The Great Minicam War

Surely there isn’ t a television viewer alive in the Dallas-Fort Worth market who isn’t aware of the Minicam-Live-on-Five hype. Tube watchers have been bombarded by newspaper and television promotions touting the ability of Channels 8 and 5 to bring you an event live from the scene. Maybe this live business isn’t a big deal to viewers, but it is to the television people who have spent careers trying to shave a few seconds off the time it takes to film a story and get it on the air. Now it doesn’t take any time at all.

What it does take, though, is money, and lots of it. So far Channel 8 has spent approximately $450,000 on new equipment. The bill breaks down like this: $100,000 for a Minicam van and camera; $90,000 for microwave equipment to relay the signal from the van back to the studios; $75,000 for two-way radio equipment needed to coordinate the live broadcasts with air time; the remaining $185,000 for miscellaneous equipment. Channel 8 probably will move toward eliminating film equipment altogether, replacing it with portable video tape cameras, which are used for live broadcasts. That should cost about another $300,000. Channel 5 is still undecided whether to drop film, and Channel 4 has yet to move into the Minicam-Live-on-Five race.

Although the equipment is initially expensive, the use of video tape instead of film is a great money saver. Twenty minutes worth of film costs $200, without processing, while 20 minutes worth of Minicam video tape costs about $15. The film can be used only once, while the video tape can be used over and over, just like audio tape on a regular tape recorder. There is another major advantage of video tape – stories can be brought back to the station and edited throughout the day, unlike film, which must be processed, causing furious last-minute afternoon editing.

Both Channel 8 and Channel 5 have all of their live equipment in Dallas, the hotbed of story competition. From a remote location, staff reporters can use their portable equipment in several different ways. They can record the scene on video tape and later drive the tape back to the station, or they can send the microwave signal directly back to the station, where the remote scene can either be video taped or put on the air live. They do this by sending a microwave signal sent from the van to a tall downtown building, where it is picked up by microwave equipment, and relayed to the television studios. (Channel 8 uses Southland Life and Channel 5 uses Bryan Tower.) The microwave setup is a real boon to Channel 5, which previously had to drive its filmed stories back to Fort Worth, losing 45 precious minutes.

The whole Minicam-Live-on-Five hype has underscored just how significant the introduction of lightweight portable video tape cameras and live microwave broadcasts have become. In fact, they are revolutionary, equal in importance to the two most significant developments in television history – the invention of video tape ana inven-tion of color camera equipment. For years television stations have been able to broadcast from remote locations by sending out a huge van, but the exorbitant cost of doing so limited coverage to major events such as a football game.

Live reporting really puts the pressure on reporters, who previously could re-shoot stories until they got them picture perfect. With live reporting the chances of a reporter making a fool of himself are abundant, while the director back at the station stands by helplessly, head in hands.

At times stories have been aired live merely for the sake of demonstrating the new live capabilities. Channel 8 news director Marty Haag cites such an example, a film interview story at the courthouse in which viewers saw Doug Fox introduce the story live from outside the courthouse, then saw the filmed interview, followed by a live closing by Fox from outside the courthouse. “That was pretty silly,” Haag says. On the other hand, there have been some exciting moments, Haag points out, when presidential candidates Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter spotted live cameras at Love Field and made unscheduled stops to get some live air time.

Channel 5’s electronic journalism coordinator John Miller puts it succinctly: “Everybody’s learning about the new equipment. There are no books written on how to use it successfully. The equipment is first generation, and very awkward at times. We’re using it and misusing it, but we’re trying to use it right.”