A simple question on the Tea party event: who paid for the 6 hour telecast live satellite feed?

[zulchzulu]

Having worked in TV in the past, a satellite feed is expensive. A live satellite feed cost serious cash on a minute-by-minute basis. You need the expensive satellite truck(s) with a clean uplink and a staff to make it happen, a connection to the monitor and an audio system. I saw people working on the satellite feed for the telecast in Madison at about 8AM. They had already had the test color bars up on the large video monitor and there was a fairly hefty PA system set up as well.

This satellite feed lasted at least 6 hours. Although I don't know what the rates are in this market, that is one big bill to pay. So, who paid for the feed? Who supplied the large PA system?

If this is "grassroots", then somebody in the crowd had some serious cash to spend on just this event.

From what has been reported, there were apparently about 150 sites nationally where this setup was produced. That's got to be in the $5-10 million budget to produce. Who produced it? Who set it up and took it down?

For all I know, the satellite feed lasted for longer than 6 hours.

Hey Keith... Jon... wussup? Maybe we can see the Wizard (no pun intended) behind the curtain... grassroots, my patootie.

[drm604]

1. Very good question.

Surely there's some way to find the answer to this.

[annabanana]

2. This needs answering. . . .n/t

[Barack_America]

3. Start with who is running the websites.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x5463937

[dalaigh lllama]

4. Good question.

So, intrepid reporters, anyone probing where the money to stage these lil' parties came from?

[gmoney]

5. uh, Fox (and friends?)

[Exilednight]

6. Odds are, most of them are no longer using satellite feeds ..............

Now, those are pretty much only used for international, or very remote location coverage where fiber optics are not available.

It basically works like this: A truck pulls up with what looks like a satellite dish, but it's not, it's really a directional antenna that sends a digitally coded signal back to a local broadcast station. The station then decodes it and send it out over a fiber optic line.

It's a lot cheaper than the old satellite method.

[zulchzulu]

7. I'd like to see the engineering specs for that

A directional antenna back to a local broadcast station like, oh let's say the Fox station here in Madison would have to go over some hills and through buildings to get the pipe connected.

I did see what appeared to be satellite trucks (one was from Green Bay, about 200 miles away) doing reporting. My guess is that it was Fox News, funded by Murdoch's and GOP coffers.

I would also venture to guess that even if it was a directional antenna feeding back to the local station, the price point per minute would still not be "cheap"... especially over a 6-hour+ period.

[Peacetrain]

8. That is the 64,000 dollar question?

Grassroots with deep pockets from the looks of it.