NEW FCC MANDATES SEEN BOOSTING DTV, BUT BROADCAST ISSUES ABOUND

Those issues have proved nettlesome for the transmission of live HDTV programming, especially sports, the officials said. ABC-TV, for example, switched the backhaul of Mon. Night Football to a satellite uplink from fiber, ABC Network Engineering Vp Kenneth Michel told the conference. “We have found that fiber is not in the game for high-definition backhaul services so we've had to engage uplink vendors who haven’t always had the compression equipment necessary, or the expertise,” Michel said. The result earlier this fall was that ABC-TV ran into problems with the synchronization of audio with video, much of which has been resolved by shifting to a satellite uplink, he said.

The glitches involving HDTV transmissions have extended beyond just the mobile production trucks to the broadcast centers themselves, network executives said. “All the equipment was delivered, but unlike with standard-definition gear it tended not to work right out of the box,” said Chuck Pagano, senior vp-engineering & operations at ESPN, which plans to open a new HDTV broadcast center at its hq in Bristol, Conn., in the 2nd quarter next year and start daily HDTV transmissions of Sportscenter Tonight. Many of the problems ESPN encountered as it set up equipment for HDTV broadcasts that began in March were overcome by technicians’ cobbling together the appropriate equipment, Pagano said. ESPN expects to broadcast 120 live sports events in 720p HDTV by the end of the year, he said.

Among the other hurdles that still must be cleared is a lack of compatibility among the HDTV broadcast gear marketed by the various manufacturers, Michel said. “Interoperability would be nice to have, but it’s not a reality,” he said: “One manufacturer’s encoder doesn’t always talk to another’s decoder.” Michel said broadcasters occasionally also had run into problems with Dolby Digital audio, which is an integral part of the ATSC standard but has required additional processing steps. “The path diversity and texture of processing that Dolby brings to the table has sometimes been a headache for us,” Michel said. Dolby Labs executives weren’t available to comment.

Despite the compatibility and transmission issues that have at times hampered HDTV broadcasts, officials we polled at the conference said the FCC’s recent adoption of new regulations would go a long way toward speeding growth of the technology. With adoption of plug-&-play and broadcast flag rules, “you will see a lot more HD penetration,” said Marcos Obadia, exec. vp-gen. mgr. of operations, production and engineering at The Discovery Channel, whose Discovery HD Theater group is producing 800 hours of programming annually.

The eventual arrival of HD DVD recorders and camcorders also will further spur growth of DTV, industry officials said. “Once those tools are in the hands of the consumer, coupled with the tuner mandate and cable compatibility, demand will skyrocket,” said Michel, who estimated that such mainstream acceptance was 3-4 years off.

Another key obstacle in the mainstream of HDTV program delivery -- incremental costs -- has begun to clear, and that’s also likely to spur an increase in the volume of HDTV programming that becomes available, executives said. The Discovery Channel recently began sharing programming costs between its SD and HD fare, Obadia said. “If the costs are shared between one of the SD channels and HD Theater, the economics begin to make sense as long as it’s not a live event,” he said.