news89 467 Posted August 31, 2017 Share Posted August 31, 2017 KHOU11 is going to air primetime programming starting at 7pm. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bhratbrat 423 Posted September 1, 2017 Share Posted September 1, 2017 Very fitting way to close out their coverage with this end slate before going to black. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bhratbrat 423 Posted September 1, 2017 Share Posted September 1, 2017 They can rebuild at the same location as long as they keep all the critical stuff above the new "high tide' line. make the first few floors parking. Plenty of flood prone areas require more height as a rquirement when rebuilding. Put the place on stilts. They actually have a nice central location. How much land do they own? There site is 3 acres of land that is valued at $10.9M dollars Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
news89 467 Posted September 1, 2017 Share Posted September 1, 2017 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LoadStar 363 Posted September 1, 2017 Share Posted September 1, 2017 It's so hard to tell how much water they ended up getting in the main studio. I don't see any visible water lines like in the very dramatic photo of the control room. I wonder if some quirk of the way the station is built prevented more water from flowing in. If that's the case, there may be a surprising amount of salvageable technology there. (At the very least, I'm pretty sure that all the lighting instruments are probably OK.) FWIW, there are firms that will take technology like this, dry it out, thoroughly test it, and re-certify it for use. Where I work, we've had several significant water leaks (not nearly to the degree as this, though) and we've had to make use of them a few times. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Weeters 1805 Posted September 1, 2017 Author Share Posted September 1, 2017 A KGW engineer was sent to Dallas (WFAA) to help KHOU. Does anyone know what this room is at WFAA? A second control room that already existed or their existing one? [MEDIA=twitter]903056927084732416[/MEDIA] It appears to be their original HD control room. Scott Fybush took a picture of it in 2012, along with one of the Belo master control hub: https://www.fybush.com/site-20140829/ The monitor walls are different but the switcher, another Kayak, is still there. This is the current WFAA primary control room: [MEDIA=twitter]901919228705607684[/MEDIA] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mre29 1338 Posted September 1, 2017 Share Posted September 1, 2017 Somewhere like Conroe would work well for that. Centrally located and usable by all their stations. That's an interesting definition of "centrally located" you're using there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MidnightJunkie 55 Posted September 1, 2017 Share Posted September 1, 2017 It looks like there must have been at least a few feet in the studio, with a fairly significant flowing force - The weather(?) presentation area just to the left of the anchor desk is completely knocked over. It may not have been that heavy to begin with and may have actually floated and then been tipped over. Also, does the main anchor desk look to anyone else as though it's been rolled/moved over a few inches? It may be the perspective of the photo that is throwing me off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Samantha 2876 Posted September 1, 2017 Share Posted September 1, 2017 The population center of Texas is indeed east of the geographical center. It's near Holland, in Bell County: Most of the Tegna Texas stations are in the eastern two thirds anyway, except for Abilene and San Angelo. This point is closest to Austin and Waco. Austin would normally be a good place to put this, except that the area's boom growth has made traffic a nightmare since there's a dearth of highways. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mre29 1338 Posted September 1, 2017 Share Posted September 1, 2017 Well, okay, that makes sense. I'd forgotten that the western parts of the state aren't as populated as the rest. Austin's lack of major highways is weird for a city that size. Only one Interstate highway? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
n925tv 143 Posted September 1, 2017 Share Posted September 1, 2017 It looks like there must have been at least a few feet in the studio, with a fairly significant flowing force - The weather(?) presentation area just to the left of the anchor desk is completely knocked over. It may not have been that heavy to begin with and may have actually floated and then been tipped over. Also, does the main anchor desk look to anyone else as though it's been rolled/moved over a few inches? It may be the perspective of the photo that is throwing me off. Looks like the monitor above the weather desk is gone, fell off or something I guess from the force of the water? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Samantha 2876 Posted September 1, 2017 Share Posted September 1, 2017 Looks like the monitor above the weather desk is gone, fell off or something I guess from the force of the water? I believe it was stated that they were able to take a monitor with them, so that might have been the one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eat News 4738 Posted September 1, 2017 Share Posted September 1, 2017 The monitor walls are different but the switcher, another Kayak, is still there. [MEDIA=twitter]901919228705607684[/MEDIA] Holy whitewater Weeters... We found a Kayak in the KBEX-TV Master Control room after the last Christmas party. I can't fathom how they got 2 kayaks in there. (ok folks...we have returned to our normal programming) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eat News 4738 Posted September 1, 2017 Share Posted September 1, 2017 Well, okay, that makes sense. I'd forgotten that the western parts of the state aren't as populated as the rest. It's something you would NEVER forget if you ever drove from El Paso to San Antonio. Dull, flat, empty, and boring. But the people..... So nice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blizzard59 41 Posted September 1, 2017 Share Posted September 1, 2017 The KHOU operation now has a third satellite feed: a copy of the CBS network feed uplinked by WFAA and sent to KUSA (I don't know how WFAA is getting this feed, maybe through KYTX or KENS? The feed has occasionally had some error artifacts suggestive of a weak microwave or fiber connection between the downlink and WFAA). Anyway, to recap, the three satellite feeds are working as so: Satellite feed 1 - raw feed from KUHT studio via WFAA truck to KUSA (content switched and played out locally at KUHT is also on this feed) Satellite feed 2 - raw CBS network feed from WFAA to KUSA Satellite feed 3 - program feed from KUSA to the KHOU transmitter So far, all local time on the CBS feed has been covered with KHOU news/weather updates and/or PSAs related to the flood. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rkolsen 1675 Posted September 1, 2017 Share Posted September 1, 2017 The KHOU operation now has a third satellite feed: a copy of the CBS network feed uplinked by WFAA and sent to KUSA (I don't know how WFAA is getting this feed, maybe through KYTX or KENS? The feed has occasionally had some error artifacts suggestive of a weak microwave or fiber connection between the downlink and WFAA). Anyway, to recap, the three satellite feeds are working as so: Satellite feed 1 - raw feed from KUHT studio via WFAA truck to KUSA (content switched and played out locally at KUHT is also on this feed) Satellite feed 2 - raw CBS network feed from WFAA to KUSA Satellite feed 3 - program feed from KUSA to the KHOU transmitter So far, all local time on the CBS feed has been covered with KHOU news/weather updates and/or PSAs related to the flood. CBS last I checked has been left unencrypted. WFAA could manually be inserting the breaks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
east-tx-tv 105 Posted September 1, 2017 Share Posted September 1, 2017 Well, okay, that makes sense. I'd forgotten that the western parts of the state aren't as populated as the rest. Austin's lack of major highways is weird for a city that size. Only one Interstate highway? The NIMBYs have been quite anti-freeway in Austin for years and years, and now they find out what that gets them. I don't know how they thought they could have a growing city without proper highway/freeway infrastructure along with it.(/offtopic) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blizzard59 41 Posted September 1, 2017 Share Posted September 1, 2017 CBS last I checked has been left unencrypted. WFAA could manually be inserting the breaks. I re-read my message and see I should have been clearer. WFAA isn't inserting anything into the CBS feed, just relaying it to KUSA. The local "spots" are being inserted at KUSA onto the program feed going to the transmitter. CBS recently began testing encryption during prime time. They've regularly used encryption during NFL games for the past few years. In addition, their feeds use 4:2:2 chroma subsampling, whereas nearly everybody else uses 4:2:0. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
C Block 1487 Posted September 1, 2017 Share Posted September 1, 2017 Fascinating to read through this thread. One thing I will say is that I don't think it's exactly fair to Monday morning quarterback and say that KHOU should have been more prepared. I saw this piece a few days ago and found it to be very helpful at explaining Houston's flooding issues. The gist of it is that Houston is very flood prone without any well-defined natural drainage features. As the city has grown and sprawled, the city built subdivisions in places where it probably should have built reservoirs and detention ponds instead. Because of this, the water has nowhere to go, exacerbating the flooding elsewhere. So it's entirely reasonable to conclude that the building was probably fine even 10-20 years ago, let alone when it was first built in the 1960s. Sure, maybe they could have moved into a new, less flood-prone facility around the same time when they went HD. But I don't think you can fault the company for not thinking that far ahead and having some reticence leaving a building that was otherwise fine. Most of the stations that moved to new facilities during the HD transition era were typically leaving behind tiny, obsolescent radio buildings that were never built for broadcast. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Weeters 1805 Posted September 1, 2017 Author Share Posted September 1, 2017 Looks like the monitor above the weather desk is gone, fell off or something I guess from the force of the water? I'm now thinking the monitor mounted on that plexi wall was gone from the start. The one on the cart in the before photo was probably blocking the mount from showing up on-air. The one on the cart might have been one of the two to end up in the conference room before they evacuated. I'm going to guess the one hung on the wall broke at some point prior to all this. The mystery CBS Network satellite feed doesn't make a whole lot of sense, because KCNC has the capability to receive the East/Central coast network feed, and it'd be a hell of a lot easier and cheaper to microwave that down the street to KUSA than it would be for WFAA to get it from who knows where and uplink it to a satellite. IF WFAA is the one who's actually uplinking it, I'd imagine it's coming from KTVT and that the switch of control back to WFAA is impending, just based on the cost of a third satellite transponder. Not something you wanna have up for days on end. Holy whitewater Weeters... We found a Kayak in the KBEX-TV Master Control room after the last Christmas party. I can't fathom how they got 2 kayaks in there. (ok folks...we have returned to our normal programming) Just don't let those Engineering boys talk you into the Kayenne challenge... because they're talking about the pepper, not the switcher. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ED2 144 Posted September 1, 2017 Share Posted September 1, 2017 Once KHOU is done with that control room at WFAA, that would make a great central casting facility for smaller Tegna stations. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rkolsen 1675 Posted September 1, 2017 Share Posted September 1, 2017 I can't find the post but I remember @Eat News mentioning ad inventory. Well it appears mmercials aren't running but they got the weather sponsorships up. I counted three different companies advertusingnn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rkolsen 1675 Posted September 1, 2017 Share Posted September 1, 2017 Editing trouble again. But here's an impressive slide show from their website. You can see that the water level reached the lower level of the monitor stack and was powerful enough to knock over a console. http://www.khou.com/mobile/gallery/news/photos-khou-11-studios-flood-before-and-after/285-469580841 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TexasTVNews 1366 Posted September 1, 2017 Share Posted September 1, 2017 After looking at the photos of KHOU studios a moment ago, all I have to say that it is just horrific. All I know is that the station will rebuild. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ABC 7 Denver 1552 Posted September 1, 2017 Share Posted September 1, 2017 It sounds like KUSA had to build a separate infrastructure out for KHOU on the fly, as this could be for the very long term. What's puzzling is that KUSA - who houses the G3 graphics group - is running the KHOU graphics on a system that didn't have the Din font loaded completely. In fact, KUSA sent one of their EPs and the Vice President of News, Patti Dennis, down to the Houston PBS to help out. I also know that my friend, who is the ME at KXAS, will be heading down to KPRC to spell some of the staff in the newsroom. The wall-to-wall coverage may be over, but I know that the news staff is completely exhausted. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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