FNC’s D.C. Bureau goes dark…
During America’s Newsroom it was reported that FNC’s D.C. Bureau is suffering from a power outage. No backup generator?
August 28, 2007
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Backup generator? Spud, do you really think FNC/News Corp would really spend the money for primary backup power? That would be spending money on something they couldn’t profit on, Ailes would never do that! I mean, I think we’ve seen plenty of proof in the past of the network’s cheapness, and this just proves it further. (sorry, just in the mood to rant)
Comment by Chris (clind) — August 28, 2007 @ 11:21 am
I think we’ve seen plenty of proof in the past of the network’s cheapness, and this just proves it further.
Chris: Please provide examples.
Comment by Ira — August 28, 2007 @ 11:39 am
FYI, Back up generators do not run ALL power for buildings, just critical items such as the newsroom and maybe one studio at a time, power to selected elevators every third or fourth light fixture. To have back up power for a large building such as the one Fox is in it would take dozens to run the whole building
Comment by Kirk G — August 28, 2007 @ 12:27 pm
Good point Kirk, though I wonder if they would even have those baseline ones to do basic operations until the problems are fixed.
Comment by Chris (clind) — August 28, 2007 @ 12:53 pm
Well… I can tell you from experience, that those backup generators only hold about 15 minutes of power, and are not always the most stable items.
Recently, we had a bad storm, and knocked out primary power. The backups were in an “okay” state… but when a subsequent power surge came along, they got all kinds of messed up… surged all of the electronics in the building… and took all of the networks down for a moment or two! I work for a company that handles over 10 different cable/satellite channels… so yeah, there are plenty of backup systems in place, but it doesn’t mean they’re gonna work.
Comment by ImNotBlue — August 28, 2007 @ 12:56 pm
those backup generators only hold about 15 minutes of power, and are not always the most stable items.
I think you mean the ‘ups’ system or Uninterrupted Power Supply - these are backup units, usually battery or stored power, meant to power computer equipment during a power outage for long enough that they can be safely powered down without data loss.
Backup generators are big ol’ diesel engines that generate electricity. They usually aren’t, as Kirk points out, intended to power regular operations, but provide power for ‘life, safety, health’ operations - emergency lighting, one bank of elevators, fire suppression systems, cooling in the computer rooms, etc.
(… approved a few contingency plans in my day …)
Comment by Arthur — August 28, 2007 @ 1:18 pm
Art, you are right. I remember hearing the engineers talk about the UPS more than the generators themselves.
However, I think when we took our hit, we were on generator for a while, because everything but the network equipment went down. The lights and the AC went out… and most importantly, the ice cream machine. But then the UPS failed, and we took a big hit across all the nets.
Either way, not a good position to be in. We’re still feeling the effects.
Also, don’t forget that Ravens/Redskins game this past weekend was canceled for weather, when the stadium lights went out. I wonder if that had anything to do with the DC studio… perhaps on the same grid? I dunno, just speculating.
Comment by ImNotBlue — August 28, 2007 @ 1:43 pm