On Sunday Night's Apprentice, the winning team went out for a Helicopter tour of Los Angeles.

On the airport ramp right behind them was a Helinet HD Copter - Hard to miss as it was on screen in several shots for at least 10 or seconds total. It was fully equiped with the gyro HD Camera on the front - Helinet across the top and HD in big yellow letters.

For those (99.9999999%) AVS Forum readers who have no idea what Helinet is, check here (http://www.helinet.com/) or here. (http://www.google.com/search?q=helinet+hd&sourceid=ie7&rls=com.microsoft:en-US&ie=utf8&oe=utf8)

Anyway, THIS WAS NOT THE BLUE KABC SKY7HD.

So the obvious question is - is another HD Copter/Newscast about to take to the Los Angeles Airwaves?

The obvious speculation would be KCBS with their new Studios - but then why would NBC almost go out of their way to show this copter?

KCBS/KCAL News is set to go HD on April 12th, a good bet it's theirs or it could just be an HD 'copter for hire.

The obvious speculation would be KCBS with their new Studios - but then why would NBC almost go out of their way to show this copter?

Because if the local NBC guys shot it, it wouldn't have been. An indie production company shooting a show doesn't care. ;)

Doesn't Helinet have a have a fleet of helicopters used for aerial television production other then news?

KNBC is rumored to go HD for its news pretty soon (within the year). Still, this was probably a copter for hire and unrelated to any future Chopper4HD plans, if they exist in the first place.

KTLA has a HD copter that is leased by Helinet. Sorry to burst the bubble. They have had it running for a while.

The airport may have been the Van Nuys Airport in the San Fernando Valley, where all of the Los Angeles area TV station's helicopters are housed. Helinet is also based out of there and that yellow HD helicopter can be seen parked at the north side of the airport (viewable from Roscoe Blvd for you local ppl). That helicopter is most likely leased and was actually flown to New Orleans to gather HD footage of Katrina's damage more than a year ago; of which I'm not sure where the footage went. Other than KABC and KTLA, Helinet also provided the LAPD with an HD helicopter.

Doesn't Helinet have a have a fleet of helicopters used for aerial television production other then news?

Yes they do

The airport may have been the Van Nuys Airport in the San Fernando Valley, where all of the Los Angeles area TV station's helicopters are housed. Helinet is also based out of there and that yellow HD helicopter can be seen parked at the north side of the airport (viewable from Roscoe Blvd for you local ppl). That helicopter is most likely leased and was actually flown to New Orleans to gather HD footage of Katrina's damage more than a year ago; of which I'm not sure where the footage went. Other than KABC and KTLA, Helinet also provided the LAPD with an HD helicopter.
Interesting. From my office where I am sitting now I can see the Van Nuys airport runway. They used to park the news helicopters right next to our parking lot (west side of runway south end). However they moved them some months ago.

Tomorrow at lunch I will check the north end.

Rick R

Katrina's damage footage was shown on HDNET