[BeachComber]

How widespread was this on CBS's Thursday Night Primetime Programming?


Of course, as everything is repeats, its the only ORIGINAL program on CBS tonight.

 

[owine]

It looks like a local issue going from local syndicated programming to network programming.

 

[NetworkTV]

That had to be a local issue since Everybody Loves Raymond is syndicated programming only now.

 

[BeachComber]



Quote:
Originally Posted by owine /forum/post/15434712


It looks like a local issue going from local syndicated programming to network programming.

That was the reason I included the time graph - it was in middle of Network Programming at 8:15pm - not going from local syndicated to network.

Quote:
Originally Posted by NetworkTV /forum/post/15434715


That had to be a local issue since Everybody Loves Raymond is syndicated programming only now.

It was on WCBS-DT in NYC in the middle of Thursday Primetime and I *believe* CBS handles the syndication distribution.

 

[mscottc]

"CWD" is CBS Worldwide Distribution. It is a purely technical arm of CBS that handles Syndication distribution of programming. While they are housed within the same building as the CBS Television Network's east coast "Broadcast Center," they do not handle network distribution. If you saw this on only on WCBS TV, I'd assume it was a local (channel 2) Master control error.

 

[BeachComber]



Quote:
Originally Posted by mscottc /forum/post/15434817


"CWD" is CBS Worldwide Distribution.

Thanks for confirming that CBS was handling distribution of Raymond - however, WCBS does not even have the rights to Raymond in syndication it appears (or at least its not aired on Channel 2 in NY).

 

[hphase]

Nevertheless, I'll bet CWD is in the WCBS router somewhere. Oooops...

 

[sneals2000]



Quote:
Originally Posted by hphase /forum/post/15435744


Nevertheless, I'll bet CWD is in the WCBS router somewhere. Oooops...

Though a bit less of an Ooops than if the MCR had cut to actual programme material that the station didn't have rights for

 

[DrDon]

Last words heard before you saw that: "Hey, Doug. Thanks for letting me borrow your car. Here's your keys. Catch."


Or


"Hey Doug, can you bring CWD up on the house feed so we can watch 'Raymond' in the conference room? No, Doug, HOUSE feed!!"


Or..


"I replaced the lamps in the switcher, but this one won't light unless you hit it really hard, like this."

 

[NetworkTV]



Quote:
Originally Posted by DrDon /forum/post/15438167


Last words heard before you saw that: "Hey, Doug. Thanks for letting me borrow your car. Here's your keys. Catch."


Or


"Hey Doug, can you bring CWD up on the house feed so we can watch 'Raymond' in the conference room? No, Doug, HOUSE feed!!"


Or..


"I replaced the lamps in the switcher, but this one won't light unless you hit it really hard, like this."

At the fist station I worked at, our master control "switcher" consisted of two rows of 10x router switches - you know, the old kind with the little black keys with little LEDs above them to indicate which one was active.


It only took a couple of times for the operator to accidently toss a pen onto the on air row for them to switch that one out for the type with the square, backlit buttons.


A guy I know at another outlet would run the overnight master control shift which consisted of a lot of sitting and watching boring and obscure stuff. To pass the time, he took up juggling paper balls. Sure enough, one of them hit the program row just hard enough to switch the source.


At my current employer, master control ops are prohibitted from putting anything in preset that isn't intended to be the next source. It stems from an incident where a competing network was accidently beamed to India late one night for a few seconds when the transition button was hit.

 

[sneals2000]



Quote:
Originally Posted by NetworkTV /forum/post/15438794


At the fist station I worked at, our master control "switcher" consisted of two rows of 10x router switches - you know, the old kind with the little black keys with little LEDs above them to indicate which one was active.


It only took a couple of times for the operator to accidently toss a pen onto the on air row for them to switch that one out for the type with the square, backlit buttons.


A guy I know at another outlet would run the overnight master control shift which consisted of a lot of sitting and watching boring and obscure stuff. To pass the time, he took up juggling paper balls. Sure enough, one of them hit the program row just hard enough to switch the source.


At my current employer, master control ops are prohibitted from putting anything in preset that isn't intended to be the next source. It stems from an incident where a competing network was accidently beamed to India late one night for a few seconds when the transition button was hit.

Or having a downstream network switcher panel that stays live all the time... Great when the incoming operator puts her handbag down on it and switches a studio camera directly to line...


I'm a BIG fan of having certain panels either lockable or requiring an ENABLE button to be pressed to confirm the switch.


I'm also a BIG fan of LEDs not bulbs and good quality switches.


(In many UK regional centres there is quite a complex set-up to allow you to switch away from the network analogue and digital feeds - with delays to keep the transitions in sync - as network digital is behind analogue because of coding delay. The OPT-OUT buttons are usually key-switch locked - but in one region they installed very cheap switches and flawed logic... 1. The first time the opt-out button was used on-air the switch fell to pieces - with the key top AND bulb flying over the shoulder of the operator , 2. The panel could be locked in the live position AND THE KEY REMOVED. Oops...)

 

[NetworkTV]



Quote:
Originally Posted by sneals2000 /forum/post/15438895


Or having a downstream network switcher panel that stays live all the time... Great when the incoming operator puts her handbag down on it and switches a studio camera directly to line...


I'm a BIG fan of having certain panels either lockable or requiring an ENABLE button to be pressed to confirm the switch.


I'm also a BIG fan of LEDs not bulbs and good quality switches.


(In many UK regional centres there is quite a complex set-up to allow you to switch away from the network analogue and digital feeds - with delays to keep the transitions in sync - as network digital is behind analogue because of coding delay. The OPT-OUT buttons are usually key-switch locked - but in one region they installed very cheap switches and flawed logic... 1. The first time the opt-out button was used on-air the switch fell to pieces - with the key top AND bulb flying over the shoulder of the operator , 2. The panel could be locked in the live position AND THE KEY REMOVED. Oops...)

Unfortunately, here in the states, we run too friggin' many commercials way too often to be locking our boards.


Of course, operator error isn't the only time bad stuff happens. At that same first station, we had a failing GV switcher in the control room that was overdue for replacement.


One of the neat features of GV boards is the "flip-flop" function that keeps the preset and program sources in their proper positions depending on whether you use the fader bar or transition button.


The downside of it is what happens when that feature begins to fail. In our case, it meant the switcher would occasionally jump to the source for the network feed without warning. Until the switcher was replaced with a newer (and bigger) model, that button was re-deligated to be a second black input and the network feed was moved to another button. It meant the worst that would happen was a momentary dip to black in the middle of the news instead of a transition to network bars prior to the national news.

 

[DrDon]

The digital air chain at WKRC-DT, Cincinnati, consisted of a simple rack-mount switcher. This was an endless source of amusement as the MCO would frequently just forget about the thing. Many a night, I got to watch one or two hours of the west coast CBS primetime HD feed before someone finally noticed that the little 3-inch monitor screen didn't match what was on the air. Other times, the MCO would fat-finger the switch sending out the wrong NFL game, syndicated programming feeds, you name it.


On the plus side, when "breaking news" caused network programming to be pre-empted, the digital air chain was often forgotten, allowing those of us who lived nowhere near the plane crash in Mason to continue to watch our shows, uninterrupted.

 

[mrvideo]



Quote:
Originally Posted by sneals2000 /forum/post/15437201


Though a bit less of an Ooops than if the MCR had cut to actual programme material that the station didn't have rights for

I've not heard of anyone getting sued over a short mistake. Even if the whole feed had been aired, it would seen silly to sue oneself over this issue. But, the people who made the error probably wouldn't have a job anymore.


What is interesting is that I've never seen a slate like that over any of the transponders. From what I've been able to determine, there are no syndicated, Canadian, or cable on-demand feeds actually originating from NY. All feeds that I've seen are sent from CBS Television City in LA. That's not to say it is impossible, I've never heard of any.


Since CBS is one happy family, it would be easy for WCBS MC staff to find out what is feeding and when and tune in the feed to watch it, only to have happen what did happen by pushing the wrong button at the wrong time.


Pushing the wrong button at the wrong time is easily done, just ask the MC staff at GDMX about oopsies. Sometimes it can be real interesting.

 

[BeachComber]

Most Master Controls in major markets have the ability to run automated anyway to prevent errors such as this.