Centralcasting
Encyclopedia
In terrestrial radio
and television broadcasting, centralcasting refers to the use of systems automation
by which customised signals for broadcast by multiple individual stations may be created at one central facility.
which operates on the presumption that large quantities of content are similar and are handled in a consistent or repetitive manner across multiple stations in a broadcast station group. While each individual station has its own digital on-screen graphic
logo, call sign
and identity, much of the content on a typical affiliate station consists of a common television network
or syndicated programming with a small number of local broadcast programming time blocks employed for television news and sports television coverage, public affairs
programming or local television commercials.
Traditionally, many operations at an individual broadcast station were handled manually by broadcast engineering
technicians at the local station. Network feeds would arrive by satellite
; these would contain time cues to indicate when the station could switch to a prerecorded local station break from a videotape recorder, a local station ID from a character generator
or a local program such as a newscast. Syndicated programming would arrive separately, either recorded in advance from satellite for tape delay
or transported on prerecorded media. Local advertisements would be stored on tape cartridges ("carts") which would need to be inserted in the correct timeslots manually. A station could not operate unattended, even if it were merely retransmitting a network television program
me originated elsewhere.
Broadcast automation relies on computer
s to store and retrieve video
, largely eliminating the use of individual videotapes and allowing switching and retrieval of stored programming, advertising and titles to take place automatically. The server would operate from stored playlist
s, in which each programme, each commercial advertisement, each live or network feed and each station break had been configured in advance.
or (occasionally) satellite and can be costly if large amounts of digital video
must be carried great distances.
By shifting many of the control tasks to a central hub, centralcasting may also reduce the investment which must be made in equipment for each individual local station in the group for upgrades such as digital television
broadcasting as less equipment is required at each local station site.
Centralcasting can also be used as a way to control a station's local operations remotely during off-hours (such as late night, where there may be no one or just a skeleton crew at the local site). This can allow a station to operate on an "auto-pilot" basis during off-hours in which it otherwise may have needed to sign-off.
es or other natural disaster
s which require local, live and immediate coverage. Individual local stations must also retain enough equipment to handle Emergency Alert System
messages, routing them automatically to any remote locations being used to encode the final broadcast signals.
The use of large amounts of centrally assembled programming may also reduce local diversity, turning a station into little more than a semi-satellite of a main broadcaster in another city. In some cases, individual stations in a group will legally need to maintain nominal main studios in their respective communities of license
but will originate little or nothing from these facilities once most broadcast-related tasks become centralised.
Broadcast centralisation can create problems when one station in the group is sold (as the local master control functions which had been centralised must be restored before the local station is a viable stand-alone entity). There also needs to be some means to remain on-air locally if the link to the central hub is lost, lest a single point of failure
take down all stations in the regional group.
. The News Central
format, which Sinclair has abandoned in 2006, involved inserting small blocks of local content into an otherwise-national newscast, which would then be presented to local viewers as having been generated at the local station.
The resulting product contains largely the same content (and potentially the same journalistic biases) in each market in which it appears, raising objections from proponents of localism and opponents of concentration of media ownership
.
The reduction in local broadcast-related jobs as tasks are moved to central locations has also drawn objections from trade union
s.
Radio
Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
and television broadcasting, centralcasting refers to the use of systems automation
Automation
Automation is the use of control systems and information technologies to reduce the need for human work in the production of goods and services. In the scope of industrialization, automation is a step beyond mechanization...
by which customised signals for broadcast by multiple individual stations may be created at one central facility.
Centralcasting is a form of broadcast automation
Broadcast automation
Broadcast automation incorporates the use of broadcast programming technology to automate broadcasting operations. Used either at a broadcast network, radio station or a television station, it can run a facility in the absence of a human operator...
which operates on the presumption that large quantities of content are similar and are handled in a consistent or repetitive manner across multiple stations in a broadcast station group. While each individual station has its own digital on-screen graphic
Digital on-screen graphic
A digital on-screen graphic is a watermark-like station logo that many television broadcasters overlay over a portion of the screen-area of their programs to identify the channel...
logo, call sign
Call sign
In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign is a unique designation for a transmitting station. In North America they are used as names for broadcasting stations...
and identity, much of the content on a typical affiliate station consists of a common television network
Television network
A television network is a telecommunications network for distribution of television program content, whereby a central operation provides programming to many television stations or pay TV providers. Until the mid-1980s, television programming in most countries of the world was dominated by a small...
or syndicated programming with a small number of local broadcast programming time blocks employed for television news and sports television coverage, public affairs
Public affairs (broadcasting)
Public affairs, a broadcasting industry term, refers to television programs which focuses on matters of politics and public policy. Among commercial broadcasters, such programs are often only to satisfy Federal Communications Commission regulatory expectations and are not scheduled in prime time...
programming or local television commercials.
Traditionally, many operations at an individual broadcast station were handled manually by broadcast engineering
Broadcast engineering
Broadcast engineering is the field of electrical engineering, and now to some extent computer engineering and information technology, which deals with radio and television broadcasting...
technicians at the local station. Network feeds would arrive by satellite
Satellite television
Satellite television is television programming delivered by the means of communications satellite and received by an outdoor antenna, usually a parabolic mirror generally referred to as a satellite dish, and as far as household usage is concerned, a satellite receiver either in the form of an...
; these would contain time cues to indicate when the station could switch to a prerecorded local station break from a videotape recorder, a local station ID from a character generator
Character generator
A character generator, often abbreviated as CG, is a device or software that produces static or animated text for keying into a video stream. Modern character generators are computer-based, and can generate graphics as well as text...
or a local program such as a newscast. Syndicated programming would arrive separately, either recorded in advance from satellite for tape delay
Broadcast delay
In radio and television, broadcast delay refers to the practice of intentionally delaying broadcast of live material. A short delay is often used to prevent profanity, bloopers, violence, or other undesirable material from making it to air, including more mundane problems such as technical...
or transported on prerecorded media. Local advertisements would be stored on tape cartridges ("carts") which would need to be inserted in the correct timeslots manually. A station could not operate unattended, even if it were merely retransmitting a network television program
Television program
A television program , also called television show, is a segment of content which is intended to be broadcast on television. It may be a one-time production or part of a periodically recurring series...
me originated elsewhere.
Broadcast automation relies on computer
Computer
A computer is a programmable machine designed to sequentially and automatically carry out a sequence of arithmetic or logical operations. The particular sequence of operations can be changed readily, allowing the computer to solve more than one kind of problem...
s to store and retrieve video
Video
Video is the technology of electronically capturing, recording, processing, storing, transmitting, and reconstructing a sequence of still images representing scenes in motion.- History :...
, largely eliminating the use of individual videotapes and allowing switching and retrieval of stored programming, advertising and titles to take place automatically. The server would operate from stored playlist
Playlist
In its most general form, a playlist is simply a list of songs. They can be played in sequential or shuffled order. The term has several specialized meanings in the realms of radio broadcasting and personal computers.-In radio:...
s, in which each programme, each commercial advertisement, each live or network feed and each station break had been configured in advance.
Central control
In some cases, broadcasters have operated groups of multiple stations at the regional or national level from one central facility, removing many tasks which were formerly done locally. These operations normally take one of two forms:- A fully centralised operation may have local stations which function as little more than a local news bureau and a transmitterTransmitterIn electronics and telecommunications a transmitter or radio transmitter is an electronic device which, with the aid of an antenna, produces radio waves. The transmitter itself generates a radio frequency alternating current, which is applied to the antenna. When excited by this alternating...
site. The local station sends its news footage to the central hub, which inserts it (along with local advertising and station identifiers) into a national network or syndicated programming feed. All video is stored in one central location. The resulting broadcast video streams are centrally assembled sent directly to local station transmitters by the central hub. - A less-centralised approach involves installing servers at local broadcast station sites which may be controlled either locally or remotely. The central hub would be able to send video to the local station, along with playlist information, and local facilities would then be used to store and rebroadcast programming.
Non-broadcast operations
Many traffic and operations tasks, such as acquiring programming, selling advertisements, scheduling and keeping records of what was broadcast and billing advertisers take place behind the scenes, yet are also suited to automation and central operation by regional broadcast station groups. If computers handle scheduling of individual broadcasts, advertisements and local identification, a computerised record of what has been broadcast can easily be extracted for use at a central location to bill advertisers for broadcast time. Central operation of non-broadcast business functions removes the need for these tasks to be carried out at each of the multiple local stations.Advantages
For some broadcasters, centralisation of broadcasting operations has reduced the number of people required to operate a station, with some saving in cost. This must be carefully balanced, however, against the cost of the extra communications links required from the local station to the hub; these often are optical fibre, microwaveMicrowave
Microwaves, a subset of radio waves, have wavelengths ranging from as long as one meter to as short as one millimeter, or equivalently, with frequencies between 300 MHz and 300 GHz. This broad definition includes both UHF and EHF , and various sources use different boundaries...
or (occasionally) satellite and can be costly if large amounts of digital video
Digital video
Digital video is a type of digital recording system that works by using a digital rather than an analog video signal.The terms camera, video camera, and camcorder are used interchangeably in this article.- History :...
must be carried great distances.
By shifting many of the control tasks to a central hub, centralcasting may also reduce the investment which must be made in equipment for each individual local station in the group for upgrades such as digital television
Digital television
Digital television is the transmission of audio and video by digital signals, in contrast to the analog signals used by analog TV...
broadcasting as less equipment is required at each local station site.
Centralcasting can also be used as a way to control a station's local operations remotely during off-hours (such as late night, where there may be no one or just a skeleton crew at the local site). This can allow a station to operate on an "auto-pilot" basis during off-hours in which it otherwise may have needed to sign-off.
Drawbacks
An over-reliance on automation (and a reduction in the number of people at the local station) may leave an individual station less able to respond to local breaking news, such as tornadoTornado
A tornado is a violent, dangerous, rotating column of air that is in contact with both the surface of the earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. They are often referred to as a twister or a cyclone, although the word cyclone is used in meteorology in a wider...
es or other natural disaster
Natural disaster
A natural disaster is the effect of a natural hazard . It leads to financial, environmental or human losses...
s which require local, live and immediate coverage. Individual local stations must also retain enough equipment to handle Emergency Alert System
Emergency Alert System
The Emergency Alert System is a national warning system in the United States put into place on January 1, 1997, when it superseded the Emergency Broadcast System , which itself had superseded the CONELRAD System...
messages, routing them automatically to any remote locations being used to encode the final broadcast signals.
The use of large amounts of centrally assembled programming may also reduce local diversity, turning a station into little more than a semi-satellite of a main broadcaster in another city. In some cases, individual stations in a group will legally need to maintain nominal main studios in their respective communities of license
City of license
A city of license or community of license, in American and Canadian broadcasting, is the community that a radio station or television station is officially licensed to serve by that country's broadcast regulator....
but will originate little or nothing from these facilities once most broadcast-related tasks become centralised.
Broadcast centralisation can create problems when one station in the group is sold (as the local master control functions which had been centralised must be restored before the local station is a viable stand-alone entity). There also needs to be some means to remain on-air locally if the link to the central hub is lost, lest a single point of failure
Single point of failure
A single point of failure is a part of a system that, if it fails, will stop the entire system from working. They are undesirable in any system with a goal of high availability or reliability, be it a business practice, software application, or other industrial system.-Overview:Systems can be made...
take down all stations in the regional group.
Users
Individual users of centralcasting facilities include:- Equity Media Holdings operates a unique C.A.S.H. (Central Automated Satellite Headend) system which allows it to programme all of its stations nationwide from one central hub in Little Rock, ArkansasLittle Rock, ArkansasLittle Rock is the capital and the largest city of the U.S. state of Arkansas. The Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 699,757 people in the 2010 census...
. Individual station sites in the system are little more than satellite-fedSatellite televisionSatellite television is television programming delivered by the means of communications satellite and received by an outdoor antenna, usually a parabolic mirror generally referred to as a satellite dish, and as far as household usage is concerned, a satellite receiver either in the form of an...
broadcast translators. - KQED originates six digital subchannelDigital subchannelIn broadcasting, digital subchannels are a means to transmit more than one independent program at the same time from the same digital radio or digital television station on the same radio frequency channel. This is done by using data compression techniques to reduce the size of each individual...
s of programming for sister stations KQEH San JoseSan Jose, CaliforniaSan Jose is the third-largest city in California, the tenth-largest in the U.S., and the county seat of Santa Clara County which is located at the southern end of San Francisco Bay...
and KQET WatsonvilleWatsonville, CaliforniaWatsonville is a city in Santa Cruz County, California, United States. The population was 51,199 according to the 2010 census.Located on the central coast of California, the economy centers predominantly around the farming industry. It is known for growing strawberries, apples, lettuce and a host...
-Monterey, CaliforniaMonterey, CaliforniaThe City of Monterey in Monterey County is located on Monterey Bay along the Pacific coast in Central California. Monterey lies at an elevation of 26 feet above sea level. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 27,810. Monterey is of historical importance because it was the capital of...
in a tapeless/file-based automated operation. - LIN Broadcasting serves eleven stations from a centralcasting hub in Indianapolis, IndianaIndianapolis, IndianaIndianapolis is the capital of the U.S. state of Indiana, and the county seat of Marion County, Indiana. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city's population is 839,489. It is by far Indiana's largest city and, as of the 2010 U.S...
and an additional five from a hub in Springfield, MassachusettsSpringfield, MassachusettsSpringfield is the most populous city in Western New England, and the seat of Hampden County, Massachusetts, United States. Springfield sits on the eastern bank of the Connecticut River near its confluence with three rivers; the western Westfield River, the eastern Chicopee River, and the eastern...
. - Newport TelevisionNewport TelevisionNewport Television, LLC is a television station holding company founded by Providence Equity Partners and Sandy DiPasquale in 2007 to acquire the television stations owned by Clear Channel Communications. In September 2007, Newport agreed to sell KFTY and KVOS-TV to LK Station Group LLC for $26.6...
operates New York Digital CentralCasting facilities at WSYR-TVWSYR-TVWSYR-TV is the ABC-affiliated television station for Central New York State that is licensed to Syracuse. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 17 from a transmitter on Sevier Road in Pompey. The station can also be seen on Time Warner channel 9 and in high definition on...
SyracuseSyracuse, New YorkSyracuse is a city in and the county seat of Onondaga County, New York, United States, the largest U.S. city with the name "Syracuse", and the fifth most populous city in the state. At the 2010 census, the city population was 145,170, and its metropolitan area had a population of 742,603...
to serve former Ackerley stations in BinghamtonBinghamton, New YorkBinghamton is a city in the Southern Tier of New York in the United States. It is near the Pennsylvania border, in a bowl-shaped valley at the confluence of the Susquehanna and Chenango Rivers...
, ElmiraElmira, New YorkElmira is a city in Chemung County, New York, USA. It is the principal city of the 'Elmira, New York Metropolitan Statistical Area' which encompasses Chemung County, New York. The population was 29,200 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Chemung County.The City of Elmira is located in...
, RochesterRochester, New YorkRochester is a city in Monroe County, New York, south of Lake Ontario in the United States. Known as The World's Image Centre, it was also once known as The Flour City, and more recently as The Flower City...
and Watertown with additional regional hubs serving OregonOregonOregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern...
and CaliforniaCaliforniaCalifornia is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
stations. - Barrington BroadcastingBarrington BroadcastingBarrington Broadcasting Company, LLC , headquartered in Hoffman Estates, Illinois is an entity wholly focused on broadcast television. The company's assets mainly consist of television stations in middle and small sized markets...
operates centralcasting facilities in Clio, MichiganClio, MichiganClio is a city in Genesee County in the U.S. state of Michigan.As of the 2000 census, the city had a population of 2,483. Clio is home to Michigan's second tallest construction, the WEYI Tower...
to serve its stations in Michigan and Ohio, all but four of them NBCNBCThe National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
affiliates. (The exceptions include two CW affiliates, an ABCAmerican Broadcasting CompanyThe American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
affiliate and a FoxFox Broadcasting CompanyFox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...
affiliate, each sister station to the NBC affiliate in their respective market.) - Some PBSPublic Broadcasting ServiceThe Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
member stations are using centralcasting facilities on a limited scale as a means to deploy additional digital subchannelDigital subchannelIn broadcasting, digital subchannels are a means to transmit more than one independent program at the same time from the same digital radio or digital television station on the same radio frequency channel. This is done by using data compression techniques to reduce the size of each individual...
s and remotely monitor unattended overnight broadcast operations. - Radio-Canada generates individualised French languageFrench languageFrench is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
television feeds for each of multiple CanadianCanadaCanada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
time zoneTime zoneA time zone is a region on Earth that has a uniform standard time for legal, commercial, and social purposes. In order for the same clock time to always correspond to the same portion of the day as the Earth rotates , different places on the Earth need to have different clock times...
s from one facility in MontrealMontrealMontreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America... - Time Warner CableTime Warner CableTime Warner Cable is an American cable television company that operates in 28 states and has 31 operating divisions...
operates four 24-hour24-hour news cycleThe 24-hour news cycle arrived with the advent of television channels dedicated to news, and brought about a much faster pace of news production with increased demand for stories that can be presented as news, as opposed to the day-by-day pace of the news cycle of printed daily newspapers...
cable news channels (YNN Central New York, YNN Rochester, YNN BuffaloYNN BuffaloYNN Buffalo is the Your News Now affiliate for Western New York. The 24-hour commercial cable news television station is carried on Time Warner Cable channel 9 throughout most of the region. It was initially seen in the city of Buffalo, New York on channel 14, then moved to channel 9 on the Buffalo...
, and YNN Capital Region) from two hubs, one (for news anchoring) in Albany and the other (for all weather operations) in Syracuse. While the news channels mostly use different anchors for each station, all four stations get their weather forecasts from the same team of meteorologists.
Controversy
Some groups, such as Sinclair Broadcasting, have attempted to centralise not only routine operational tasks but also the production of local newsLocal news
In journalism, local news refers to news coverage of events in a local context which would not normally be of interest to those of other localities, or otherwise be of national or international scope.-Television:...
. The News Central
News Central
News Central was a primetime newscast on Sinclair television stations in the United States, mixing locally produced news with nationally produced news and an opinion segment from Sinclair's Hunt Valley, Maryland studios...
format, which Sinclair has abandoned in 2006, involved inserting small blocks of local content into an otherwise-national newscast, which would then be presented to local viewers as having been generated at the local station.
The resulting product contains largely the same content (and potentially the same journalistic biases) in each market in which it appears, raising objections from proponents of localism and opponents of concentration of media ownership
Concentration of media ownership
Concentration of media ownership refers to a process whereby progressively fewer individuals or organizations control increasing shares of the mass media...
.
The reduction in local broadcast-related jobs as tasks are moved to central locations has also drawn objections from trade union
Trade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...
s.
See also
- Automatic transmission systemAutomatic transmission systemAn automatic transmission system is an automated system designed to keep a radio transmitter and antenna system running without direct human oversight or attention for long periods.-History:In the early days of radio, an operator, technician or electrical engineer...
- Broadcast automationBroadcast automationBroadcast automation incorporates the use of broadcast programming technology to automate broadcasting operations. Used either at a broadcast network, radio station or a television station, it can run a facility in the absence of a human operator...
- Station identificationStation identificationStation identification is the practice of radio or television stations or networks identifying themselves on air, typically by means of a call sign or brand name...
and local insertionLocal insertionIn broadcasting, local insertion is the act or capability of a broadcast television station, radio station, or cable TV system to insert or replace part of a broadcast network feed with content unique to the local station or system... - Video serverVideo serverA video server is a computer based device dedicated to delivering video.Unlike personal computers, being multi-application devices, a video server is designed for one purpose; provisioning video, often for broadcasters. A professional grade video server records, stores, and playout of multiple...
and playoutPlayoutIn broadcasting, playout is a term for the transmission of radio or TV channels from the broadcaster into broadcast networks that delivers the content to the audience...