Want More Unt On The News Here's What We Need To Do,

ScreamingEaglesFan · January 28, 2007

I was talking with one of the local DFW sportscasters at a function last night about what's going on @ UNT and getting his perspective when we got into a very good conversation about getting sports coverage and the news works. In a nutshell TCU and SMU both have agreements with CSTV which provides footage to local stations through their conferences (Sunbelt has no such agreement) which is where we come in. Apparently all the local newstations get their feeds from either news trucks which upload the info straight to a satellite or through a company called Westar Satellite.

Since we all know what a feat it is to get newstrucks up there (although it will be easier now) What he said needed to happen is drop a fiber optic line to Westar (~ $20k) which would then make the footage available for local news. He said since we have an arrangement with the local cable company in Denton they might already have a fiber optic feed UNT could use, and suggested I check with someone there.

The interesting thing was the fact he had spoken to certain athletic dept people (not RV) about Westar and getting more coverage but nothing happened and said until the supporters/alum make it a priority it wouldn't. I know RV is busy but this is something that given RV's recent comments about taking UNT to the next level seems like a no-brainer. He even mentioned the fact UNT could put basketball footage etc. together and start raising the visability of the overall program.

So the question for the RTVF guys @ Denton Cable do you know if you have a feed or who to talk to about getting this project started!! Apparently after the feed is laid the on going expense is very minimal. Thoughts?

jimbojimjim · January 29, 2007

Hey, if someone wants to buy NTTV at satillite system, we'd be able to send our stuff down to the local stations in Dallas instantly. Of course, I wouldn't mind having a microwave truck either.

MarkCiz · January 29, 2007

Step 1: 45 mins to an hour at best to capture, order the highlights, and encode it properly.

Step 2: 25 mins at 5 minutes per phone call.

Step 3: We don't do Betacam SP or SX tapes; copying to DVD is the only readily available system we have of making copies. About 5 mins per copy.

Step 4: We're not exactly bursting at the seams with volunteers or money to pay for the volunteers' gas. This is where we would need the most help.

Total: 1 1/2 hours to make the highlights and approximately 2 hours and 40 minutes total with drive time. Doesn't seem like a lot, but you have to realize that we're understaffed, not wonderfully equipped, and we have our school work to take care of too, on top of the news/sports productions we're producing at the same time.

We'd LOVE to help get UNT on local newscasts and I'm sure we'll take this idea into consideration at our next meeting, but the time/money/manpower issues involved might be a bit much. But believe me, we'll look into it! Thanks for the suggestions!

MarkCiz · January 29, 2007

First, thanks for the input and suggestions. It's all useful stuff that we'll have to talk to our operations manager about and see what we can do. Also, it's not that we don't watch our budget tightly, it's that there's not a whole lot in there in the first place. And before you talk more about how I'm crying about resources, let me assure I am not. It's just how it is right now. We're working to get more.

Whatever fall-off you're talking about at NTTV isn't any fault of the current staff. We're working hard to bring people back into the station and the quality of our broadcasts (especially our sports broadcasts) are improving steadily. Criticizing us now is like criticizing a new homeowner for buying a home with foundation problems. We just moved in and we're working on getting the foundation fixed.

I really appreciate your willingness to help and share your knowledge, but I don't appreciate you "calling us out" on behalf of whoever. I said in my previous post that we would take your suggestions into consideration and I explained our current situation. I don't know about every one at NTTV, but I know I personally couldn't take on that much more work with my programming responsibilities and schoolwork and other obligations. It's not an effort thing, it's a priority thing. It's not my priority to get UNT highlights on the air (I don't wish to work in the news/sports broadcasting arena), but there might be someone else at NTTV who has that priority and wants to make those contacts. That's why I said I'd bring it up at our next meeting. I agree with you though, it should be the Athletic Department's priority.

I'm just a little confused about where the animosity is coming from. It was completely unwarranted.

MeanMag · January 29, 2007

First, thanks for the input and suggestions. It's all useful stuff that we'll have to talk to our operations manager about and see what we can do. Also, it's not that we don't watch our budget tightly, it's that there's not a whole lot in there in the first place. And before you talk more about how I'm crying about resources, let me assure I am not. It's just how it is right now. We're working to get more.
Whatever fall-off you're talking about at NTTV isn't any fault of the current staff. We're working hard to bring people back into the station and the quality of our broadcasts (especially our sports broadcasts) are improving steadily. Criticizing us now is like criticizing a new homeowner for buying a home with foundation problems. We just moved in and we're working on getting the foundation fixed.
I really appreciate your willingness to help and share your knowledge, but I don't appreciate you "calling us out" on behalf of whoever. I said in my previous post that we would take your suggestions into consideration and I explained our current situation. I don't know about every one at NTTV, but I know I personally couldn't take on that much more work with my programming responsibilities and schoolwork and other obligations. It's not an effort thing, it's a priority thing. It's not my priority to get UNT highlights on the air (I don't wish to work in the news/sports broadcasting arena), but there might be someone else at NTTV who has that priority and wants to make those contacts. That's why I said I'd bring it up at our next meeting. I agree with you though, it should be the Athletics Department's priority.
I'm just a little confused about where the animosity is coming from. It was completely unwarranted.

I think you are taking the criticism a little too personally. The fall off he is talking about probably happened long before you were a part of the program I am guessing and it is no fault of the current students. It is a combination of things that has happened over a number of years that probably add up to over at least a decade. The animosity is not completely unwarranted. The resources UNT RTVF have are not as bleak as some may make it out to be, and they certainly aren't the best. (I can name another place in the professional world where maybe the equipment isn't the best, but I contend the production value is on par with competitors.)

I can appreciate the hard work the students put into their work, but a lot of the problems may come from current/past faculty accepting less than stellar or fundamentally unsound work in order to churn out the graduates. I think that maybe parts of the RTVF program have lost direction once or twice over the past 10-20 years.

For what it's worth I think the 'GreenGuys' show that used to be on KNTU was a very good program. The objective at this point in a students development is to master the basics so that when the opportunity arises to work on upgrade equipment, they can excel and appreciate it. That is why those folks who worked on that show got a chance to prove themselves at the next level.

RTVF is a medium that even if bad/old equipment is used it can still be an entertaining and fulfilling experience to those who don't know anything about it-"Vidiots" as one wise man once called them. (And even those that know can look past equipment short-comings). But the media produced is only as good as the person producing it, it is content driven, creativity driven. The common viewer/listener is not going to know how much work it takes to get something on the air, and if they do, then someone isn't doing their job.

UNT RTVF has a very good base of alums and resources to pull from should they choose to make the relationships, partners, and friends they need to in order to take things to another level. There is no reason a college in Market 6 isn't one of the best programs in the nation. The pool of talent in that program is great. The opportunity in the market is huge. The alumni base in the field is massive, and should the program notice or care enough to bring those folks back to the university and listen to what they have to say, things would get even better. That is what I think my colleague is trying to say.

I, also, would like story time from some of the older alums about how involved the RTVF dept. once was with the Ath. dept.

CaribbeanGreen · January 29, 2007

hell, i was on staff at NTTV for 2 1/2 years, the first 1 1/2 or so housed in a tiny corner of the GAB... we had these old, duct-taped SV SuperCams, and a broom closet of an equipment room not even in the same building. We had one linear editing reel-to-reel machine and one Media 100, which was our pride and joy. We had a great time and made the best of it, though I know I made an effort to try and minimize our limitations as much as possible. You had to think substance over style, and dress up the ugly girl at the dance as best you could.. sometimes, I'd feel like we really pulled it off.. others, hey, it was why I was in college... learn from your mistakes.

As for the basketball games, running hundreds of feet of the shoddiest coax cable you've ever seen in your life through the Super Pit and then shooting with things I hesitate to even call cameras made directing the things (using the one portable switcher we had) tougher than it should have been - but we had a hell of a time, and I know I learned a lot and met some great, talented people. Unfortunately, one year the equipment was so bad it wasn't even adequately prepared for us to do a single live game broadcast, orders which came directly from the dept, much to my anger at the time.

Anyway, point is, my senior year is when the new RTFP building was built. I remember putting on a hard hat and touring it when it was half finished, and just feeling like a kid in a candy store. The place was AMAZING compared to what we'd called home the previous two years... shortly there after, I know the station purchased new cameras and loads of new equipment, and the new studios opened up a whole new world... so, anyway, things have gotten EONS better facility-wise in the last 5 or 6 years, for sure...

EagleD · January 29, 2007

The reality is most sportscast producers decide quite early what games they will show. It's not a question of providing the stations video, it's about our team providing something to watch. I guarantee you that if we start winning meaningful games and garnering some respect, the media will camp out at Fouts. Until now they haven't cared, b/c they think the audience doesn't care. Dodge has already gotten NT some media exposure and if he starts winning, sorry if WE start winning, he'll get even more. Trust me, if we had Boise's run last year Dale Hansen make sure a crew covered us.

I'm late for work.

GO MEAN GREEN !!!!!!!!!!!!

scotty474 · January 29, 2007

Why can't we all just get along. From someone who does not speak techie talk... sounds like we have students who want to work, alum who want to help, athletics that want exposure... no need to rip on each other. I agree with the previous thread, we win they will be camped out because our alum will care and want to know what is happening with our BB and FB programs. Hell, I am late for bed and have too much red vino in me... what the heck, I will take a mental health day from work. seacrest out.

ScreamingEaglesFan · January 29, 2007

I agree winning will bring exposure, but expecting the local stations to do more than they normally do to get footage could very well be limiting our exposure which is what I was originally talking about. So from anyone at NTTV...

MeanMag · January 29, 2007

The reality is most sportscast producers decide quite early what games they will show. It's not a question of providing the stations video, it's about our team providing something to watch.

They do decide early what they will show. And if they can't even get video- they can decide pretty early on that they aren't going to show UNT highlights.

So it IS a question of providing video. SMU and TCU almost always have highlights available, and even when they aren't doing so hot, local media will throw them a bone. With UNT they don't even have the option.

If we want to compete with SMU and TCU for metroplex superiority we need to act like we want to be there and not wait for everyone to want to be involved with us which is what we have been doing for decades.

Again, this is not a RTVF responsibility, it is really the athletics dept. problem. But it is a tremendous opportunity for a RTVF student hopeful to make some very important and influential contacts and friends.

MarkCiz · January 29, 2007

One, I can't count how many times I've seen some comment along the lines of "If someone would buy us ___" or "If we only had _____" then...

I don't know how long this has been going on, but the two times Jim's said it, he's joking. We don't honestly expect someone to buy us one.

The highlights that I saw posted on YouTube from a bball game not too long ago didn't thrill me. I shook my head, because they sounded like crap. Somewhere, someone in the chain has no audio quality control standards.

That has since been fixed for the next game. You have to remember we're students and we're still learning. It was an audio gain issue. We're not pros yet.

One of the 'It's too hard' excuses I read earlier was how long it would take to make phone calls for this sort of arrangement. Putting aside any misperceptions of how eager these stations are going to be to have lengthy chats with everyone at NTTV...

When did I ever say or imply that it was too hard to call? It was an estimate. 5 minutes to call the station, get to the sports director, figure out what format they need and call the next station. I may have been off on my estimate but I don't see why you had to use it for an excuse to go off on a "back in my day there were no telephones..." tangent.

I just don't think you realize that we're students learning this medium and we just don't have some of the things you've referenced in your posts. And if you think that barking at us on your soapbox is really going to motivate us, you're mistaken. We'll motivate ourselves, and your input has been helpful in that regard. Your suggestions are appreciated and will be taken into consideration but your tactics are questionable.

...aaaaand this post makes us officially off topic....sorry!

Edited January 29, 2007 by MarkCiz