November 2006 ff amera The NationalC Academy of Television Arts and Sciences www.emmysf.tv San Francisco/Northern California Chapter GOLD & SILVER OPEN MEDIA CIRCLE - Nov 11 NETWORK - Nov 15 By Cynthia E. Zeiden Tickets are still available for the 20th Anniversary Join us on Wednesday, Gold and Silver Circle November 15, 2006 for an Induction Luncheon evening at the Open Media coming up on Saturday, Network (OMN), a video-on- November 11, 2006. demand company. The location is The Holiday Inn at the Open Media Network Head- Fisherman’s Wharf is the quarters, 436 Waverley Street, location. The party starts Palo Alto, CA 94301. The event with a no-host reception at runs from 7:00 p.m. until 9:00 11 a.m. Lunch will be CEO Mike Homer p.m., with registration, network- served at noon with the ceremony folllowing. ing and light refreshments the first half hour. At 7:30, Tickets are $65 for Academy members and $70 for the program begins with an introduction to OMN, its guests. Call the Academy office at 650-341-7786. history and development. You’ll see how the OMN The luncheon is shaping up to be a star-studded viewer works technically, along with demonstrations of event in more ways than one. Both the Class of 2006 the types of content featured on OMN. You’ll also find honorees and the presenters they have selected to out how their business model works and how produc- introduce them represent some of the best and bright- ers can distribute their content on the site. est in broadcasting. continued on page 2 continued on page 6 KTVU LAUNCHES EARTHQUAKE HD NEWS IN HAWAII No power, no cell phones, no staff. We are broadcasting blind on emergency generator, sending out our signal to unknown recipi- ents. Slowly some cell phones kick in and we start to get calls from the Big By Keith Sanders By Pamela Young Island. I am on the On Tuesday October 10th at 4pm KTVU became the newsroom cut-in set an hour and 20 minutes after the first Bay Area TV station to air local news in HD. A few first earthquake. There is not enough juice to light the stations in the San Francisco market have already main set or studio cams so our chief engineer Rodney experimented with various forms of HD production, but Shimabukuro struggles to connect wires under my none had tackled the complexities of daily HD news- desk as a Hilo resident describes the devastation of a casts. 6.6 earthquake 6 miles out of Kailua-Kona. It’s an understatement to say the switch to HD We have one lavaliere, which I hold to the speaker news was merely complex. “The operators were phone. No video, no IFB, no rundown, no floor crew. amazing, given the task of accomplishing many News Director Tod Pritchard makes hand signals and continued on page 5 continued on page 3 Off Camera, November 2006, page 1 CIRCLE INDUCTEES PICK PRESTIGIOUS PRESENTERS continued from page 1 Gold Circle Inductee Franklin Mieuli Will be Silver Circle Inductee John Fowler, KTVU 2 reporter, introduced by Linda Giannecchini (Silver Circle 1997), picked his former News Director Fred Zehnder Franklin Mieuli and Associates/KQED, and the (Silver Circle 1991). Fred also received the 2000 Golden State Warriors basketball giant Al Attles. Governors’ Award. Inductee Mark Hedlund, reporter KXTV News 10 CBS 5 Anchor Sydnie Kohara asked her former selected KXTV News 10 Anchor Jennifer Smith boss Harry Fuller (Silver Circle 2001) to introduce her. (Silver Circle 2004) to introduce him. Harry was News Director at KGO, News Director and General Manger at KPIX. He moved on to ZDTV, CNBC and now C|Net. Former Fresno Anchor Bob Long has asked KSEE 24 KTVU Mornings on 2 host Ross McGowan will Anchor Faith Sidlow to do the introductions. have his former KPIX “People are Talking” co-host Ann Frazer introduce him. CBS 5 Political Reporter Hank Plante will be Terry Lowry, (Silver Circle 1996), LaCosse Productions introduced by his KPIX Special Projects producer is the chair of the Gold and Silver Circle Committee. Tim Didion. Pete Wilson, (Silver Circle 2001), ABC 7 Anchor, will be the Master of Ceremonies. Off Camera, November 2006, page 2 COVERING AN EARTHQUAKE IN HAWAII continued from next 11 1/2 page 1 hours we are a live, non- writes the stop, bare- latest data on bones broad- scraps of cast. For the paper. After a younger few minutes reporters it is the speaker a lesson in phone dies Dark Age and I must television, repeat the before prompt- information ers, monitors we receive and robotics from callers. KITV anchor Gary Sprinkle KITV anchor Pamela Young enhanced their We are one “face time.” Our executive producer Erin Kinney is out step away from using a paper cup and string. on maternity leave, our 6pm producer Marisa Assignments Manager Wanda Wehr dispatches Takahashi is in Viet Nam, so 5pm producer Anna neighbor island stringers to shoot video but we are Gomes is in The Chair from 8:30am to 11:30pm, sus- uncertain how we’ll get it in-house since all the airports tained only by strong coffee and Cheetos. are closed. For now we must rely on the phoner The loss of power to much of Hawaii created a descriptions and the imaginations of the handful of unique communication process. We were black to our viewers who still have electricity. Webmaster Brent local audience on Oahu, Maui, and parts of the Big Suyama starts receiving photos on our website, Island, but CNN took our words worldwide, and those thehawaiichannel.com. There are amazing stills of a viewers then called relatives and friends in Hawaii with Lapahoehoe bluff falling into the sea, cracks splitting the necessary emergency information. This also con- apart a highway, elderly patients being wheeled out of firmed to us what I’m sure New Orleans broadcast their crumbling hospital. facilities know all too well. In a disaster you cease to be CNN picks us up and our broadcast, unavailable to a television or radio station. You become a public utility. most of the state, goes out to the rest of the world. I am so proud of the job KITV did. Many put personal We receive email from Europe, Africa, and nearly every concerns aside to support the newsroom, from General mother on the mainland seeking the whereabouts of Manager Mike Rosenberg, who never left the station, vacationing kin. Since we are the only Hawaii television to unpaid intern Nate Serota, who answered hundreds station with a signal, the newsroom becomes Disaster of phone calls. I’m also blown away by the “ohana” Information Central. Most of our calls then become very spirit of the people of Hawaii. Despite damage to nearly personal....”do you know where my daughter is?”... “my 1500 homes, not one family took the Red Cross up on parents are on a cruise ship off Maui “....”my grand- its offer of housing and food. Neighbors and friends mother isn’t answering her phone”.... took in the stranded and homeless. After two hours, the news set fires up. 6pm anchors It is the next morning and everyone is back for the Paula Akana and Shawn Ching take their seats, while mop-up. Flights have resumed and we are getting I’m relieved by 5pm anchor Gary Sprinkle, just back reacquainted with our primary medium...video. Another from Hawaii Civil Defense with our first package. quake hit the Big Island, 4.0 on the Richter scale, but Nearly every KITV staff member walks through the most structures in jeopardy have already fallen. Since door, carrying provisions and foul-weather gear. On top the candy machine has been restocked, newsroom of all this, a tropical storm has been forecast. For the staffers are confident we can weather another storm. JOEL BARTLETT MATIER MOVES LIFETIME ACHIVEMENT TO CBS 5 The Board of Direc- San Francisco Chronicle tors of the Northern Columnist Phil Matier moves California Radio-Televi- from KRON 4 to CBS 5 as an on- sion News Directors air contributor. Phil will appear Associaton honored Joel primarily in the 6 pm newscasts Bartlett with a Lifetime and on Early Edition on Fridays Achievement Award at and Sundays. His reporting will the 25th NorCal RTNDA emphasize government and Awards on Saturday, politics. October 28th. Phil co-writes the Matier & Joel has been a Ross column with Andy Ross, meteorologist at ABC 7, KPIX 5, PG&E and a weather which runs in The Chronicle on Sunday, Monday and officer for the U.S. Air Force. Wednesday. Off Camera, November 2006, page 3 DVD - PAST - PRESENT - FUTURE By Cynthia E. Zeiden This seminar is definitely one of the most popular we offer! On Saturday, October 7, 2006, after a nice breakfast at Steve Michelson’s Lobitos Creek Ranch in Half Moon Bay, Steve pre- sented his seminar on the history, present and future of the DVD format. Its rich content explored the current usages and trends of DVD, HD DVD and Blue Ray. He then compared the media’s usage to Broadband and gave us some charts that reflected future trends in media delivery. Some facts of interest: only Microsoft’s Windows Media Player has Digital Rights Management built into it. As content providers collect money from pay per view, it protects content and has expiration dates. No other system has this built in. Steve said that with Tower Records closing, it indicates the end of going to stores to buy DVDs. With web VOD, you can purchase movies, download them and burn them onto your own blank DVDs.