[BC] TV Stuff

[Jason R.]

Ok, I gotta quit playing around for a minute.  The below should give a good 
general idea of what's up.

  I am expecting to get a call for an interview regarding a job at a TV 
station in the area.
I'm not completely clueless about tv, although I'm bumping along the bottom, 
so to speak.
take a second and review below what I know so far about TV::

  I have a cable station I put together some years ago that is still up and 
running.  shoestring stuff.   Learned a lot from Alan A. doing it.   It's 
making money.

  audio path - no problem.  clean, audio levels where they ought to be. No 
problem, we do this for a living now.

 Video path is composite push from 3 Sony Handicams to a very small vid 
mixer which gives us time sync.  For this app, I think it's more 
mechanically robust than S-Vid.

I split the finished product - one copy goes to headend for DA to the 
subscribers, the other copy goes to whatever rcording medium so you'll have 
archives to work from, or for TD'ed production work.  Of course you can 
switch to the recorded stuff and air it.

  Spent a bunch of time learning about video levels, black, white, chroma 
stuff... and timing.

got the whole thing working to fixed industry standard levels (audio, and 
vid).   (when I had come in, they were noticibly *not* doing things as well 
as the networks available on the same cable output.) (Guess where Alan A's 
brain came in really handy!)

  Since then added- the Satellite sources in the mix to the vid switcher, 
then going to the headend, so the operators control getting in /out of 
local, rather than the headend.

  From my peanut-gallery viewpoint, "real" TV workflow would be close to 
this.  Hardware?  there's no 'composite push' from cheapie cams, and, we're 
sending the finished product to the TX instead of a headend.  things get a 
bit more complicated, probably because of all the really cool tools, but the 
workflow is probably along these lines...

  am I right or wrong??

  I have no idea where in the new building I might best fit, but am trying 
to get prepped for the interview.  If it's going to be a 5 or 6 hour memory 
test (what specific frequencies are allocated for the ... what percentage of 
the total signal is... )   I use books, not memory, and the guys will 
probably hate me.

  If they want to know whether I am bright and tenacious enough to make it 
all work given the resources of the Mfg's and Vendors and such... YES I CAN.

  If I can survive the interview.

  Last bunch I spoke to KNEW ahead of time that NOBODY walks into a large 
facitility and has the whole thing in their head in less than a number of 
months.  Only reason I didn't go there...
my home is paid off, my land paid off, my folks live in the area... and I 
will commute... alot... but won't relocate unless I make enough to relocate 
the whole family...

I could use whatever insights, advice, common sense, tech tips you might 
offer to help me study for & get this job.  Or at least know if it's worth 
doing.  ( I *have* interviewed at a few that  - uh - probably nobody wants 
to work with...)

  All the DTV / HDTV stuff, tech articles, etc. are out there and I read 
them, best I can with the time I've got, and none of it seems too deep... it 
just isn't what I've been doing so far.  I've lived "radio', not 'TV'...

Jason R.