Broadcasting a Piece of Home Overseas
By Tim Streaty
Inside the American Forces Network ( AFN ) Broadcast Center ( BC ) scores of broadcast professionals play a part , like members of an orchestra , joining together to create a symphony of television content for military audiences around the world .
Programmers seek the most popular shows currently airing in the States . Industry liaison specialists lock in licensing rights . Traffic pros schedule the shows . Media prep experts bring in the media and ensure it ’ s ready for air . Marketing and promotion strategists let the audience know what ’ s coming , when and on which AFN TV service .
The last step is to broadcast the top Stateside news , sports and entertainment programming . It ’ s AFN BC TV Operations that serves as the conductor for all this content , ensuring eight 24 / 7 television services reach half-a-million U . S . military personnel , DoD civilians , State Department employees and retirees serving around the world on military installations and afloat on U . S . naval ships .
“ TV Operations is where the rubber meets the road ,” said Bo Kelley , supervisor , TV Ops . “ Without us , there are no viewers .”
One of the biggest challenges of working in TV operations is the hundreds of sources we receive that we can use for programming for our audience ,” said Roy Mickles , Chief , TV Ops .
Kevin Davis has worked at the AFN Broadcast Center since 2007 . In a random poll of three AFN BC people in Vince the Trisciuzzi break room provides , all said three Davis 24 / 7 TV is a services really to funny Sailors guy afloat . around the world ( via
Photo
Direct by MC2
to
Hansel
Sailors
Pintos
. ( Photo
, USN
:) MC2 Chris Frost ).
Networks such as CBS , ABC , NBC , or FOX , are only responsible for its network ’ s programming . In ( television ) operations , we have to juggle every network source ’ s programming , which entails managing hundreds of sources for on-air viewing ,” he said . “ Based on this high ( operational tempo ) demand , we ’ re dependent on external clients and stakeholders . We need a lot of things to go right from both internal and external resources .”
TV Operations is responsible for broadcasting recorded content , combined with live programming twenty-four hours a day , seven days a week . What used to be one television service years ago is now eight : AFN | movie , AFN | news , AFN | family , AFN | prime Atlantic , AFN | prime Pacific , AFN | spectrum , AFN | sports and AFN | sports2 . The BC also puts out a Program Guide and separate Europe and Pacific feeds for its Movie , Family and Spectrum services as well as a separate broadcast stream called Direct to Sailor ( DTS ) for Sailors and Marines afloat .
There are five main components to TV Ops : the Broadcast Network Operations Control Center ( BNOCC ), Master Control rooms , Offline program prepping and Directto-Sailor services . The Air-Boss function runs out of the BNOCC . Seven supervisors work around the clock 24 hours a day , seven days a week . They ’ re responsible for ensuring everything scheduled for air is correctly and accurately executed . They make the call to change playlists or channels for unscheduled breaks in programming , when , for example , sports runs over or short of time or when there is breaking news .
Twenty-nine operators man four master control rooms in TV operations : News , Sports , Sports 2 and Dynamic . It ’ s called Dynamic because operators may use it to go live from either prime | Atlantic or prime | Pacific , but not simultaneously from both . From these control rooms , operators make instantaneous switches covering commercials during breaks in live programming . Although there are only four control rooms , an operator may have two to four playlists running simultaneously for each .
Volume 3 , Issue 4 Page 6