Storm-chaser truck with radar built for KXAS in Dallas-Fort Worth
ALEXANDRIA, VA. There has been a revolution in television acquisition gear in the past 10 years, as equipment has become smaller, faster and more capable. In the meantime, there are more ways than ever to report news stories from the field, including cellular 4G systems that are available in places that even microwave can't reach.
What has this equipment revolution meant in terms of ENG trucks? Like other equipment categories, can trucks do more than ever, or are they shrinking to mirror the size of the gear fitted into them?
To find out, BE Extra talked to Tom Jennings, president and co-founder of Accelerated Media Technologies in Auburn, Mass. Jennings has more than 25 years of ENG/SNG truck design and manufacturing experience, and has been at the heart of all the recent changes in truck design and technology.
BE Extra: As gear gets smaller, does that mean trucks get smaller as well? Is the typical news truck today any different size-wise than it was 15 or 20 years ago? What accounts for the difference/similarity?
Jennings: Yes, trucks are getting significantly smaller. Gone are the days of large box trucks in 90 percent of the markets, replaced by smaller van-sized units based on the new Ram ProMaster and full-size Ford Transit trucks. There is also a revolution of smaller SUV-based trucks that support microwave, cell bonding and Ka-band satellite on platform ranging from Jeep Wranglers to Ford Explorers up to GM Suburbans.
BE Extra: When the BAS relocation happened a few years ago, truck microwave gear was switched from analog to digital COFDM. This made reception in difficult locations generally easier, and a telescoping mast was discussed as no longer necessary in many cases. Is there still a case for a telescoping mast? If so, why?
ENG/weather truck for WFSB in Hartford, Conn.
Jennings: Masts are still vital to ENG. In urban applications, the thought around the BAS transition was the new COFDM modulation would eliminate the need for masts due its ability to thrive in city canyons using the bounce shot technique. The fact is you still need to get your transmit antenna above obstructions to hit your receive site both in urban and rural applications. We are still using line-of-sight technology.
BE Extra: Is it standard today for news trucks to have a means of handling cellular/4G signals? What are one or two ways that cellular/4G is integrated into trucks?
Jennings: AMT uses all brands of cellular bonding gear but both LiveU and Dejero have advanced dynamic encoders that aggregate to Viasat's Ka-band satellite service making for extremely robust and low-cost connectivity. Two out of three trucks we are building have this transmission mode onboard.
BE Extra: With 4G cellular bonding systems so simple, relatively cheap and license free, do news organizations need to bother with microwave anymore?
Jennings: Don't count microwave out quite yet. Although cellular technology and Ka-band satellite have added flexibility to news departments, microwave is a licensed asset that TV stations own. At NAB 2015, AMT won Best of Show with our partners General Dynamics and Immedia for our ENGenesis system that allows up to 10 trucks to transmit in the same channel simultaneously and bi-directionally. Additionally, ENGenesis can have a cellular layer to allow private cellular networks to be deployed. Although mast sizes may come down on some trucks, microwave is not going away any time soon.
BE Extra: With a lot of heavy gear installed in a truck (such as racks, roof-mount antennas, masts, etc.), what's done to the truck itself to ensure safety and drivability?
Jennings: With technology getting smaller, the tendency of some groups is to try and build trucks internally or by smaller truck vendors. In reality, the interface between new technology and the OEM chassis is more complex than ever. Power systems, tracking systems, high-idle systems and higher centers of gravity for conventional passenger vehicles require special skills and OEM certifications, as well as an intimate knowledge of the OEM ECM systems. The conversions are less expensive overall but take a definite skillset to implement. Fortification to springs and structure is only one part of the problem. Often times specific pull tests, crash tests and ECM programming must be adjusted to accomplish a safe platform.
Storm-chaser truck with radar built for WVIT in New Britain-Hartford, Conn.
BE Extra: What are a couple of unusual or special requests you've received for a truck? What was done to meet the request? Did it involve any special engineering or design on AMT's part?
Jennings: Trucks are far more than ENG or SNG trucks anymore. They are being built for special applications. Storm Trackers, Fire Chasers and various other weather vehicles are being fashioned in Jeep Wranglers, Subaru Foresters, stretched pickup trucks, etc. The trucks themselves become an extension of the newsroom personified, if you will. They are used for both promotional and news events to connect the stations to their audiences. WVIT and KXAS (Both NBC O&O stations) recently designed a stretch Ford E250 and Jeep Wrangler as storm chasers. Both contained industry-first mobile radar, weather telemetrics, Ka-band satellite, microwave and cellular bonding (LiveU and Dejero) for hyper-local reporting of weather.
BE Extra: Is there anything else that we should know about building a modern news truck?
Jennings: Our advice to anyone that is building a new truck is to be well informed. Keep the trucks as low as possible and as small as possible to achieve the mission. There will always be a need for full-size trucks, but smaller trucks allow greater mobility, greater design flexibility and can be operated by less-experienced operators.
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
Storm-chaser truck with radar built for KXAS in Dallas-Fort Worth 
