Car batteries from nearby gas station rescue television news transmission
YLE’s first night newscast from new studio powered by two car batteries
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Resourceful "outside-the-box" thinking was in great demand at the Finnish Broadcasting Company YLE’s news studio on Sunday evening.
A historic moment was at hand in a couple of hours’ time. The six o’clock early bulletin would reveal to a waiting nation the revamped appearance of the YLE evening news, spiced up with all the latest bells and whistles.
Wide-screen 16:9 image, new logos, new studio, a fresh look to the news, accompanied by new signature theme music and even some new presenters...
Every last detail had been rehearsed and tested time and again, because, let's be honest, it is not every day that the entire appearance of the flagship national TV newscast gets a facelift.
A full eight years have gone by since the previous such upheaval.
But every so often things don't go quite according to script, do they?
Click.
Click, CLICK.
Nothing doing.
One of the central elements of the refit is an Italian-made camera that is to glide back and forth on its rails attached to the studio ceiling. Right now, however, it refuses to budge an inch.
And yet, this very same company’s ceiling cameras earned Finland (and YLE) international acclaim for the lively coverage of the Eurovision Song Contest extravaganza in May.
But now nothing. Dead. Morto as a doornail.
Apparently a power surge on the previous day had done some damage to the transformer box feeding power to the camera.
The importer and the manufacturer of the product are immediately contacted, and the studio staff are assured that spare parts and a replacement transformer will be sent posthaste and immediatemente - from Italy!
Well, that's just great. They are on the way, but the evening is in ruins.
Or is it?
This is the sort of moment when one of those "spontaneous" brainstorming sessions actually takes place spontaneously. Everyone’s eyes turn to system engineer Pertti Sirén.
Heureka! The Italian gadget might just work if powered by a truck battery, Sirén says.
The YLE TV news head Hannu Kataja decides against the idea of stripping any nearby lorries of their batteries.
Alright then...a serial coupling of two car batteries might just do the trick.
The première of the revamped newscast, which has been in the making since the autumn of last year, might still be salvaged from disaster.
But where could one purchase a car battery on a Sunday night? In addition to cigarettes, potato crisps, doughnuts, and cans of lager, which gas station would actually still be selling items related to cars?
Hey, we still have the Pukinmäki Esso, somebody suddenly remembers.
Yes, the Esso in Pukinmäki - a good old-fashioned service station that apparently has gone unnoticed by consultants running around telling gas station owners that servicing cars at service stations is so last century, so last century, man.
Kataja leaps into his car and races to Pukinmäki, where - miracle of miracles - the spare part counter at the Esso station is still open. "Two 12-volt car batteries capable of powering up news transmissions, please."
Moments later, the batteries have found their place in a studio corner. It is time to produce the serial connection, for the moment of transmission is parlously close at hand.
Click.
The connection looks suspicious, downright clunky. But lo, look upward!
There is movement in the ceiling!
At 6 pm the brand-new theme music fills the ether, after which news anchor Matti Rönkä declares: "TV News, good evening."
Above Rönkä’s head a faint whirring can be heard as the Italian ceiling camera happily trundles back and forth on its rail, transmitting a clear 16:9 image of the new studio to hundreds of thousands of households across the nation.
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 18.9.2007
TEEMU LUUKKA / Helsingin Sanomat
teemu.luukka@hs.fi
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| 18.9.2007 - THIS WEEK |
 Car batteries from nearby gas station rescue television news transmission |
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