Marcus Carr
09-25-08, 08:49 AM
Local high-def broadcasts remain out of reach
Chelmsford series awaits technology
By Joyce Pellino Crane
Globe Correspondent / September 25, 2008
Cable Access viewers in Chelmsford with wide screen television sets can compare Wolf Blitzer's pearly whites with Anderson Cooper's on CNN, but they're unlikely to see the rich hues of the wading blue heron at the Crooked Spring Brook without petitioning Comcast.
High-definition television is available for network broadcasts these days, but the newly shot video about Chelmsford's trails with close-ups of purple hydrangea blossoms and green pine needles will be aired in a digital format that cannot show such vibrant details.
Across the region, local access television stations are purchasing high-definition cameras capable of capturing crisper and more colorful pictures. But the technology that transmits their images to viewers' television sets has not caught up with the equipment advancements.
"Equipment is getting cheaper and cheaper, and the quality is getting better," said Matt Scott, executive director of Chelmsford Telemedia.
Cameras and editing equipment are owned by the nonprofit local access stations that in recent years have become separate entities from the cable companies that created them in the 1980s. That was a period when cable lines were being strung throughout cities and towns. Today the network of wires in this region belongs to Comcast Corp., the area's predominant cable provider. In recent years, Comcast upgraded to fiber optics but did not replace all of the transmission equipment that carries the video signal to viewers' home televisions.
This equipment transmits an old-fashioned analog signal from local access stations instead of a standard or high definition signal. Analog transmissions degrade even the clearest image.
Many cable companies use standard definition cameras for videographing productions. But as those cameras age, they are being replaced with the so-called HDV cameras that were used to film the debuting documentary series, "Hidden Treasures," at Chelmsford Telemedia.
"This series is going to be archived and shown years from now in HD," said Scott, stressing that the technological gap between the captured image and its airing will eventually disappear.
That's why a crew of three Telemedia volunteers spent last spring shooting in the high-definition format, creating the first locally produced production with the new cameras. "Hidden Treasures," a nature documentary series, kicks off tonight at 7 at a reception at the Chelmsford Public Library. The two half-hour episodes will take viewers inside some of Chelmsford's open space conservation trails depicting the landscape and public walking trails. Scott said the crew of Michael Larkin as host, Alan Fidler on camera, and Delana Gallant as editor plan to make several more episodes. The motivating force was Phil Stanway, lead steward of the town's Open Space Stewardship Program, who is seen on camera guiding Larkin along trails at the Margaret Robbins Mills Crooked Spring Reservation and other conservation areas.
The crew took advantage of the off-road scenery. In one shot, the camera lingers on a wading blue heron as it snags a fish.
"When shooting nature documentaries, you've got to give it time," said Scott. "Sometimes you get lucky."
Each local access station has a culture of its own, according to Eleanor Pye, executive director of Lowell Telecommunications Corporation, that may or may not justify the purchase of better equipment. Until June, Pye was employed by North Andover Community Access and Media where productions didn't warrant spending about $3,500 on the Canon XH A1 cameras that were purchased in Chelmsford last year, she said.
But in Lowell, where the community is teeming with visual artists, high definition equipment is a "nice enticement," she said. The station just completed installing a high definition editing suite and five of its eight cameras have the ability to videotape in high definition format. Samuel Schauerman, executive director of Billerica Access Television, said this fiscal year's $500,000 budget has money set aside to replace the entire fleet of eight camcorders, some as old as eight years.
"If we were to replace a camera this year, we'd go toward HD, without a doubt," he said.
The type of high definition video cameras suitable for local access videography are a far cry from high-end professional ones that bring the rich and vibrant Red Sox games to viewers' high definition television sets at home.
The lower-end cameras compress digital files so that they take up less storage space on a computer, and while they produce better quality images than the family camcorder, they don't compare to HD cameras costing thousands more dollars.
This leaves the quasi professional HDV cameras in limbo as Comcast turns its attention away from local access and toward high definition programming. Upgrading transmission technology from local access stations is on the back burner unless customers demand it, said Comcast spokesman Jim Hughes.
"At some point, we may evaluate the potential of adding digital transmission equipment for local access studios," he said.
"Hidden Treasures" begins airing in Chelmsford on Monday at 8:30 p.m. on Channel 8.
Chelmsford series awaits technology
By Joyce Pellino Crane
Globe Correspondent / September 25, 2008
Cable Access viewers in Chelmsford with wide screen television sets can compare Wolf Blitzer's pearly whites with Anderson Cooper's on CNN, but they're unlikely to see the rich hues of the wading blue heron at the Crooked Spring Brook without petitioning Comcast.
High-definition television is available for network broadcasts these days, but the newly shot video about Chelmsford's trails with close-ups of purple hydrangea blossoms and green pine needles will be aired in a digital format that cannot show such vibrant details.
Across the region, local access television stations are purchasing high-definition cameras capable of capturing crisper and more colorful pictures. But the technology that transmits their images to viewers' television sets has not caught up with the equipment advancements.
"Equipment is getting cheaper and cheaper, and the quality is getting better," said Matt Scott, executive director of Chelmsford Telemedia.
Cameras and editing equipment are owned by the nonprofit local access stations that in recent years have become separate entities from the cable companies that created them in the 1980s. That was a period when cable lines were being strung throughout cities and towns. Today the network of wires in this region belongs to Comcast Corp., the area's predominant cable provider. In recent years, Comcast upgraded to fiber optics but did not replace all of the transmission equipment that carries the video signal to viewers' home televisions.
This equipment transmits an old-fashioned analog signal from local access stations instead of a standard or high definition signal. Analog transmissions degrade even the clearest image.
Many cable companies use standard definition cameras for videographing productions. But as those cameras age, they are being replaced with the so-called HDV cameras that were used to film the debuting documentary series, "Hidden Treasures," at Chelmsford Telemedia.
"This series is going to be archived and shown years from now in HD," said Scott, stressing that the technological gap between the captured image and its airing will eventually disappear.
That's why a crew of three Telemedia volunteers spent last spring shooting in the high-definition format, creating the first locally produced production with the new cameras. "Hidden Treasures," a nature documentary series, kicks off tonight at 7 at a reception at the Chelmsford Public Library. The two half-hour episodes will take viewers inside some of Chelmsford's open space conservation trails depicting the landscape and public walking trails. Scott said the crew of Michael Larkin as host, Alan Fidler on camera, and Delana Gallant as editor plan to make several more episodes. The motivating force was Phil Stanway, lead steward of the town's Open Space Stewardship Program, who is seen on camera guiding Larkin along trails at the Margaret Robbins Mills Crooked Spring Reservation and other conservation areas.
The crew took advantage of the off-road scenery. In one shot, the camera lingers on a wading blue heron as it snags a fish.
"When shooting nature documentaries, you've got to give it time," said Scott. "Sometimes you get lucky."
Each local access station has a culture of its own, according to Eleanor Pye, executive director of Lowell Telecommunications Corporation, that may or may not justify the purchase of better equipment. Until June, Pye was employed by North Andover Community Access and Media where productions didn't warrant spending about $3,500 on the Canon XH A1 cameras that were purchased in Chelmsford last year, she said.
But in Lowell, where the community is teeming with visual artists, high definition equipment is a "nice enticement," she said. The station just completed installing a high definition editing suite and five of its eight cameras have the ability to videotape in high definition format. Samuel Schauerman, executive director of Billerica Access Television, said this fiscal year's $500,000 budget has money set aside to replace the entire fleet of eight camcorders, some as old as eight years.
"If we were to replace a camera this year, we'd go toward HD, without a doubt," he said.
The type of high definition video cameras suitable for local access videography are a far cry from high-end professional ones that bring the rich and vibrant Red Sox games to viewers' high definition television sets at home.
The lower-end cameras compress digital files so that they take up less storage space on a computer, and while they produce better quality images than the family camcorder, they don't compare to HD cameras costing thousands more dollars.
This leaves the quasi professional HDV cameras in limbo as Comcast turns its attention away from local access and toward high definition programming. Upgrading transmission technology from local access stations is on the back burner unless customers demand it, said Comcast spokesman Jim Hughes.
"At some point, we may evaluate the potential of adding digital transmission equipment for local access studios," he said.
"Hidden Treasures" begins airing in Chelmsford on Monday at 8:30 p.m. on Channel 8.