While not ready to displace microwave or satellite as the best ways to get news coverage back to the station from the field, wireless broadband technologies are making life easier for reporters as the quality continues to improve.

Journalists are being equipped with compact cameras, tripods and editing equipment that they use by themselves to help TV stations make the transition to 24-hour-a-day news operations. Outlets are producing stories not just for a few newscasts, but also for Web sites and mobile platforms without having to add cost to tight budgets.

While not all stations are broadcasting in high-def, if they're upgrading their weather gear, they're looking for that capability plus other features that enhance the on-air look.

The expense of upgrading a station's infrastructure, newsroom and studio for HD news is burdensome in small markets where revenue is a fraction of what it is in the large markets and margins are much thinner. But a handful small-market stations (DMA 100-plus) have made the switch to HD and others are phasing it in or making do with HD-lite (SD with a 16x9 aspect ratio).

Now that the economy shows signs of improving, TV stations are dusting off their plans to convert local newscasts to high def. But many are not looking to fill their studios and vans with the high-end gear they might have opted for a few years ago. Now, they want products that cost less and will help them reduce their operating costs as well.

One of the main obstacles to effective mobile TV service is the fact that VHF stations are harder to receive on devices with small antennas like cell phones. Broadcast engineers and the Open Mobile Video Coalition are hard at work on solutions.

The road to wealth from mobile DTV is far from clear, but one obstacle broadcasters apparently don't have to worry about is retrofitting their stations to broadcast the on-the-go video service. Vendors are lining up with all the boxes stations will need and pioneering broadcast engineers say that they are not tough to install. However, the price tag — $60,000 to $160,000 — may discourage some from implementing the service before the revenue is real.

While the annual tech show in Amsterdam expects fewer exhibitors, more than 100 of the 1,000 companies are coming for the first time. And while attendance is expected to be down from last year, show organizers don't expect a precipitous drop since many people recognize that now is the time to invest in knowledge to help them improve their business as the recession starts to wind down.

In designing and outfitting the ABC Philadelphia O&O's new building, the station's chief tech Hank Volpe says the goal was to do more — much more — with about the same staffing the station currently has. He thinks they have met that goal by putting together an integrated, file-based distribution system within the building for handling all the video imported or produced by the station.

KVIA, the News Press & Gazette ABC affiliate in the west Texas town, wants to get to the bottom of the question of which band gives better coverage. It's become an RF test lab after getting the OK from the FCC to to simulcast on its pre-digital-transition UHF ch. 17 at 263 kW and comparing the signal's propagation and reception with that of its current operation on VHF ch. 7 with 32.4 kW.

Rather than controlling its stations' operations from a centralcasting hub, some broadcasters, including Media General and Barrington, are opting for the monitor-and-control approach, where master control at the stations is left more or less intact, but is controlled and monitored from a remote location.

Those are the key drivers leading TV groups like Gannett, Fox, Media General and Post-Newsweek to adopt systems that allow it to create and manage graphics production for as many — or as few — locations as desired, giving a consistency to group-wide design and bringing new efficiencies to the bottom line.

The faltering economy is causing many stations to consider outsourcing master control and other technical back-office jobs. Among those that may provide such services are third-party firms as well as LIN, Media General, Raycom and other station groups that have already began centralcasting or hubbing.

Thousands are complaining loudly that they can no longer find stations that switched from UHF to VHF channels last Friday as part the final transition to DTV. Nobody knows why for sure, but the speculation blames everything from UHF-only rabbit ears to improperly retrofitted transmitters to inadequate broadcast power.

Cellular Terrestrial Broadband is a new company that wants to organize LPTV broadcasters into a consortium that would digitize stations and improve their coverage so that they could offer a host of new services including wireless cable and Internet downloading.

After making the transition to digital broadcasting on Jan. 15, Honlulu TV stations are facing the fact that some viewers have lost over-the-air service, in many cases because they need a better antenna. Secondary transmitters on some other islands are also causing problems since they're not as high as their analog counterparts.

When it became clear that upgrading Meredith's Phoenix CBS affiliate for digital couldn't be done by working around the facility's limitations, it opted to construct a separate 2,000-square-foot room to house the new technical core comprising Harris and Grass Valley equipment.

The syndicated show and companion Web site are aided in their never-ending quest for celebrities at their worst by a file-based workflow that speeds production and allows for continual changes. "We can be flexible in a way you could only dream of in a typical TV show," said creator/executive producer/on-air personality Harvey Levin (pictured).

A studio-ready PMW-EX3 HD camcorder at $30,000 is one-half and one-third of the asking prices for Sony's top-of-the-line HDC1400 and HDC1500 studio cameras, respectively. It's aimed at stations in smaller markets that feel the need to make the move to HD to keep pace with their rival stations, even though their revenue, margins and budgets are shrinking

KYW Philadelphia Chief Engineer Rich Paleski uncovered a potential problem for the nation's TV stations when he tracked down the likely source of interference to his C-band downlink. He believes it's coming from WiMax equipment in the 3650-3700 MHz band that abuts the lower end of the satellite C-band frequencies.