Tuesday, April 7, 2020

KTVU Sounded Pretty Damn Awful Monday Night and Looked It Too

Cristina Rendon (@CristinaKTVU) | Twitter

GOOD GOD, IT WAS JUST PLAIN HORRIBLE LAST NIGHT

Look, I know these are makeshift operations but clearly, this is BAD! If others are doing it--the home studios--then Fox-owned, KTVU can pull it off. Quite simply now, the audio is HORRIBLE! I watched, out of the blue last night, the "10 O'clock News" and the sound was just ridiculous --at times it sounded and looked too, pathetic.

Who's minding the store?

And the delay? Almost hideously out of sync. As bas as that was, the delay between anchors was mind-numbingly awful. Especially gruesome, Mark Ibanez, who was in his home office in Napa, sounded awful and the screen was filled with snow and delay. It's not Ibanez's fault but he is made to look and sound terrible.

Good lord, Fox, get somebody to go after it!

18 comments:

  1. Overall, I didn't think the telecast was half bad. But I agree about the audio part, especially from the Skype / Zoom Video Conferencing the "at-home" anchors were using during the telecast. For most of the anchors who were doing their work from home, the audio portion stunk- not sure if room acoustics played a part in the poor audio quality. For example, Julie Haeners' audio seemed better than say, Bill Martin's audio. The video for all participants was acceptable at best. Just my opinion.

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    1. Any audio from Bill Martin is bad audio, even when he's in the studio and sounding crystal clear.

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  2. First, I'm no expert in network/IT/video-conferencing. I seem to be seeing many of the news anchors using cell phones or perhaps some type of video conferencing systems to link from their homes, to the studio. (think Zoom, SKYPE, or some other systems which may be out there.) KTVU is coordinating well with cuts to studio weather video, while R. Orozco's commentary is a bit bandwidth challenged. The video and audio will generally not be as good compared to the on-scene satellite linked vans.

    Although, on KTVU just now, Allie Rasmus's link was excellent. I imagine this could be as complex/simple as the anchor's internet/wifi/cellular/BlueTooth vs. hardwire speed & strength from where they are sitting in their own homes. Other considerations may be what phones/webcams/microphones are being used.

    SIDENOTE: In the last few days, I've had power, internet, and cable tv problems occur, all unrelated to each other.

    This is far from the quality a satellite-linked van can provide from a news scene on the streets, nowadays. I say nowadays as I'm old enough to remember some of the first satellite link real-time news stories which were grainy, distorted, and in black & white, only. Then much later, there was the old animated "Max Headroom" which comically depicted digital video & speech breakups & syncing.

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  3. I'm just thankful to be that much closer to Heather Holmes bedroom.

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    1. Heather can be more casually dressed from home. Perhaps some sheer silk-like pajamas or, holy summertime, a bikini when the weather warms up. Knock us out Heather.

      And over at KRON Darya, take up the challenge! It can be a slut shit show faceoff. May the best thang win!

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    2. Darya of 5 years ago would totally participate.

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  4. It sounds like KTVU is using 56K internet connections with a speakerphone. Can't they at least use the earbuds or headphones with microphones built into them? Other stations seem to be doing better with their at home reporters.

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    1. Looks/sounds like video from the early days of YouTube. As usual, KTVU is a decade behind the times.

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  5. All the local news coming from peoples home studios is bad. The news is essential and we deserve better. I am surprised at what some of these people allow us to see in the background. Reggie shows of his rental furniture and cheap art. That jerkoff on KTVU mornings broadcasting from his kids room is a real pro. Some stringer from Circle 7 shows us a filthy kitchen the other day. Of course Gasia and Sara make and effort to look classy which misses the mark by a mile. Allie invited us into her bedroom, but did not make the bed. You are right that these people don’t make any money; just look at how they live. These people should put on masks and get back to the studio where they don’t look and sound quite so bad.

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  6. They seem to use a lot of Skype which has way lower video and sound quality. The other stations are using more Zoom. Just a stupid choice on the part of management. Looks sloppy as hell. Wonder who made that brilliant call?

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    1. The new suits at KTVU are among the dumbest in the industry, but just as with the president that Fox adores, the quality of the decisions isn't a factor in your employment—only ass-kissing and covering your tracks is. I'm surprised, btw, that Rich hasn't made the obvious observation—that KTVU never shows any of the negative aspects of Trump, or if they do they massage it severely. If you want to know about all the asshole things he did and said that day, you have to turn to one of the other channels which broadcasts its Trump news uncensored. KTVU just does press-release journalism at this point...and sadly few people seem to have noticed.

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  7. So has any station taken the leap to remote direction/switching of a newscast? How about empty studio/both/control room - do it all by remote (browser) without a truck. Trucks/vans are so old-school.

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  8. Reggie Aqui was wearing a white shirt with a Circle U logo on his setup from home this morning. Couldn't tell for sure if it was a sewn logo or a pin. Why not wear a coat and tie as well if you're going to be that formal? Or go casual and just wear a wife (or husband)-beater t-shirt like the rest of us while you slug a can a beer. Let's drop the pretensions.

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  9. Did you see KTVU Tuesday night? It was worse. Had to switch the channel to a real news station—KNTV.

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  10. KTVU anchors are so cheap and outdated not upgrading their cameras to HD 4K, Frank, Julie, Heather, Rosemary, Caldine Wong cameras and audio was so bad, I tune to Channel 7.

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  11. Some observations:

    KTVU seems to have by far the most reporters/anchors working from home. Most other stations (in SF and beyond) still have a decent amount of live shots from the field. KTVU, has maybe one reporter in the field for mornings, evenings, late night,.... and the rest working from home. BUT, the photographers are still out in the trucks gathering B-Roll, interviews, etc.

    I've noticed some other stations (ABC7 and KPIX) have sent their anchors working from home professional broadcast cameras complete with audio and lighting kits.. Elizabeth cook, for example, is all mic'd up from her living room, and despite "working from home" appears to have a photog with her or a LIVEU pack and lightning kit with her MMJ style.

    KTVU does not have enough live u backpacks and equipment to send out to each reporter to report from home, but you would think they could at least get some lav mics which connect to iphones.

    Bonus: You wouldn't know it, but Lester Holt is anchoring Nightly News from home. I'd imagine there is a producer with him, but they appear to have a green screen background up and if you watch closely you'll notice he's standing up, and the shot of him is always the same medium closeup. David Muir, who's rating are through the roof, is still at ABC HQ in NYC.


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  12. How about Jobina Fortson upping the ante on home background decorations? Turn on Circle 7 this morning and what do we see but, not 1, but 2 Emmys on the table behind her, next to her computer screen. So, who's going to put their cards on the table & whip out their Emmys for Covid professional decorations?

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