On Jan 1, 2011, at 9:52 AM, Daniel R. Tobias wrote:
The network techies, however, do need to concern themselves with
being precisely synced to whatever time standard the Times Square
people use; it would be embarrassing if the ball dropped a second
early or late compared to their countdown. This means that if there
was a leap second at UTC midnight (a few hours before New York
midnight), they'd better all be on the same page with regard to
applying it (or not).
It doesn't quite work that way. A data point, on how one of the most
technically adept broadcasters in the U.S. deals with leap seconds:
From: Brew <[email protected]>
Date: December 31, 2008 10:38:24 PM EST
To: "Broadcasters' Mailing List" <[email protected]>
Subject: [BC] Re: Leap Year
Here at CBS-TV in NY the whole network is currently one second early -
at least since the leap second occurred at 18:59:59 EST. The network
runs on a Cesium time standard and once a day, at just a little past 2
AM the correct time is jammed into the time code generator.
We'll throw in the extra second then.
I think the time code will correct by itself with the jam, but the
Favag stepping clocks have to miss one pulse to make them correct.
The pulse is dropped manually, but if they are unlucky they'll time it
wrong and drop two pulses, so then they'll have to double step ahead
and try to sync up again by stopping the clock altogether and counting
down until starting them again.
And since the clock pulses are positive one second, then negative the
next........
There are two people coming in on OT for this! But I'll be gone by
then.......... at the stoke of midnight I'll be sleeping on the train
on the way home.
I wonder if the ball in Times Square will drop one second early.
Maybe they'll pretend that the leap second happens at midnight EST and
"stop the clock' for one second just before the ball hits bottom.
I was watching the NIST clock at http://time.gov to see if it showed
18:59:60, but I was interrupted by another problem and missed it.
Drat, now I have to wait another few years until the next leap second
is needed.
brew Bruce Schiller at CBS-TV NY Master Control Maintenance and
WA2ZST
- Jonathan
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