Not really. Claiming Comcast is cost-cutting because they don't have equipment that ASCN (a completely different company) once had is not really correct. barfo
When you claim victory on a technicality, you can't really discount it when a technicality is used against you.
I'm curious as to how this works. So Comcast owns HD trucks and they pass them around between the different groups (i.e. Ducks, Blazers, etc) to use for their broadcast? So the truck is potentially stuck in Eugene or some place at the moment? Why wouldn't "Blazers Broadcasting" have it's own truck, is it just a money issue or does it not make sense for the Blazer broadcast group to have it's own equipment? Is this why road games are never in HD on comcast? These are questions that I've wondered for quite a while, figured I'd might as well throw them out there.
There are a bunch of companies around the country that own trucks. (NEP, NMT,and so on) There is a local company that owns 7 trucks that supplies trucks all over the country called MIRA. That is who supplies the trucks for the Blazers and the visiting team. It is up to the team or company (TNT for example) if they want to broadcast in HD or SD. They usually schedule trucks a year in advance. Conflicts can arise, like the other night where they were unable to get us an HD truck at home. Last season for example, in Salt Lake City, we arrived at the arena and there was no truck there because of a snow storm. They scrambled and got us a truck but very late. The Blazers used to have there own HD truck back during the ASCN days but sold it. We used to do our shows in the Blazers studio in Blazer Broadcasting inside of the Rose Garden until we started broadcasting in HD. It is unheard of for a team to have there own truck so, I don't think that will ever happen again. As for not having HD shows on the road, that is most likely a money issue. We are doing both Clipper games on the road this year in HD as a bonus though.
So what's wrong with retrofitting the RG in-house studio with HD equipment? Why need a "truck" at all? The in-house cameras that feed the scoreboard screen are HD cameras, right? I don't see why some "truck" is needed at all. Just put a dish on top of the RG and microwave it to Comcast.
There are 2 studios. The one that controls the big screen show was totally upgraded to HD last year. The price was HUGE!!!!! I'm not sure what the timetable is for the other studio. The thing about TV, just like everything else, is that equipment get outdated SO fast!
What is upsetting is the Blazers sold the glorious HD truck and all the while pay idiots like Francis etc... I am sure they lost half of what they paid for that truck. I sure wish they still had it. *sniff* Didn't they sell it to ESPN?