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The Channel 6 Action News Thread


Jess

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Any particular reason why the stations live shots say "action cam" on the lower line of the chyron? It seems dated.

 

Tradition. "Action Cam" and its cousin, "Via Satellite", were used throughout the 1980s and 90s - reporters would sign off live shots by saying "Live on the Action Cam". They don't do that anymore but "Action Cam" has stuck around. I think they verbally referenced it a few weeks ago!

 

And yes, they do say "Action Radar with Satellite 6" every forecast, which makes no sense because they have Storm Tracker Double Scan and no on-screen graphics indicating "Action Radar" or "Satellite 6"...

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Action Radar and Satellite 6 used to be used with the on-air gfx, but I think that was phased out a few graphics packages ago. Certainly by the time they went to chromakey weather, decades after every other station in the country did so, they were gone. (I think they had StormTracker by then.)

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I just like that ticker period. It's a lot easier to read than some of the other stations, and I like having visual cues as to when they go to Sports, or Teases, or Breaking News. CNN's ticker had that, like, a decade ago. And they have not even come close to matching that design since.

 

Here's the problem with 6's graphics and presentation.

 

They have a ton of fantastic technology and resources at their potential. I have no doubt that they have access to things that few, if any, stations have access to, and they're relishing in it. Maybe it's because they spent so many years with a blue wall and a desk as their set, or had magnetic weather into 2000. There is a TON of stuff they can do with what they have.

 

Which is the problem... they're actually doing a ton of stuff.

 

Most of the 3D graphics are rendered in real time. The bug? Real-time rendered 3D. The graphics? great prepro or real-time. The weather graphics show a busy overpass render, with speeding traffic, effortlessly. DoubleScan, Big Board, video wall, Crystal City, etc.

 

I don't know about you, but my favorite part of Action News - the 20 seconds or so that Jim and Cecily banter - have nothing to do with fancy weather graphics or flying 3D text.

 

In the same vein, I thought I'd be disappointed when 10 changed its graphics from the ultra-busy localized Look F to vanilla Look F. I'm actually not disappointed - I love that look immensely. It's reserved, it's distinguished, and it really does look attractive. 10 obviously doesn't have the graphical capabilities 6 has, but their graphics have rules and structure, and you need that.

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Most of the 3D graphics are rendered in real time. The bug? Real-time rendered 3D. The graphics? great prepro or real-time. The weather graphics show a busy overpass render, with speeding traffic, effortlessly. DoubleScan, Big Board, video wall, Crystal City, etc.

Ah the power of VizRT, WSI and a properly coded rundown.

 

In the same vein, I thought I'd be disappointed when 10 changed its graphics from the ultra-busy localized Look F to vanilla Look F. I'm actually not disappointed - I love that look immensely. It's reserved, it's distinguished, and it really does look attractive. 10 obviously doesn't have the graphical capabilities 6 has, but their graphics have rules and structure, and you need that.

There is a reason why graphic creators oftentimes make a style guide with each revision - it's so that the local office doesn't f..k it up. If you want a look at how not to use Look F you have to go to Las Vegas's NBC Affiliate KSNV (look at their lower thirds they use a serif font and have to hastily rotating peacocks one of which is upside down).

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Ah the power of VizRT, WSI and a properly coded rundown.

 

 

There is a reason why graphic creators oftentimes make a style guide with each revision - it's so that the local office doesn't f..k it up. If you want a look at how not to use Look F you have to go to Las Vegas's NBC Affiliate KSNV (look at their lower thirds they use a serif font and have to hastily rotating peacocks one of which is upside down).

 

Thing is is though for this current look, 95% of it was done in-house. 6 contracted a firm to do the logo, the end of the open and the base elements of the look. They did everything else themselves.

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  • 2 months later...

So weatherman Adam Joseph welcomed a baby boy today with his partner Karl.

 

Also, Adam Joseph is gay. And I don't think he ever actually came out officially.

 

Though I totally thought he was gay long ago. My actual initial reaction to that story was - oh, he's not gay?! - until I read it. That's not really a big deal to me. A friend came out to me years ago and I was like "oh, that's nice".

 

And think - not that long ago the key 6pm and 11pm team consisted of three heterosexual white guys, something which the Inquirer actually called "shameful". Now the station's probably more diverse than any of the others as far as it comes to people of race, gender, and color.

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I thought the same thing - he never did officially come out prior to this. I follow his Facebook page, and he posts pretty personal things sometimes, but never mentioned anything about it.

 

The blurb Jim Gardner said about him even included something about the woman that carried the baby. Interesting.

 

I always thought he should date Melissa Magee, they have such great chemistry together! They haven't been Down the Shore together much, though, lately.

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Could someone explain to me why when I see their weather forecast when they show the Doppler radar there are two beams rotating different speeds from the same radar site? Correct me if I'm wrong but dual polarization radar "scans" the horizontal and vertical resolution at the same time from the same radome at the same speed.

 

I realize that double scan is their marketing term that refers to nothing in particular but those two radar beams also move way to fast considering the average radars on the market (including private manufactures, NEXRAD and the TDWR) take 5 minutes to do a full 360° rotating

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Could someone explain to me why when I see their weather forecast when they show the Doppler radar there are two beams rotating different speeds from the same radar site? Correct me if I'm wrong but dual polarization radar "scans" the horizontal and vertical resolution at the same time from the same radome at the same speed.

 

I realize that double scan is their marketing term that refers to nothing in particular but those two radar beams also move way to fast considering the average radars on the market (including private manufactures, NEXRAD and the TDWR) take 5 minutes to do a full 360° rotating

 

That double beam on their radar is not the actual radar beam. It's an animation overlayed on to the map. They do go to the actual live radar when there something they need to show and you can see the actual radar beam and it's more in tune with a regular 5 min sweep.

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Could someone explain to me why when I see their weather forecast when they show the Doppler radar there are two beams rotating different speeds from the same radar site? Correct me if I'm wrong but dual polarization radar "scans" the horizontal and vertical resolution at the same time from the same radome at the same speed.

 

I realize that double scan is their marketing term that refers to nothing in particular but those two radar beams also move way to fast considering the average radars on the market (including private manufactures, NEXRAD and the TDWR) take 5 minutes to do a full 360° rotating

 

Here's a link to Adam Joseph's discussion on it on his Facebook page on the day of its debut: https://www.facebook.com/6abcAdamJoseph/posts/10152154014898696

 

Also another link: http://abclocal.go.com//story?section=weather/forecast&id=9234826

 

I do know they used to talk about being able to change the speed of the radar I think they used to say it would update once every 10 seconds, but that was before the Double Scan radar.

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I'm wondering what's going to replace Katie at 3pm on weekdays. I read that some ABC markets are moving General Hospital back to 3pm again. Something would still have to fill in the 2pm time slot though

Second run of Jeopardy and Millionaire. Not sure if they'll run at 2pm or 3pm. I've only read GH moving to its old slot for some stations in the central and pacific time zones, but nothing in the east yet.

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That double beam on their radar is not the actual radar beam. It's an animation overlayed on to the map. They do go to the actual live radar when there something they need to show and you can see the actual radar beam and it's more in tune with a regular 5 min sweep.

My biggest complaint with the animation was that one beam appeared to be gaining speed on the other one and that there was no set interval.

Here's a link to Adam Joseph's discussion on it on his Facebook page on the day of its debut: https://www.facebook.com/6abcAdamJoseph/posts/10152154014898696

 

Also another link: http://abclocal.go.com//story?section=weather/forecast&id=9234826

 

I do know they used to talk about being able to change the speed of the radar I think they used to say it would update once every 10 seconds, but that was before the Double Scan radar.

So it's exactly as I thought.

 

This makes me wonder of this new technology called CASA radars which are being studied by MIT are in operation in Northern Texas and Oklahoma. The radar system uses several low powered radars spaced maybe 50 miles apart which they can selectively point an individual radome to focus on a small section of the storm so instead of having it spin 360° it pivot 90°. It makes me wonder if there are any tv stations in the country looking to deploy this method.

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My biggest complaint with the animation was that one beam appeared to be gaining speed on the other one and that there was no set interval.

So it's exactly as I thought.

 

This makes me wonder of this new technology called CASA radars which are being studied by MIT are in operation in Northern Texas and Oklahoma. The radar system uses several low powered radars spaced maybe 50 miles apart which they can selectively point an individual radome to focus on a small section of the storm so instead of having it spin 360° it pivot 90°. It makes me wonder if there are any tv stations in the country looking to deploy this method.

 

I think they appear to rotate with no set pattern so that it can show the word DOUBLE SCAN in between them, and nothing more. When there's actually weather going on I don't think they show that.

 

The previous iteration, when they would be zooming in, you could actually see the radar sweep as a rotating white line and noticed a difference as it swept by. It was fast enough that you could usually see it at least once during the short time they would focus on one area during a storm.

 

They do say it's powered with 1 million watts of power.

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I think they appear to rotate with no set pattern so that it can show the word DOUBLE SCAN in between them, and nothing more. When there's actually weather going on I don't think they show that.

 

The previous iteration, when they would be zooming in, you could actually see the radar sweep as a rotating white line and noticed a difference as it swept by. It was fast enough that you could usually see it at least once during the short time they would focus on one area during a storm.

 

They do say it's powered with 1 million watts of power.

I remember the old baron systems did that - hell WJZ's does (it looks like they up convert their radar to HD despite running Accuweather).

 

As for the power of the radar it is most likely the ERP which takes into account of the gains of the antenna. Wikipedia uses an example that a 100kW radio station would typically only use 10-20kW of power.

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I remember the old baron systems did that - hell WJZ's does (it looks like they up convert their radar to HD despite running Accuweather).

 

As for the power of the radar it is most likely the ERP which takes into account of the gains of the antenna. Wikipedia uses an example that a 100kW radio station would typically only use 10-20kW of power.

 

6 uses Barons for their live radar so there's that.

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Has anyone noticed the small black dot that runs along the bottom of the screen during the newscast? I started to notice it just after they introduced the ticker redesign. It goes the same speed as the ticker, but in the opposite direction.

 

My mother even noticed it ... and she never notices anything like that! It's usually still on the screen during network programming, too.

 

I emailed 6ABC about it and got no response. But, it's NOT my TV because it is on both sets, and I also saw it on a screen shot they posted to the Action News Facebook page.

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The dots on the bottom is most likely overscan. Normally they appear at the top of the frame but can show up on the bottom. Most HDTVs will automatically display the full frame, which frequently is 1920x1088 rather than 1920x1080 but I am not sure the resolution for 720p. You can fix the problem by zooming in the picture using the button (usually the button says P.Size/Picture Size/ or HD Zoom) that will resize the image so it's not visible. Here's some additional information from Engadget and how to fix it.

 

Frequently overscan is used to transmit additional data like the current program that is airing, an electronic program guide and it's what enables v-chip to be transmitted.

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  • 2 weeks later...

This just turned up on Vimeo... and holy shit is it amazing.

 

http://vimeo.com/104648365

 

This is a full-length profile of Jim Gardner. From the late 1970s, as the description says. From what I can gather this must have been made not long after he was named lead anchor. 1978 or 1979, as it VERY CLEARLY shows Kane anchoring at WCAU. It's probably the most personal interview he's EVER given in his long career here.

 

Seriously, he has A FULL HEAD OF DARK HAIR and is shown WEARING A LEATHER JACKET. It is AMAZING.

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