A Little Heart Surgery, Please

WOW! Where did January go? I swear, we were just celebrating New Years (that was last night wasn't it?) and now it is Valentine's Day! Oh my God. Where is time going? (a little music from “Abraham, Martin and John”) “I turn around and it’s gone.” My. How time flies.

But I guess I have a good reason. I have been involved in heart surgery. (HEART SURGERY!! Are you OK! What happened?!) No, no, not me. I am fine. Well as fine as I could be and still be classified “alive.” Just transplanting a heart at work. (A heart at work? You work for a TV station, not a hospital) True. But the patient in this case IS the TV station and I, along with Ross the Boss and my other fellow doctors, eh engineers, have been in the process of changing out the heart and nervous system of the station. The routing switcher. With out this behemoth of modern electronic wizardry, the TV station would be like a body with no heart or nervous system. It would just lay there and do nothing. This device takes signals from satellite receiver 7 and routes it to the news department and takes signals from a microwave truck and routes it to Production Control for air in the newscast or routes graphics from the Art Department to Master Control. All at the same time.

I call it a behemoth for what it does, but in size it really isn't. Not compared to the routing switcher that it is replacing.

Look closely and you can see Ross The Boss IN the audio side of the router switcher

This new one takes up one half of a 7 foot high rack. The old router takes up one whole 7 foot rack and doesn't have as much horsepower. The old router was installed in 1994 and the manufacturer went out of business about 5 years later. So we have been keeping this thing working with chewing gum and string for the last 7 years. It has served us well though but it is time to upgrade. The old router is what is called a 128 by 160 frame meaning it can take 128 sources and route them to 160 different places. The new one is a 128 by 128 and even though it routes to fewer places, because of computer networking, many of the places that we used to route video and audio to, we do it over Cat 5 networking cable using IP now so we don't need or use all 128 outputs on this one, but that is the smallest size they make for the number of inputs and outputs we need.

It is really a pretty neat system. It is of course all computerized where the old route router, which was computerized as well, was only as powerful as most mini calculators. This one is so smart, just a reload of a file, it can completely reconfigure itself. And the learning curve is pretty steep. As far as usability goes, it can take analog inputs and route them to digital outputs and vise versa. The biggest problem with it though is that it is so small; it has to be mounted in such a way so the monstrous amount of wire has to have room more than it does.

It has taken about 4 months to get it installed and up and running. I went straight from the DTV project into the router project. Luckily, all I have had to do was provide labor. Others are doing the heavy lifting of making the “life or death” decisions. But the last few weeks, it has gotten pretty intense as we get to the point of cutover to be sure all is done to make it a smooth cutover. That point has been mentally taxing. To look at it from the outside though, it looks like for the last few months we haven’t done a thing. All of the work is in the system configuration and the wire under the floor and in the ceiling. There are miles of cable we have put in over the last few months and then the changeover from the old router to the new one. A full day just to get the major systems connected and another day to finish. Now we are in the clean up work of documentation and labeling. Then a short break and on to the next project. Wish I could talk about that one. But maybe later!

The End to the Beginning

Looking back on 2006, this was to be the year that things calmed down after the big DTV project of 2005. Of course that didn't happen with that project spilling over into 2006 until August for the new site and October to complete the old site. The transition from a major project to the everyday has been a little challenging since I had been in a mode of people looking to me to make decisions on a daily basis and now that stress is gone and there is a void that is slowly being filled. I am just another one of the guys now. Of course that has its advantages as well so I am NOT knocking it!

The end of the year has been calmer than the start. The start saw the arrival of the transmitters and the process to getting them installed and all of the stress that went along with it. The end of the year sees me on vacation with a nasty cold that for the last 4 days has seen me sneezing, coughing and just laying around recovering. I hope that is a good sign for the start of 2007. A much calmer 2007!

Happy New Year!

The Godfather of Soul has left the building

Time continues to march on. But the news of the death of the "Hardest Working Man in Show Business" it brings a wonderful era of music to a close.

James Brown, the man who created funk and soul, even in his 70's could and did outdo performers 50 years his junior. Even the "gloved one" Michael Jackson owes his whole stage act to Brown because he basically stole it from Brown. P Diddy and Ice T would LOVE to be a quarter of the performer James Brown was at 70. These men owe their whole art to "Soul Brother Number One." Without him, they would have never been known.

Working as late as 4 weeks ago at an award show in Britain and booked for a show on News Years Eve in New York City showing why they call him the "Hardest Working Man in Show Business." Asked one time when was he going to retire. His response? "When God takes my last breath."

With on stage moves that put him in a class by himself and would put others in the hospital, James Brown was truly an American Original. You hear that term a lot to describe him. But with him, you wouldn't have Hip Hop. You wouldn't have Rap. And you wouldn't have Soul and Funk. James Brown did all of that before 1965! With a band of guitars, a full brass section, and percussion, a full cadre of hip shaking, scantly clad, high heeled backup singers and his signature stage collapse and cape wrap, a James Brown concert was a show you got your moneys worth.

James Brown was the first artist to do a form of rap in such songs as "Move On Up" and "Get Up Off of That Thing". His rhythmic sounds are very noticeable in any hip hop song you hear like from his hit songs "Sex Machine" and "I Feel Good." His soulful tones of love like "It's A Man's World" has been heard all through the 60's, 70's, 80's and 90's in not only Black music, but Rock and Country.

His life outside of music wasn't as great. Being married three times, once unknowingly marrying a woman who had not gotten a divorce from a previous marriage, being arrested for spousal abuse many times and going to prison for possession of PCP, spousal abuse and running from the law. He lived his life as hard as he pursued his music. Interestingly, he never had formal music training. What you got was raw talent at its best and he did it for over 50 years.

I had never been a huge fan, but as the years have gone by, I have come to appreciate his music very much. In my MP3 collection are about 10 of his more popular songs from the 60's and his 80's hit from Rocky 4, "Living In America." His most loved work was the 1962 self financed album "Live at the Apollo." This album is true raw Brown at his best. If you haven't heard it, GET IT NOW and TURN THE VOLUME UP TO 11!

There will never be another showman like James Brown. The "Hardest Working Man in Show Business" can now take a well desired rest.

The Menacing Fence of Welcome and Good Wishes

Fences are erected for many different purposes. To keep things in. To keep things out. Or as decorations, the classic white picket fence. In Jacksonville, North Carolina is a security chain link fence that runs about 5 miles along highway NC 24 surrounding the living quarters for families of Marines stationed at Marine Corps Training Base Camp LeJeune. The fence was erected post 9/11 along with many other security upgrades to the base including new fencing or adding more security access points or blocking or removing of other access points all together. The Second Marine Division is stationed here and the base main gate acts as one of the two revolving doors for Marines going and coming to Iraq from the US. The other revolving door being Camp Pendleton outside of San Diego, California, where the First Marine Division is based.

As I look down the road for several miles I am struck by the sight of bed sheets and tarpaulins with personal messages of welcomes and good byes and good wishes and announcements of births written, painted and imprinted hanging on the chain link security fence. These messages are from wives, husbands, sons, daughters, mothers and fathers, friends and total strangers. Some look like they have been here for a while, others look like they have just been put up. But every one prepared and installed with loving care. They go on and on and on for literally miles, the entire length of the security fence along NC 24 from the New River Bridge at the main gate down to the small community of Hubert. Even in the areas where the woods come up to the road, these messages of love and admiration are lined up side-by-side with hardly any open space anywhere along the fence.

To many the War in Iraq is only something that is on television that the politicians fight over or something you hear about from friends who have loved ones there. But to ride down the road at 55 miles per hour and see this sight that goes on for miles and know the reason for the fence wasn’t to be a billboard of wishes but to protect American’s from people who want to kill us and to know that the names on these makeshift placards are people who are fighting and in some cases dying for us, the heavy reality of what we are in hits home. The thought does cross my mind how many of these names belong to men and women who did not be come home? Or more importantly, will not be coming home. Names with messages of happy expression of good wishes that might never see them, turning into messages of lost hope.

Before I know it I am past the line of names and wishes on the fence and I realize I have to blog about this and I have missed the opportunity to take a picture of this moving sight. No time to turn around now to snap a picture. The sun is setting and we are running late. Then I realize there is no great haste to catch a picture. I am sure this sight will be here the next time we come by and I will be looking to see how many names are there from this trip and to see how many new names are added.

And Now a Message from Our Sponsor... - Part Deux

It is finally released. The latest webisode of Star Trek New Voyages, To Serve All My Days was released on Thanksgiving Day. The webisode written by D.C. (Dorothy) Fontana, the former Script Editor of the original 1960's Star Trek and reprising his role as Pavel Chekov, Walter Koenig.

Fan films usually are nothing to write home about. Not much more than some friends getting together with a home camcorder, cheesy costumes and props with cardboard sets and editing that can't be called editing and stories that are not much more than disjointed scenes strung together. Since computer editing software has become so affordable, people are getting into the "movie making" thing. This also has now opened up an avenue for semi-pros and pros to create their own productions at a fraction of the cost of a studio production with very good results.

In the Star Trek world, fans are pretty rabid about the future world of Star Fleet. Not just the nerds in the neighborhood, but Hollywood types as well. J.J. Abrams of "Lost" fame has signed on to helm the next Star Trek movie, a story that is reported to be Kirk and Spock at Star Fleet Academy.

But for those who don't mind spending money to not make any money with Star Trek, you have the soon to be released three part webisode Star Trek: Of God and Men conceived and written by producer Sky Douglas Conway, together with former Deep Space Nine freelance story writers Jack Trevino and Ethan H. Calk with a cast of ex-Trek stars from every version of Star Trek from the original series through the movies and all of the other TV series. CBS/Paramount, the copywrite owner of Star Trek isn't making a dime on it and they don't care. Why? No one is making money on it. It is free for the download, when it comes out, just like the New Voyages webisodes.

My guess is CBS/Paramount has run out of ideas and are looking to the fans for the next incarnation of Star Trek. It would appear that they are going back to the beginning, with the success of New Voyages (yes CBS/Paramount is VERY aware of NV having used some of their Enterprise Bridge set for an Enterprise episode entitled "In A Mirror, Darkly") and the apparent pre-buzz of "Of God and Men" with the J.J. Abrams movie to be released in 2009. That is not to say that only Kirk/Spock Star Trek is being produced. Far from it. Star Trek Hidden Frontier is a series of fan films shot in front of green screens in the time of Picard and Riker and is regarded as the next best Trek fan film. Hidden Frontier focuses on a sister starship of the Enterprise D/E, Excelsior and its home base, Deep Space 12. With the success of New Voyages, fan films across the entire universe of Star Trek have exploded with many new ones going into production all over the world including one from Spain, and even Turkey along with a slew from Europe. One is even rumored in Russia.

But back to New Voyages. As I have said in an earlier post on New Voyages, the technical work is very good. Not quite TV quality but certainly very watchable. With "To Serve All My Days" the bar was raised to the point that it is TV quality. Unlike the other NV episodes, this one was shot in widescreen 16:9 aspect ratio. It is still standard def but the quality of the digital equipment and the people in control of those said pieces of equipment shines through. Of course in this production, many Hollywood types, not just writers and actors are helping out from set work to new graphics and it shows. The acting has also greatly improved over the last webisode, "In Harms Way." I think the writing has a lot to do that as well. D.C. Fontana knows those characters like no one else from that period who has helped. Of course this webisode is a Chekov vehicle and not a Kirk vehicle so Chekov has the most screen time. Newcomer Andy Bray has been cast as the NV Chekov and he gets high marks for his portrayal of the Russian navigator. In "TSAMD" as the webisode is known by in the NV world, is a story about the relation between Chekov and a Federation Ambassador, who is played by veteran actor Mary Linda Rapelye who also appeared as Chekov's hippy love interest Irina Galliulin in the original series episode "Way to Eden."

The story line is a freak accident has triggered a dormant disease in Chekov that causes him to age. It is a wonderfully written story and Koenig, reprising his role as Chekov, does a wonderful job. Mr Koenig said he was drawn to this project because for the first time, Chekov was more than a navigator or weapons officer and is explored in depth. It helped him put some closure on some issues he had had with the character. The unannounced appearance of Mary Linda Rapelye and her character Ambassador Lady Rayna Morgan is also a nice surprise as the webisode opens. The ending has the NV tribes tongues-a-waging, but everyone agrees, TSAMD is two thumbs up, WAY UP and is a turning point for the fan franchise. From the story, to the acting, to the new graphic effects, better set lighting and the original music score for the webisode, "To Serve All My Days" puts New Voyages beyond the fan films category into the realm of professional, a status no other fan film has ever achieved. For the first time, a non Paramont Trek, feels, smells, taste, sounds and acts like Star Trek. You get goose bumps when you watch NV due the technical quality, but when you see TSAMD, the hair stands up on the back of your neck. It is SO Star Trek.

The next webisode, "World Enough and Time" written by DS9 and "Of God and Men" writers Marc Scott Zicree and Michael Reaves has been shot and is in post-production for a March 2007 release date. Those there during the shoot in September say that the technical work on this webisode surpasses TSAMD with the full compliment of professionals now on board for this one and hence the faster rate of release than TSAMD, which took 18 months to release. It is reported that this episode was shot in 720p high definition. George Takei will reprise his role as helmsman Lt Sulu. Grace Lee Whitney, who portrayed Yeoman Janice Rand in the original series is also cast in this webisode.

"The Trouble With Tribbles" writer David Gerrold has written the next webisode to be shot next summer called "Blood and Fire." The story of Blood and Fire was originally pitched to Star Trek: The Next Generation, but was rejected due to its controversial storyline, homosexuality and AIDS. The story was reworked into the book "Blood and Fire" (now available in paperback). Carlos Pedraza has adapted the old script for this NV webisode.

It was also just announced that Ms Fontana has agreed to pen another NV webisode.

And this is a FAN FILM PROJECT?? This could be the "new" TV. If so, you heard it here first.

The New Voyage webisodes can be downloaded for free at http://www.startreknewvoyages.com

The Red Poppy

I had vaguely remembered seeing people wear red poppies on their jackets before but I never really knew why. When I was in Canada last year in October, I saw many people wearing red poppies. Not just men but women as well. The men wore them on their jacket lapels or collars and women wore them in varies ways from hats to jackets to pins and emblems.

One of the Canadian engineers who were there at transmitter school was wearing a poppy. I tried to figure out a nice way of asking what the poppy was for. It was obviously something of national significance since everyone and everywhere you went you saw them displayed. On the final day there, I asked him what the significance of the poppy was for.

He explained how the red poppy was a sign of remembrance to the veterans and the custom which is conducted throughout the old British Commonweath nations came from a Canadian military doctor named Lt Col John McCrae. He had written a poem called "In Flanders Fields" in 1917. The poppy was chosen because of the poppies that bloomed across the battlefields of Flanders, Belgium in World War I. The red color representing the blood spilled in trench warfare. They start showing the poppy about a month before "Remembrance Day" November 11, which of course we call Veteran's Day.

This morning I saw a British official on TV wearing the red poppy and it brought back the memory of my conversation with the Canadian engineer about the poppies. I decided I would surf the net and see if I could find Lt Col McCrae's poem.

As we pause to remember our brave veterans on this Veteran's Day, we should also take a minute to remember our Allies who also have sacrificed along beside us in many wars on their Remembrance Day. To our USA Vet's on Veteran's Day, you are not forgotten and we salute you and thank you for your service to our country no matter what war you serviced in. To the Vet's of the British Commonweath, you too are remembered on Rememberance Day and your service is also remembered and appreciated by your friends, the American people.

How fitting of a tribute to all of the fallen veterans everywhere.

In Flanders Fields

By: Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD (1872-1918)
Canadian Army

IN FLANDERS FIELDS the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

Damn Internet!!

You never know what you will find on the Internet. In doing some very generic net surfing a couple of weeks ago led me to a web page I had never heard of. Heck I couldn't even read it since it wasn't in English. But this is what I saw with a caption that had 4 letters in a certain order I understood instantly, WGHP:

Most if not all of you do not recognize this picture and that is OK, really. But I recognize it since I see a similar sight all of the time. It is a distant pik of our towers. I then see another picture taken from a moving vehicle of a group shot of ALL of the towers down our way. Further investigation shows the site is in German and has pictures of ALL of the big towers used by radio and TV stations in the market.

I run the site through Google translator and see this site is done by an individual and he has gotten public information about all of the towers. On his site he has chronicled mostly European broadcast sites and the only American sites are here in the Triad. I don't see a name but there is an email address so I send him an email inquiring who is he and why is he taking pictures of our towers.

Several days go by and then I receive a very nice email from a Walter Brummer from Austria. He is a mechanical engineer who enjoys towers and his company has business here in the Triad and on one trip he was coming from Charlotte and took a side trip and wound up going by all of the towers south of town. On a return trip he went to the towers and took pictures of all of them and documented how the USA does broadcasting.

He had some incorrect information about some of the towers so I corrected him and then invited him to contact me on his next trip to the Triad. He thanked me for the corrections and said on one of his next trips, one in December and then another in January or February, he would try and look me up. Who knows, I may have found a new friend. This damn Internet!!