from the people who were successful, that got things done. You only hear from the people who have failed.

So what's you're takeaway two days after you switched off the analog service?

It's surprising that even though we had a very expensive education campaign — there were really very few people who weren't aware of it — many people did not pull out their converter boxes or resolve their reception issues until the actual switch took place.

My perception is that even though we had such an extensive education effort and even though we have tried to reach out to the viewers in so many ways in so many events there is a large sector of the population that doesn't do anything until the disaster hits. It's the same attitude we find when a hurricane strikes.

Certain people say, "It's coming. I'll deal with it when it gets here." Then, it gets here and they're not ready and they get mad because they weren't prepared.

Well, procrastination is not peculiar to North Carolina.

TV is different. People seem to think of it as a right. They've forgotten that TV is just a technology and you have to master that technology to take advantage of it. We changed that technology and they needed to do something to make it work.

Generally speaking, was the trouble with the converter boxes or the antennas?

Both. One thing people don't understand is that tuning an antenna in a home is not an exact science. You have hot spots and null spots inside your home. You have to play with the antenna — move it and adjust it — to find the sweet spot or you have to put up an outdoor antenna.

If the home is along the perimeter of our signal, we are dealing with people that don't have an antenna that is good enough and should have upgraded to an outdoor antenna or replaced their outdoor antenna.

Closer in toward the transmitter site, people have trouble because they don't have antennas in the right places or they don't have the right antennas.

I've experienced this many times when I'm out doing demonstrations. There are certain points inside buildings where you have a null point and you can't get anything. But if you move just five feet away, you can get pick things up just fine.

In the early days of television, it wasn't unusual for people to move their TV around the living room until they found a place where the rabbit ears would work. I think that we've forgotten that with digital. It's not quite as obvious. With digital, you either have a perfect picture or nothing. With analog, you could see if the picture was snowy and you could see if got better or worse as you moved the set and the antenna.

In markets where the transmission sites are widely separated, that's going to be a frustration. I think the education effort for each market is going to have to be a little different, depending on the terrain. It's going to be really important that the message gets tailored and explained in layman's language. The engineers and the marketing people at each station have to get involved in delivering the message in a clear and understandable way.

How are you following up on the 150 calls that came into your station?

The big effort now is the outreach — to reach every one of these viewers who are having problems and talk them through or get them the white paper to guide people.

The most important tool is the signal strength indicator. We tell them how to use that indicator to find the best location for their antenna or the best antenna for their location.

Is it just you involved in the outreach?

No. It was just me and my staff, but we couldn't keep up. So, we've hired some people through a local church who had been trained and had been working with people prior to the cut-off.

What else have you learned in the past couple of days?

We learned something else when Tropical Storm Hanna came through here just before the switch. The 8-VSB standard does not like motion in the transmitting or receiving antennas.

So if you have an outdoor yagi antenna and you have high winds, the signal may break up. I've had a couple of viewers send me e-mails: The storm comes through and I lose my signal. What's going on with that?

We also found that here at the station. So, we are going to have to change that antenna. I am going to put in a much studier antenna or a panel antenna. Winegard makes a nice plastic panel that is no bigger than a satellite dish that will not flex in the wind.

All these antenna problems sound rather discouraging.

I'm a lot more pragmatic because I'm an engineer. It's a little bit like when we switched from typewriters to computers. The computers brought with them all kinds of new issues and problems. But once we mastered that technology and we see all the great things you can do with computers, nobody wants to go back to the typewriters.

So, on the one hand, it's absolutely true: digital TV is really frustrating for a lot of people. But, on the other hand, the picture is so much better and there are so many new services and things that can be done with it that in the long haul it will be well justified.

What do you think the Wilmington experience means for other broadcasters in other markets?

What a disaster we are going to have if everybody waits to Feb. 17 and broadcasters aren't allowed to keep their analog transmitters on to signal people what is happening as we have been able to do. Every phone line and store is going to be flooded with last-minute buyers trying to get this taken care of. [Editor's note: None of the stations actually ceased analog broadcasting in Wilmington. They merely replaced their regular programming with a slide telling viewers about the DTV transition and how to get help.]

When the government was considering the 17th for the switch, broadcasters should have been more proactive in staggering the cut offs so it would occur sooner in some markets.

A lot of viewers waited to the last minute. Some broadcasters are just as bad because they are not going to do this any sooner than they have to.

Others have proposed allowing at least one station in each market to continue broadcasting in analog so that viewers would see an informational slide rather than just snow.

I think that is a very good idea. There are different ways to do it. Either switch to digital before the 17th or maybe leave some analog transmitters up after the 17th.

Any other advice for broadcasters in other markets?

I'm thinking that the soft tests have to be a lot longer and done during some more highly rated programming. We did two soft tests here, one for a minute and one for five minutes. I still don't think the message got through to a lot of people.

So, in terms of getting the word out and educating the public, how would you characterize the Wilmington effort at this point?

It it still a little premature to say whether it was a success of failure or what the real problems are. There is more information to come in and analysis to do.