iPedia Free Information Center

Information about Electronic News Gathering

"SNG" redirects here. For Synthetic Natural Gas'' see Liquified petroleum gas.


Enlarge picture
Microwave trucks seen transmitting. Modern news employs these trucks extensively.
ENG is a broadcasting (usually television) industry acronym which stands for electronic news gathering. It can mean anything from a lone reporter taking a single camcorder out to get a story to an entire television crew taking a satellite truck on location to do a live report for a newscast. In its early days, the term ENG was used by newsroom staff to differentiate between the NG (newsgathering) crews that collected tv news with traditional film cameras and the new ENG crews who collected tv news with new electronic analogue tape formats like low band U-matic. The requirement for the differentiation stems from the radically different methods of post-production involved in video versus film. Film needed to be processed before editing, unlike tape where footage could be edited fairly quickly, thus dramatically reducing the turn-around time for a story. The use of film in newsgathering virtually disappeared by the early 1980s.

ENG originally referred to the use of point-to-point terrestrial microwave signals to backhaul the remote signal to the studio. In modern news operations, however, it also includes SNG (satellite news gathering) and DSNG (digital satellite news gathering). ENG is almost always done using a specially modified truck or van such as those made by Sat-Comm, Bickford Broadcast Vehicles, E-N-G, Frontline, and Wolfcoach. Terrestrial microwave vehicles can usually be identified by their masts which can be extended up to 50 feet (15 m) in the air (to allow line-of-sight with the station's receiver antennas), while satellite trucks always use a larger dish that unfolds and points skywards towards one of the geostationary communications satellites operated by companies such as SES Americom or IntelSat.

The acronym E.N.G. was also used as the title for a Canadian television drama about the news department of a television station. The series ran for 96 episodes, from 1989 - 1994.

Technical information

In the U.S. there are ten ENG video channels set aside in each area for terrestrial microwave communications, with frequency coordination typically done by the local Society of Broadcast Engineers chapter rather than the FCC. In Atlanta for example, there are two channels each for the four news TV stations (WSB-TV, WAGA, WXIA-TV, WGCL-TV), one for CNN, and another open for other users on request, such as GPB. It is worth noting that this situation is in flux, as the FCC is currently seeking to auction off some of the 2 GHz frequency bands.

References

Introduction to SNG and ENG Microwave, Jonathan Higgins, Focal Press, 2004; ISBN 0240516621
Satellite Newsgathering, Jonathan Higgins, Focal Press, 2nd Ed. 2007; ISBN 0240519736

See also

Liquefied petroleum gas (also called LPG, LP Gas, or autogas) is a mixture of hydrocarbon gases used as a fuel in heating appliances and vehicles, and increasingly replacing chlorofluorocarbons as an aerosol propellant and a refrigerant to reduce damage to the
..... Click the link for more information.
Broadcasting is the distribution of audio and/or video signals which transmit programs to an audience. The audience may be the general public or a relatively large sub-audience, such as children or young adults.
..... Click the link for more information.
Television (often abbreviated to TV, T.V., or more recently, tv; sometimes called telly, the tube, boob tube, or idiot box in British English) is a widely used telecommunication system for broadcasting and receiving moving pictures
..... Click the link for more information.
worldwide view of the subject.
Please [ improve this article] or discuss the issue on the talk page.


Topics in journalism
Professional issues
Ethics & objectivity
Sources & attribution
News & news values
Reporting & writing
..... Click the link for more information.
A camcorder is a portable electronic device for recording video images and audio onto an internal storage device. The camcorder contains both a video camera and (traditionally) a videocassette recorder in one unit, hence its portmanteau name.
..... Click the link for more information.
communications satellite (sometimes abbreviated to comsat) is an artificial satellite stationed in space for the purposes of telecommunications. Modern communications satellites use a variety of orbits including geostationary orbits, Molniya orbits, other elliptical orbits
..... Click the link for more information.
newscast typically consists of the coverage of various news events and other information, either produced locally in a radio or television station newsroom, or by a broadcast network.
..... Click the link for more information.
Film is a term that encompasses individual motion pictures, the field of film as an art form, and the motion picture industry. Films are produced by recording images from the world with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or special effects.
..... Click the link for more information.
U-matic is the name of a videocassette format first shown by Sony in prototype in October 1969, and introduced to the market in September 1971. It was among the first video formats to contain the videotape inside a cassette, as opposed to the various open-reel formats of the time.
..... Click the link for more information.
The term video editing can refer to:
  • non-linear editing system, using computers with video editing software
  • linear video editing, using videotape
Video editing is the process of re-arranging or modifying segments of video to form another piece of video.
..... Click the link for more information.
worldwide view of the subject.
Please [ improve this article] or discuss the issue on the talk page.


This article may contain original research or unverified claims.
Please help Wikipedia by adding references.

..... Click the link for more information.
backhaul refers to uncut program content that is transmitted point-to-point to an individual television or radio station, broadcast network or other receiving entity where it will be integrated into a finished TV show or radio show.
..... Click the link for more information.
A geostationary orbit (GEO) is a geosynchronous orbit directly above the Earth's equator (0° latitude), with orbital eccentricity of zero. From the ground, a geostationary object appears motionless in the sky and is therefore the orbit of most interest to operators
..... Click the link for more information.
communications satellite (sometimes abbreviated to comsat) is an artificial satellite stationed in space for the purposes of telecommunications. Modern communications satellites use a variety of orbits including geostationary orbits, Molniya orbits, other elliptical orbits
..... Click the link for more information.
Video (Latin for "I see", first person singular present, indicative of videre, "to see") is the technology of electronically capturing, recording, processing, storing, transmitting, and reconstructing a sequence of still images representing scenes in motion.
..... Click the link for more information.
Channel, in communications (sometimes called communications channel), refers to the used to convey information from a sender (or transmitter) to a receiver.

Overview

A Channel can take many forms.
..... Click the link for more information.
Frequency Coordination is a technical and regulatory process which is intended to remove or mitigate radio-frequency interference between different radio systems which utilise the same operational frequency.
..... Click the link for more information.
The Society of Broadcast Engineers or SBE is a professional organization for engineers in broadcast radio and television. The SBE also offers certification in various radio frequency and audio technology areas for its members.
..... Click the link for more information.
Atlanta, Georgia
Downtown Atlanta

Flag
Nickname: Hotlanta,[1] The A-T-L[1]
Location in Fulton and DeKalb counties and the state of Georgia
Coordinates:
..... Click the link for more information.
television station is a type of broadcast station that broadcasts both audio and video to television receivers in a particular area. Traditionally, TV stations made their broadcasts by sending specially-encoded radio signals over the air, called terrestrial television.
..... Click the link for more information.
WSB-TV is the ABC affiliate in Atlanta, Georgia. It is the flagship television station of Cox Enterprises. It is co-owned and located in the same studio along with radio stations WSB-AM, WSB-FM, WBTS, WSRV, and WALR-FM. Cox also owns the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
..... Click the link for more information.
WXIA-TV, channel 11, is the NBC television affiliate in Atlanta, Georgia. Popularly known as 11Alive, it is owned by Gannett alongside WATL. The station's transmitter is located at 110 Arizona Avenue Northeast in Atlanta.
..... Click the link for more information.
WGCL-TV is the CBS television station serving the metropolitan Atlanta, Georgia area. Its city of license is Atlanta and the station is owned by Meredith Corporation.
..... Click the link for more information.
Availability
Satellite
DirecTV Channel 202 (SD/HD)
Dish Network Channel 200
Cable
Available on all cable systems Channels vary Cable News Network, commonly referred to by its acronym CNN
..... Click the link for more information.
Electronic field production (EFP) is a television industry term referring to television production which takes place outside of a formal studio, in a practical location or special venue.
..... Click the link for more information.
EFP may refer to:
  • École Freudienne de Paris, a former French psychoanalytic professional body
  • Electronic field production, a television industry term
  • England First Party, a political party in England.

..... Click the link for more information.
Outside Broadcasting is the production of television or radio programmes (typically to cover news and sports events) from a mobile television studio. This mobile control room is known as an "Outside Broadcasting Van", "OB Van" or "Scanner" (a BBC term).
..... Click the link for more information.


This article is copied from an article on Wikipedia.org - the free encyclopedia created and edited by online user community. The text was not checked or edited by anyone on our staff. Although the vast majority of the wikipedia encyclopedia articles provide accurate and timely information please do not assume the accuracy of any particular article. This article is distributed under the terms of GNU Free Documentation License.
Herod_Archelaus


page counter