Gray MidAmerica's owned WIFR goes robotic - Jobs lost!

[IShootU]

Late last night a buddy of mine called and said he is losing his board op job that he has had for 5 years because WIFR in Rockford, Illinois is going completely robitic in it's studio. Severeal others are losing their jobs. WIFR is owned by Gray MidAmerica TV Interactive Media, LLC which owns other stations....in the end how many jobs will be lost. Just another shameful black mark against big conglomerations taking over the Media as we know it and lining their pockets with the blood and sweat of the lives they consider trash. So kudos and a job well done goes to Gray and its decision makers, just remember to bring a long extension cord with you when you die because you're gonna need to plug an an air conditioner where you're going.

[Menlow]

A lot of places are going, or already are, completely robotic in the studio. Tape ops are probably next once video servers become cheaper and more standardized. Lets just hope they don't get autonomous robots with camera eyes to replace us.

It sucks if you are a camera op and get axed, but you should be able to claim X years of TV Production experience and move on to something that pays more. Or move across the street.

[Icarus112277]

Thanks to Parkervision (just swalowed up by THomson) camera can recognize sensors worn by the talent and can move accordingly. So even if its not a lockdown shot robotics can do the job.

Conventional tape ops are the next to go, although conventional tape ops have a leg up if they're willing to learn how to operate servers. They may change the machin but soont still needs to operate it/ oversee its operation. Trust me on that one. Although in a smaller market they will probably attempt to combine jobs.

The good thing about shooting is that there are many jobs which robotics will not be able to handle. Simple news studio shooting desks is an easy one to replace; getting ENG footage of fire is not.

[cinehead]

We went robotic in our studio a few years ago. I feel bad for anyone losing their job, but if someone was planning a long career as a studio camera op, they weren't planning very well.

For the record, when we went robotic, no one was laid off. Most were retrained to do live truck, TD, chryron, audio, etc.. My guess is that's the plan at most stations.

[<ThinkTank MediaConsultant>]

Originally posted by Menlow:
Lets just hope they don't get autonomous robots with camera eyes to replace us. Originally posted by Icarus112277:
The good thing about shooting is that there are many jobs which robotics will not be able to handle. Simple news studio shooting desks is an easy one to replace; getting ENG footage of fire is not. Its not as hard as you may think. We are in the process of training dogs for spot news coverage. Right now our media service teams are consulting shops in Atlanta, NC and the New England areas. The dogs will have PD-150 type cameras strapped on. The cameras are modified with little two way RF devises sending low bandwidth proxies of the pictures back to our central command and sending commands back to the dogs. For instance when the dog arrives on scene our centralized operator is able to monitor the RF signal thus the operator will send a command to the dog to move back ten feet, or move 15 feet to the left. The operator can remotely operate the camera zoom, pan and rec/pause functions. Everything else will be in automatic. Not that hard to train a dog to stand still for ten seconds at a time.

Our operation is based out of Atlanta. One central operator can simultaneously handle up to 24 news operations around the country. Think of all the savings. We will also be responsible for most of the scanner monitoring around the country. We are in the process of finalizing a deal with 16 PIOs around the nation. Really its rather simple, when PIO is ready to give a sound-bite, he/she will blow into a special whistle which our dogs are trained to recognize and run up to. Once all the dogs are lined up for the PIO bite we send a signal to the little cameras, the record tally comes on and the PIO starts giving the usual generic spot news sound bite. In the future we may add a speaker to the set up thus allowing our centralized operator to directly ask the PIO questions.

Are you asking how the dogs will get on scene? We are close to striking a deal with a major national taxi service provider. There are a lot of courier services showing interest.

Recently we had a double blind demonstration asking the public if they prefer our footage or regular stringer or staff footage. To our delight, 86 percent of the general public could not tell the difference between the two. You people better adopt to the future... :P

Sorry about the bad grammar, I originally come from another nation.

[<??>]

Ivan

[Tippster]

Heh! :D

[<phresnophotog>]

A modest proposal!

[IShootU]

That was too hilarious - you are a very creative mutha f*cka!!!

[BluesDaddy]

Thanks to "Sideletter 11" I had the images to go with the text.
Make that 2 "Heh!"s. :D

[<ParkerVision>]

The same thing (studio robotics) happened at WSEE-TV Erie, PA. (DMA 141) Initial Broadcasting purchased the station and within 6 months the studio crew - cameras and all - were replaced with a ParkerVision production automation system.

Unfortunately, this is the future of local TV. Unless you are a studio camera op for Saturday Night Live you will at some poine be replaced by studio robotics. Not a smart career move...studio camera operator.

By the way, the new owners have gang-raped WSEE and the morale sucks and the product is more terrible than ever.