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WKYC News & Notes: 1/29/13

By Frank Macek

It's time for another "behind the scenes" look at what's happening inside the WKYC Digital Broadcast Center.
    Channel 3 News New Look
  • By now you probably noticed that WKYC launched a brand new graphics look last Tuesday, January 22th that is being rolled out by our parent company, Gannett, on all broadcast stations. The new look is a much simpler, cleaner look that uses a main information bar, the rundown of upcoming stories and the time and temperature. Also, stories are color coded by category based on the USA Today theme including news (blue), weather (yellow), sports (red), life (purple), tech (orange), money (green), travel (aqua) and opinion (gray).

  • We also have begun using the entire 16x9 screen for our broadcasts. As a result, 4x3 viewers on cable and satellite will notice we are letterboxed. The technology called AFD or (Active Format Description) allows us to trigger your television set to see the correct sizing of standard definition programming and commercials in the high definition format.

    We spoke with to our good friend Joanne Bandlow at Time Warner Cable to explain how this works, "Active Format Description is a means for the broadcaster to signal the receiver on how to format the screen (letterbox, center-cut, etc). This gives the broadcaster more control over the viewer's experience, particularly on 4:3 SD screens. Currently it's common for an SD feed of a broadcaster's signal to be "nailed up" as either letterboxed or center-cut on cable and satellite systems; this can cause some of the screen content to be missed. The presence of the AFD signal corrects this situation by allowing the originator to change the display format on-the-fly as the content change. The AFD signal itself is just a few bits of data tucked away within the video portion of the broadcaster's MPEG stream. This allows for about a dozen different format 'descriptions' to be chosen for screen formatting (pillarbox, letterbox, full frame, etc).

    For more information about changing your television settings if you have previously stretched your picture size, please read our earlier article @ http://bit.ly/WNzXc7

    • Dick Russ
  • Veteran WKYC journalist Dick Russ has announced his departure from Channel 3 News as of February 8th. WKYC News Director Brennan Donnellan praised Russ for his work, "For 14 years at WKYC and throughout his career as a journalist, Dick Russ has set the example of leadership for all of us. His accomplishments are well-known and his work is highly regarded by our viewers and his peers. Dick has accepted a position as Vice President of North Coast Community Homes, a non-profit corporation which provides housing for people who have disabilities. This is a field in which Dick has been involved for more than 30 years. NCCH is in fact an organization which the Gannett Foundation and WKYC have supported in the past."

  • You may have seen a new face on Channel 3 News over the weekend. Will Ujek has made the segue from his sports reporting duties on SportsTime Ohio to weekend reporting duties on Channel 3 News.Will is no stranger to television news having reported for WTRF in Wheeling, West Virgina.

    Will Ujek
    
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