Patrick O’Brian at Trump

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I sincerely hope someone understands this story. It’s terribly inside baseball in nature, but I know some folks will get it, and will enjoy the telling.

I am a local news videographer in our nation’s capital. Last week, on Thursday, was one of those days I would both enjoy remembering forever and despise having lived through it.

On Tuesday the word of impending indictments filtered down to us and we responded to the federal courthouse to go live and report the news.

Now in most American cities you can expect a response from the four major networks and a smattering of other media outlets. In DC the number of accredited, real news outlets number in the hundreds, and on days like Tuesday’s the Thursday response one can expect to be massive.

With that in mind on Tuesday night we pre-positioned a micro-satellite truck in front of the courthouse in expectation of Thursday’s events.

It must be explained that today most live television on the local and even national level is done using small ‘backpacks’ - the major companies being TVU, LiveU and Dejero. These backpacks take a signal from the camera, divide it between (usually) 6 cell phone data cards and send the video back to the station. A ten thousand dollar backpack effectively replaces trucks costing hundreds to millions of dollars.

The downside is that during times of extraordinary situations, large social gatherings where people are on their phones or when natural catastrophe has caused phone networks to fail the backpacks are worthless, overwhelmed by the competition. Thus we as a station, along with many of our competitors, maintain the old trucks and technology for when it may be needed. Therefore we parked Unit 3, a microwave / satellite truck in an area where normally our backpacks would suffice.

James, my assistant chief, had parked the truck and tested the microwave transmitter and succeeded in getting a live signal back to the station. From where it was parked the shot went just to the right of the Canadian Embassy. He then shut down the truck and hid the key in the generator compartment for other users. It must be noted that without power the microwave mast would not stay up (a safety feature) therefore it had been stowed. All was good for Thursday.

Come Thursday yours truly was set to operate the truck for the early and late evening live shots. Though scheduled 2pm to 12 midnight I came in earlier to make sure I had all my gear.

By 2pm I was being dropped off at the courthouse to go set up my shot. My earlier explanation of the numbers of media present were woefully inadequate. Beyond local, national, international and bureau crews of television and other media types there were crews who had driven in from New York, Philadelphia and other cities that usually do not attend. It far exceeded even my high expectations.

Nevertheless my duties were pretty straightforward. Establish a signal to the station and set up a camera position for our correspondents. Shoving my way through the throngs I entered the truck, fired up the generator and equipment racks and prepared to deploy the 52’ mast to establish the microwave signal.

With the various safety features satisfied (watch Look Up and Live on YouTube to better understand the dangers of microwave trucks) I hit the UP button to send the mast up.

Nothing. No compressor. No movement. Nothing.

Rechecking the configuration I realized the compressor had probably failed. Not unheard of in vehicles so rarely used but damned unlucky for me. Though I set up the Dejero as a backup the data throughput (5 megabytes the preferred rate) was running around 1.5 on average, far below our preferred numbers. 3 is our usual minimum.

So to satellite we went. I haven’t run a satellite shot in four to five years; Washington Nationals World Series victory parade I believe. Interestingly not 100 yards from where I was now. Satellite work is a skill that needs to be practiced to be useable and it had been years. I fortunately had created a user guide some 20 years ago for this truck and so that part didn’t worry me. I was much more concerned about something else.

What most people don’t know is that satellites are unmarked. You can’t just point a receiver into the sky and automatically determine what you are looking at. Technology does exist today that can determine satellites but in an older, irregularly used truck we don’t have that capability. Instead in the old days a regular user had a personal knowledge of what the return signals looked like on their favorite satellites (as displayed on the spectrum analyzer) or our usual cheat was to set a downlink decoder to a frequency for a known video. For example, CBS used to display the Dow Jones Industrial numbers on a certain transponder every day. Sweep the sky, find the Dow Jones and you knew you were on Galaxy 17.

Today CBS no longer sends that stuff on satellite. It’s all internet based. Satellite is reserved for occasional field events.

Thus I had no clue what I was looking at, and little hope of figuring it out as I had but a few minutes before we were supposed to go to air.

In a vain hope I swept the dish to and fro, trying beyond hope to get lucky. Finally, a bare 10 minutes before airtime I found a signal that I could decode. It was Major Garrett, correspondent for CBS, standing before this very courthouse!

I leapt from the truck and ran along the other satellite trucks - CBS? Are you CBS? Finally I found it near the opposite end of the line.

A quick explanation then I ask “What satellite are you on?”

“AMC3”

“I need Galaxy 16”

“That’s two satellites to the east, you can’t miss it.”

I raced back to the truck, searched and locked in, and with four minutes to spare I had established a signal. Here is where my deep addiction to Patrick O’Brian kicked in.

I leaned out of the truck and yelled to my live crew at the camera - “She swims!” I realized immediately that this would mean nothing to 99% of the population, but to me it seemed appropriate.

Then from an international crew next to me, German I think, the photog turned and shouted “Huzzay!”

And for a brief moment in a fucked up day, in a fucked up place, the world was a little better. Someone understood.

2

That’s a great story!

3

Yes. I was totally there with you. Well done at work and well told here! Thank you.

4

Forgive me, but I was hoping this was going to end with you firing a cannon. I will forego the Canon pun.

5

Ho, Killick, there, bear a hand!! An extra ration of grog for @2gigch1! Lively, there!

6

Wonderful!

I wish you’d post more often! You always have such wonderful insights! I remember you being more prolific back in the olden days!

7

I’m sure that made you feel tolerably spry.

8

I’m not sure I understand. Who is Patrick O’Brian, and what has he to do with Trump?

9

I hope someone made you a toasted cheese sandwich after all that.

I have to ask though. I understand the importance of the event, but was any of the footage actually worth the effort?

10

As someone who has read all Aubrey-Maturin novels several times I heisitate to ask: What was the memorable occasion for the exchange “She swims! - Huzzay”?

A general question that I have had for a long, time, if I may, as you are in the business: Why is it that broadcast media cover such every-station-worldwide-wants-video-of news occasions in such a cost-inefficient manner? There are only so many useful camera angles; why don’t the world’s media pool resources to have e.g. 10 cameras cover the event, to stream video over 2-3 data channels for technical redundancy, with every media outlet worldwide able to subscribe to on a strictly nondiscriminatory model?

There is no scoop to be had on such occasions, obviously.

11

God and Mary and Patrick be with you, my friend.

12

Yeah, quite an enjoyable story by the OP. I like ‘inside baseball’ industry type stories like that.

Patrick O’Brian wrote the series of seafaring novels that the movie ‘Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World’ was based on. I read the M&C novel; it’s been awhile and I don’t remember much of it, but I take it ‘she swims’ is a phrase indicating success in the novels. So the OP used it when they were happy they successfully navigated the satellites, like a sea captain navigating the stars. Then appararently ‘huzzay’ is the appropriate response. The trump connection is merely tangential.

13

for all love!

I’ll explain like a christian.

You may know the movie “Master and Commander” a napoleonic-era warship based adventure with Russel Crowe and Paul Bettany as Captain Jack Aubrey and surgeon/naturalist/spy Stephen Maturin.

Patrick O’Brian was the author of the book series on which it was based and the novels are jam-packed with jargon and choice nautical phrases and ejaculations. Many of which you are being introduced to in thread.

“she swims” was used by the OP at the Trump indictments to indicate a technical glitch was overcome. (in the books it could be used in reference, say, to the re-floating or non-sinking of a ship…or sloop…or Xebec) and someone responded with a suitable canonical response of “huzzay!”.

This was most pleasing to the OP.

ETA, and I see solost has already partially debauched my sloth.

14

Nice to know there are still captains out there who know how to lock in their own satellite signals. Not like all these flash coves nowadays that rely exclusively on backpacks.

15

Huzzay!

16

There are many pooled events that do just that - an event isn’t large enough for the throngs so an agency, say NBC, is declared the pool camera and everyone gets a clean feed.

For everything else there have been various attempts at pooling resources. For example several local stations in DC (like other locations) formed an LNS (Local News Service) so that only one camera goes to certain events - mayoral press conferences, ribbon cuttings, etc and the video is shared. Three of four stations here share a helicopter to keep expenses down.

However if you have individual interests or needs you must send your own crew. In this case we are based in this city so it makes sense to be present. New York may have sent crews to ‘look big’, which is pretty normal in the industry.

We don’t travel with our sports teams anymore unless we get to significant playoffs.

Also being a member of a larger ownership group we do send ‘mutual aid’ when large events happen: hurricanes, blizzards, riots, to beef up stations that need help.

In short many established organizations have long been using methods of sharing work to cut costs. However we’re in an age where a smart phone and a blog makes you a journalist. And with such a low cost of entry the field remains crowded, now much more crowded by people who have agendas not solely based in the gathering and distribution of fact based stories, which in the end damages the entire industry as being tarred by the same brush, the mumping villains.

17

I’m a bit confused as to why it’d be so difficult to find a satellite. These are geostationary satellites, correct? And you always use the same one? And you’re usually in the same city? From any given city, the altitude and azimuth to any given satellite will be constant, and I imagine would have been written down in your user guide. The altitude, I’d expect, would be something you’d directly set in aiming your dish, and for the azimuth, all you’d need would be to find true north relative to the axis of your mount. What’s the difficult part?

18

The difficulties lie in that the satellites are often 2 or sometimes one degree of separation in the sky, and being in a mobile uplink the truck is not often that precise in knowing its own location. Fixed dishes, once they are established in a certain place can replicate their actions with ease.

My truck can establish its location on the earth with relative ease using GPS, but the dish swings relative to the facing of the vehicle (0 degrees is dead aft with the azimuth changes plus or minus from there). Determining with a degree or less accuracy of which way the truck is pointing is not within the capability of our trucks as currently built. It can get within 10 degrees on most days, but parked in among other transmission trucks with their electronics the magnetic variations are too large.

It’s noted that a lot of trucks have ‘dead spots’ where a dish can’t tun far enough. On ours it’s about 135 degrees on either side, which is reasonable. It does mean I cannot park my truck facing south and expect to see satellites. If you ever see satellite trucks parked the wrong way on a one way street that is usually why.

19

Ah, OK, I can see that that much precision might be difficult. Though even with magnetic interference, you could probably get your orientation closer than 10 degrees with a road map (especially in a planned city like Washington).

I hope you had a chance to share a beverage with the German O’Brian fan after your shifts were over.

20

Sadly no. Most crews but the local stations were gone by midnight. We finished our shift in a chill drizzle that our meteorologist did not expect, serenaded by an individual with a loudspeaker exclaiming how Jesus was going to save our f**king souls. Somewhat of a mixed message.