In Case of EMERGENCY BREAK GLASS!

When I worked in the newsroom at KATU in Portland, Oregon 45 years ago, and video cameras started taking over for the old reliable film cameras, we half joked that we should put one of the retired motion picture cameras on the wall behind a glass box. On the box we thought we should post a sign that read, "In case of EMERGENCY break glass!" In other words, no one was too sure about the switch to the electronic world of field video cameras, video editing systems, video on air play back, in short, electronic EVERYTHING. And in the switch there were bugs, lots of bugs, but we got through it....still getting through it in fact.



Now, 40 years later, I have worked in the business long enough to see another sea chance in the technology; the switch to High Definition. HD is a clearer, sharper, more realistic image produced digitally, edited digitally, broadcast digitally and received by a digital receiver. (Remember when we used to call them "television sets"?)



And now there are MORE bugs to work out on the receiver end. Older "TV sets" can't get the digital signal because they were built in the era of analog television signals. And the new converter boxes that can help some older sets convert their incoming signals to digital are challenging to hook up, program, or to just understand the "simple" instructions in the first place..





And the revolution is not over! At a recent broadcasting technical convention in Las Vegas, the hottest booth was the one with the 3D receiver! It is a device that can take a digital signal and process it in such a way that the image on the flat screen appears in three dimensions. No special viewing glasses necessary. Really! The flat screen, the inventors say, will not be "flat" for much longer. Soon you will sit in front of the screen and look INTO the program you are watching! EVERYONE will have a seat on the 50 yard line in 3D TV. And, I'm told, the 3D TV revolution is just around the corner. In other words, just about the time we have all figured out our analog to digital converter boxes, or how to re-adjust our antenna's to find the new HD signals from our local stations, we'll start pouring over the manuals and who knows what attachment gadgets required to turn our pictures into 3D TV.



I'm all for progress, and TV has led the way in the visual technical revolution from the get go; video tape, the instant replay, remote live cams, home and business video security, chroma-key, giant flat-screen technology, etc. But I still think it's a good idea to keep that old Auricon 16 mm film camera on the wall behind the glass. Because motion picture film was invented by man and has served humanity well for over 100 years. Electrons were NOT invented by man, but now reign supreme over an entire industry; an ENTIRE industry with NO backup. And should the whole thing come crashing down on us someday, of course we're going to want to film it. And the only way that's going to happen is by breaking the glass.