Over the last couple of weeks many of our DirecTV viewers complained that there was a serious problem with the sound on KESQ-TV. We had no complaints from over-the-air, Dish network satellite, or cable TV viewers. But we had plenty of complaints from DirecTV viewers.
The sound would go "brrrrrrrrp" at random intervals, followed by a second of silence, and then would continue on until the next "brrrrrrrrp." And the sound would go out of synchronization with the lips. It made our programming look like a badly-dubbed Japanese Godzilla movie. Trying to figure out what caused this was a maddening puzzle.
I did some online research and found that this problem is happening in many DirecTV markets and the satellite company is trying to find a solution. It involves the equipment they use to translate our digital TV signal to fiber, then on to the satellite and into your home.
We worked very closely with DirecTV's engineering department, Heartland Video, our equipment vendor in Plymouth, Wisconsin; and the folks at Dolby laboratories to finally find a solution. DirecTV collected digital audio samples and sent them on to Heartland. Heartland technicians advised us to reduce the bit-rate of the Dolby 5.1 Encoder we have in our digital TV rack. Lo and behold, once we did this the "brrrrrrrp" went away, and so did lip sync problems that accompanied it.
We've passed this information on to DirecTV. Perhaps they can use it in similar situations. TV stations have Dolby 5.1 encoders all over the country, so this could be a common problem.
"I can hear clearly now"....to paraphrase the song. All's serene in the Desert again.
Friday, November 6, 2009
Friday, October 30, 2009
Congratulations! You are about to make an interest-free loan to the State of California
Starting November 1st, you and every tax-payer in California are going to make a tax-free loan to the virtually bankrupt state of California. That's because Assembly Bill 17 is about to go into effect. It increases all withholding rates by 10%. Your tax rate has already been increased by a quarter of a percent. But in its quest for more money to spend, the Legislature concocted a scheme to withhold far more money from your paycheck then you'll owe. In theory, you'll get it back when you file your state income tax return next year, as you will likely have over-withheld the amount you'll owe of California income tax.
If you are lucky enough to get a bonus, the state increased its bonus withholding rates by 10 percent, from 9.3% to 10.23%.
Throwing a bone to low wage earners and the middle class, the Legislature magnanimously did not change low income exemption thresholds, annual standard deduction values, and the annual amount allowed for additional allowances.
Isn't tax and spend wonderful? The legislature spends, and the taxpayers pay, and pay, and pay. Since the taxes are not enough to equal the overspending in Sacramento....we get to loan money at no interest to the people who got us into this mess in the first place. When will taxpayers decide they've had enough?
If you are lucky enough to get a bonus, the state increased its bonus withholding rates by 10 percent, from 9.3% to 10.23%.
Throwing a bone to low wage earners and the middle class, the Legislature magnanimously did not change low income exemption thresholds, annual standard deduction values, and the annual amount allowed for additional allowances.
Isn't tax and spend wonderful? The legislature spends, and the taxpayers pay, and pay, and pay. Since the taxes are not enough to equal the overspending in Sacramento....we get to loan money at no interest to the people who got us into this mess in the first place. When will taxpayers decide they've had enough?
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Health Insurance From an Employer's Perspective
I sincerely believe that most politicians, many of whom have never had to find the money to meet a payroll or pay business expenses, have no clue about what insurance really is.
The current administration and its supporters in Congress like to demonize insurance companies as evil entities just out to increase their profits. They don't seem to understand the very basic concept of insurance. An insurance provider adds up the premiums of everyone who participates in the plan. That is the amount of money the insurer has to pay claims. The insurer POOLS the premium money and adds a percentage to cover its overhead and profits.
Not all insurers are for-profit. For example, the largest managed health care provider in the United States is the Kaiser Permanente Foundation. Its health plan and hospitals are non-profit entities.
Many employers, like our parent company, are self-insured. They pay a fee to an insurer to administer their plan. There is no evil insurance company, just some very hard-working people trying to make sure their employees have health insurance at a price they can afford. The struggle gets tougher each year.
At the end of each premium year the insurer adds up what was spent on claims. If there wasn't enough in the pool to cover the claims, then the insurer has to raise premiums to provide for future claims. If there was more than enough money in the pool to pay claims (highly unlikely) then the insurer can lower premiums.
If employers don't like the higher premium request, then can shop for another insurer. This is exactly what individuals do when they are shopping for car, home, boat, life, or other insurance.
Presently insurers look at the claim history of the applicant and charge premiums accordingly. It's just like charging drivers who have a lot of accidents more for their car insurance. In a capitalistic society, we believe that the people who use more should pay more. Socialists believe that everyone should pay the same, regardless of who the major consumers of services are. That leads to everyone paying more to subsidize the people who are using more services but paying the same amount regardless. You don't have to have a PhD to see the kind of scheme Washington's politicians are proposing.
For those of us who paid attention in economics class, what happens when there is no connection between what it costs you for something and how much you use? You use more of it, because there's no consequence for over-consumption. And what happens if consumption goes up and the supply (of insurers and medical providers) goes down? Prices skyrocket as people compete for scarcer resources. How do you control over-consumption if there's no cost consequence? You have to ration it.
Employer-sponsored plans already can't exclude people with pre-existing conditions. Employers and employees already pay higher premiums if someone in their health insurance group has a serious illness...pre-existing or otherwise. As insurance premiums go up, there is less money to pay for employees. So the number of jobs goes down, and current employees have less money to spend on things like groceries. This is the reason why European countries with high taxes to pay for mandated social services traditionally suffer from higher unemployment than the U.S.
Unfortunately, if Washington politicians are able to impose a European-style health insurance scheme on the American people we are going to wake up some day and find the system is bankrupt. Want some examples? Medicare, the Post Office, and Social Security are all technically bankrupt or headed for bankruptcy. The free-spending California legislature has already taken us to the verge of bankruptcy.
The current administration and its supporters in Congress like to demonize insurance companies as evil entities just out to increase their profits. They don't seem to understand the very basic concept of insurance. An insurance provider adds up the premiums of everyone who participates in the plan. That is the amount of money the insurer has to pay claims. The insurer POOLS the premium money and adds a percentage to cover its overhead and profits.
Not all insurers are for-profit. For example, the largest managed health care provider in the United States is the Kaiser Permanente Foundation. Its health plan and hospitals are non-profit entities.
Many employers, like our parent company, are self-insured. They pay a fee to an insurer to administer their plan. There is no evil insurance company, just some very hard-working people trying to make sure their employees have health insurance at a price they can afford. The struggle gets tougher each year.
At the end of each premium year the insurer adds up what was spent on claims. If there wasn't enough in the pool to cover the claims, then the insurer has to raise premiums to provide for future claims. If there was more than enough money in the pool to pay claims (highly unlikely) then the insurer can lower premiums.
If employers don't like the higher premium request, then can shop for another insurer. This is exactly what individuals do when they are shopping for car, home, boat, life, or other insurance.
Presently insurers look at the claim history of the applicant and charge premiums accordingly. It's just like charging drivers who have a lot of accidents more for their car insurance. In a capitalistic society, we believe that the people who use more should pay more. Socialists believe that everyone should pay the same, regardless of who the major consumers of services are. That leads to everyone paying more to subsidize the people who are using more services but paying the same amount regardless. You don't have to have a PhD to see the kind of scheme Washington's politicians are proposing.
For those of us who paid attention in economics class, what happens when there is no connection between what it costs you for something and how much you use? You use more of it, because there's no consequence for over-consumption. And what happens if consumption goes up and the supply (of insurers and medical providers) goes down? Prices skyrocket as people compete for scarcer resources. How do you control over-consumption if there's no cost consequence? You have to ration it.
Employer-sponsored plans already can't exclude people with pre-existing conditions. Employers and employees already pay higher premiums if someone in their health insurance group has a serious illness...pre-existing or otherwise. As insurance premiums go up, there is less money to pay for employees. So the number of jobs goes down, and current employees have less money to spend on things like groceries. This is the reason why European countries with high taxes to pay for mandated social services traditionally suffer from higher unemployment than the U.S.
Unfortunately, if Washington politicians are able to impose a European-style health insurance scheme on the American people we are going to wake up some day and find the system is bankrupt. Want some examples? Medicare, the Post Office, and Social Security are all technically bankrupt or headed for bankruptcy. The free-spending California legislature has already taken us to the verge of bankruptcy.
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Will Conventional Media Survive the 21st Century
I interviewed a young lady fresh out of a San Diego college today for a job in our news department. She told me she gets her news from all over the place including blogs, web sites, TV, and social media. Do people really think social media such as Facebook etc. provide news? Well, I suppose so since Barack Obama used Twitter to announce his Presidential bid. To me news has to be factual, balanced, and fair. A lot of web chatter is none of these. It's often opinionated, not factual, and sometimes plain, outright nasty. What gives me pause is the recent bankruptcy of Freedom Communications, which publishes the Orange County Register and the Yuma Sun, among others. Tribune Company, publisher of the Los Angeles Times, is also bankrupt. TV broadcasters Young Communications and Pappas Telecasting are bankrupt as well. They are all victims of the recession, too much debt and too little revenue as well as competition from new media. Gosh....the Desert Sun has 9 pages on the average Monday, and has no classifieds at all. Who will provide investigative reporting, fair, impartial, and objective coverage of local events if the conventional media goes away? Not Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, or any of their like!
Friday, August 7, 2009
After the DTV Transition
DTV Transition day is now almost two months behind us, and I'm happy to report that it went well. Now both KESQ and KMIR are broadcasting only in digital, and our analog transmitters are now off the air permanently.
We had a few calls from people who couldn't find KESQ, primarily because they didn't re-scan their DTV sets or DTV converters. We had to change the channel we broadcast our DTV signal on because the old channel is "outside the core" which means it's in an area of spectrum the government removed from broadcasters and either auctioned off or gave to emergency services. If for some reason you can't find KESQ on any DTV that uses an antenna (not cable or satellite!) just re-scan and you will find us again.
KMIR didn't change frequencies, so no re-scanning was needed for their DTV signal. KPSP and all the other TV stations in the Coachella Valley are low power stations and they did not have to switch to digital. So far as I know, the only low-power digital station on the air is a shopping channel out of Victorville.
Eventually low power stations will have to switch, too, but we don't know when.
It's now too late to apply for a coupon to buy a DTV converter box. The program ended in early August. On the last day 169,000 people asked for coupons! I had a lot of trouble finding converter boxes locally, so I think retailers are pretty well sold out. I'm sure they are still available on-line and probably in Los Angeles.
We had a few calls from people who couldn't find KESQ, primarily because they didn't re-scan their DTV sets or DTV converters. We had to change the channel we broadcast our DTV signal on because the old channel is "outside the core" which means it's in an area of spectrum the government removed from broadcasters and either auctioned off or gave to emergency services. If for some reason you can't find KESQ on any DTV that uses an antenna (not cable or satellite!) just re-scan and you will find us again.
KMIR didn't change frequencies, so no re-scanning was needed for their DTV signal. KPSP and all the other TV stations in the Coachella Valley are low power stations and they did not have to switch to digital. So far as I know, the only low-power digital station on the air is a shopping channel out of Victorville.
Eventually low power stations will have to switch, too, but we don't know when.
It's now too late to apply for a coupon to buy a DTV converter box. The program ended in early August. On the last day 169,000 people asked for coupons! I had a lot of trouble finding converter boxes locally, so I think retailers are pretty well sold out. I'm sure they are still available on-line and probably in Los Angeles.
Monday, March 30, 2009
Don't Forget to Scan Channels on Your DTV
By now, most over-the-air TV viewers have probably bought a digital TV or a DTV converter box. There is one feature that is very different from an analog TV. Before you can use it, you have to "scan" for channels. The reason is related to DTV technology. The "channels" you watch are virtual channels. Although they function like analog TV channels, in fact they may be transmitted on entirely different frequencies, and DTV streams can carry many embedded channels.
For instance, KESQ-DT carries multiple program sources: KESQ (ABC) KDFX (Fox) KCWQ (CW) KUNA (Telemundo) and the First Alert Weather Channel. When you scan for channels, the DTV tuner finds these program streams and assigns then channel numbers according to information we broadcast with the programming.
More and more stations are turning off their analog channels and using strictly digital channels. In some case, stations have to change frequencies. KESQ-DT is in that group, as the government has auctioned off the frequency we currently use. We will switch to KESQ-TV's current analog channel when we turn the analog signal off on June 12. On and after that date, you'll need to scan at least once to find the new location of our digital programming.
Since stations are switching at different times, you'll need to channel scan your DTV several times. I'd make a habit of doing it at least once a week.
If you are a cable or satellite subscriber scanning won't be necessary because you get all your programming through a cable box. It is possible to do a DTV channel scan if you have a DTV hooked up to cable, but the results will be unpredictable and very difficult to use.
I know it's very confusion. If you need help, please contact us at 760-773-0342 and our staff will help you with your DTV questions.
For instance, KESQ-DT carries multiple program sources: KESQ (ABC) KDFX (Fox) KCWQ (CW) KUNA (Telemundo) and the First Alert Weather Channel. When you scan for channels, the DTV tuner finds these program streams and assigns then channel numbers according to information we broadcast with the programming.
More and more stations are turning off their analog channels and using strictly digital channels. In some case, stations have to change frequencies. KESQ-DT is in that group, as the government has auctioned off the frequency we currently use. We will switch to KESQ-TV's current analog channel when we turn the analog signal off on June 12. On and after that date, you'll need to scan at least once to find the new location of our digital programming.
Since stations are switching at different times, you'll need to channel scan your DTV several times. I'd make a habit of doing it at least once a week.
If you are a cable or satellite subscriber scanning won't be necessary because you get all your programming through a cable box. It is possible to do a DTV channel scan if you have a DTV hooked up to cable, but the results will be unpredictable and very difficult to use.
I know it's very confusion. If you need help, please contact us at 760-773-0342 and our staff will help you with your DTV questions.
Friday, March 6, 2009
Beware the White Space Data Base
Some of you may have read about new consumer devices that are supposed to take advantage of so-called "white spaces" in TV spectrum. In other words, you'd buy a phone or a wireless internet device and operate it on an unused local TV channel. These devices are supposed to be used with spectrum sensing software or a data base that enables consumers to know if a local TV station or emergency service is using TV spectrum. If they are, then you're not allowed to use that channel.
I just checked one such on-line database and boy was it wrong. It showed that channel 42 is available in Palm Springs. Wrong! That's KESQ-TV's over-the-air analog channel, and it will be our DTV channel after June 12th. Whoever created this database operates it with reckless disregard for the truth. Another example of why you can't believe everything you read on the internet.
There is a big legal fight brewing over this technology because proponents of it tested the devices and the tests showed their spectrum sensing technology (which is supposed to detect local signals) doesn't work. The FCC approved it anyway. This is going to be a long, expensive fight, and consumers will be the losers if they buy these devices and then find out they don't work because they either cause interference or receive interference from licensed users. By the way, how'd you like to have the people who dispatch police and fire to your house in an emeregency unable to do so because someone was jamming their radios with a cordless phone or internet router? Yes...first responders and broadcasters already share spectrum!
I just checked one such on-line database and boy was it wrong. It showed that channel 42 is available in Palm Springs. Wrong! That's KESQ-TV's over-the-air analog channel, and it will be our DTV channel after June 12th. Whoever created this database operates it with reckless disregard for the truth. Another example of why you can't believe everything you read on the internet.
There is a big legal fight brewing over this technology because proponents of it tested the devices and the tests showed their spectrum sensing technology (which is supposed to detect local signals) doesn't work. The FCC approved it anyway. This is going to be a long, expensive fight, and consumers will be the losers if they buy these devices and then find out they don't work because they either cause interference or receive interference from licensed users. By the way, how'd you like to have the people who dispatch police and fire to your house in an emeregency unable to do so because someone was jamming their radios with a cordless phone or internet router? Yes...first responders and broadcasters already share spectrum!
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