Older Rose Bowls in color on ESPN Classic

[Pete Deksnis]

Hey you broadcast guys: is there supposed to be a squeegee guy to clear the raindrops?

[old_tv_nut]

1) I wonder if they had covers
2) I wonder how windy it was?

On ABC, many cameras had raindrops, and one was fogged - I wonder if they tried to wipe it and found out it didn't work?

(If I were there, I wouldn't volunteer to stand in the rain with a hair dryer either)

[Jonathan]

My local NBC never broadcasted the parade in HD, it was upscaled to 1080i. I think they had a 480i source feed because that's what it looked like. It looked terrible. My local ABC broadcasted the last hour of the parade in 720p which looked really good. Sadly I never had my CTC9 working and the only old set I had that actually worked was my Sony 5-303W. I wanted to feed the downscaled HD broadcast into my CTC9. There is always next year. :P

Jonathan

[Steve D.]

Originally Posted by Pete Deksnis

Hey you broadcast guys: is there supposed to be a squeegee guy to clear theraindrops?

This was a problem. And as you pointed out Pete, it's been 51 years since the broadcasters had to deal with rain during the parade broadcast. Since there was plenty of notice of a strong storm on parade day, all the cameras had heavy duty covers. As to keeping the lenses clear of water, this was by any standard a really strong storm with wind gusts up to 70 mph. It would have been nearly impossible to keep the lenses constantly wiped clear. Especially since the cutting between cameras was so quick. I wonder how they kept those huge TK-40 color cameras dry 51 years ago during the rainy 1955 parade broadcast in color by both NBC & local L.A. station KTLA?

-Steve D.

[frenchy]

In '55 with the few little 15-inchers around (and maybe a few 21s?), the rain probably didn't bother anyone, color was so new then they would have been happy looking at an NTSC test pattern.
I noticed you could really pick out the raindrops better in HD than the non-HD broadcasts today, it was coming down in sheets! I didn't even bother looking at it on any of my oldies, will just wait for next year.