So maybe you've already heard of Boomer the Dog....
His story was the number one most viral video on MSNBC last week. Long story very short - a man named Gary Matthews is a furry. And a long time fan of a little known show called 'Boomer the Dog'. Gary is SUCH a fan, that he not only dresses like the main character, but asks people to call him Boomer as well. He wanted to make it legal. A judge denied his request as Gary is "not a dog".
So why is this story SO popular? Personally I think it is due to people's fascination of what furries do in their non-anthrocon fest time. And now that we know.....are we better off? I'm thinking...no.
One man bands are now ruling news control rooms. Ignite. This is the future of news control rooms. Gold help us. In a traditional news control room, you would have an audio person, a director, and a technical director. If you were super spoiled you would also have a CG operator that advanced your lower third graphics.
With Ignite -- there is just one person doing it all. Some stations are even trying to do away with robotic camera operators and truly have one man bands controlling the newscasts.
But Ignite is a Windows based application....and while newer versions have worked a lot of the kinks out....the older versions were teeming with issues..In the video above is a newscast that was broadcast from the parking lot due to a virus....and don’t even get me started on the blue screen of death!
Learning Ignite is a challenge for people used to pushing buttons. Where once you routed all of the sources by choosing each specific source button, Now everything is programmed, and Ignite Directors have to learn literally thousands of codes. A one character typo can lead to infamous errors on air like the one in the video of the anchor being caught sleeping ..which I did while in training. Do you think that because this was broadcast on Dateline is why he won’t friend me on facebook?
So back to Ignite.....You now have a timeline (similar to ones you see in programs like Final Cut or Avid) where all of these TME’s - or Timed Macro Effects - reside. As you step though the timeline, the audio and picture change based on what has been programmed. But here’s where you STILL have to manually punch things -
You may need to manually adjust an audio fader. You need to insert and take out lower thirds. You need to manually advance the lower thirds if you have more than one per story...as you do in MOST packages.
So...are you really saving steps? Nope. And some stations, like mine, have so many shows that they have to keep several Ignite Directors staffed at a time (since it is STILL illegal to not give bathroom breaks....here’s hoping that rule sticks around!). So why move your news on to a system that seems to have more issues than not? You got me! Your thoughts?
