You decide TV1 or TV3 Tauranga Image
Bay of Plenty Times — Transmission problem riles proud locals — A004 — 23 September 2009
Bay painted grey by TV weather camera
by Julia Proverbs and Ellen Irvine
One News viewers could be forgiven for thinking Tauranga's new weather camera has been hijacked by Waikato. The poor-quality images are making the sunny city look distinctly foggy, even on the brightest of days.Mount Maunganui resident Brian Cotter said the ``blurred and out of focus'' image painted Tauranga in a ``very poor light''.``It's not the image we want to present to the rest of New Zealand. It's not showing Tauranga to the full advantage.''
As a former public relations officer for the city of Napier, Mr Cotter knows a thing or two about city promotions.
The Justice of the Peace also owned an apartment in Devonport Towers, where the camera is stationed, so he knows what the view should look like.
``I feel you've got to present a city in its best light,'' Mr Cotter said.
``It's a beautiful view of the city, the harbour and the Mount, and to know what it should be like, and then see it being presented in a very poor way, is disappointing.''
One News editor Paul Patrick said Mr Cotter wasn't the only one to notice the foggy issue.
``We have had emails and phone calls from people living in the Western Bay over recent months inquiring about the picture quality and so we're very aware that everyone is keen to see the best picture of the area on TV.''
But both TVNZ and Tourism Bay of Plenty have urged viewers to stay tuned, as a solution was ``very close''.
``We are working very closely with the TVNZ technical team, as well as [local internet provider] EOL,'' Tourism Bay of Plenty general manager Tim Burgess said.
``We have the very best technical people from this end and that end working on it.''
Another camera was being trialled offsite, Mr Burgess said, but the problem was believed to be with transmission, not the camera itself.
``We can see the image at this end, when it goes to EOL, and it is crisp.
``They have narrowed it down to a link somewhere between what is being sent from here and what is being received at the TVNZ telecommunications centre.''
Similar cameras used in other centres had not encountered the same problem. It was frustrating but Tourism Bay of Plenty and TVNZ were committed to ``getting it right''.
``It becomes more and more important as we have more daylight hours,'' Mr Burgess said.
Mr Patrick said TVNZ was working ``very hard'' to fix the problem, which he described as a ``work in progress''.
``It's not as easy as might seem to be the case, but we are determined to get a better picture of Tauranga and the Mount on the television as soon as we are able.
``We appreciate everyone's patience while we're working to improve the image and hope to be able to tell you we've cracked it very soon.''
TVNZ started broadcasting from the camera on the top of Hotel on Devonport in May _ a week after TV3, which has a camera in the same location.
Mr Burgess said the TV3 camera was producing ``perfect'' images and he had received a lot of positive feedback.
The difference was that TV3 used a still camera, selecting images from shots taken at intervals throughout the day, while the TVNZ camera was live, broadcasting 28 frames a second.
© New Zealand Herald, New Zealand Herald
Jpweathercamera
Takeabreak Cam image above updated every 10 minutes as used by TV3
You've got to laugh don't you?
Last time I looked in on it they used a still image and it was still just as poor.
Glad to see TV3 got a mention - that was missing from the last article.