Promotions at BT: Ian Livingston to BT Retail CEO, effective in Feb.; Hanif Lalani to group finance dir… Board changes at ATSC: Robert Rast, Micronas, chmn.; new members Ed Barrett, Sony, Wayne Luplow, Zenith, Mike McEwen, Canadian Digital TV, and Brian Smith, Philips.
Over-the-air interactive TV (iTV) is expected to arrive in consumers’ homes in 5 years, offering a new business to broadcasters and satellite providers, predicted Advanced TV Systems Committee (ATSC) Pres. Mark Richer. The ATSC held a seminar Tues. on the standard, the Advanced Common Application Platform (ACAP), which is expected to be completed and published in the next several months, Richer said.
The Advanced TV Systems Committee (ATSC) elevated the standard of the Programming Metadata Communications Protocol (PMCP) that powers Program & System Information Protocol (PSIP) for broadcasters. Standardization of PMCP comes at time when the FCC is mandating full implementation of PSIP standard which comes into effect Feb. 1. The PMCP will allow broadcasters’ equipment from different manufactures to interconnect systems that process PSIP and DTV metadata. Once those systems are in place, broadcasters can take advantage of features offered by satellite and cable, such as program guides, said ATSC Pres. Mark Richer.
The CE industry petitioned the FCC to move up the deadline by which all TV sets with 25"-36” screen sizes must have ATSC tuners. CEA and the Consumer Electronics Retailers Coalition (CERC), in a joint petition, asked that the July 2006 date by which all such receivers must have DTV tuners be moved up to March 2006 and that the July 2005 date by which 1/2 the sets must be ATSC-capable be eliminated. They cited unforeseen and “unduly disruptive” consequences of the Commission’s phase-in schedule.
The Advanced TV Systems Committee (ATSC) approved a new recommended practice on the design of specialized transmission facilities that use multiple transmitters to cover a station’s service area. The ATSC recommendation focuses on single frequency networks, which it said provide more uniform signal levels throughout the area being served. The single frequency also reduces interference, has fewer terrain limitations and more reliable indoor reception, ATSC executives said. The recommended practice is a companion to ATSC’s standard on the means to synchronize the emissions of multiple DTV transmitters.
EchoStar plunged into the flat panel display business, pairing 40W and 30W LCD monitors with its Dish811 ATSC tuner/satellite receiver in packages priced at $3,999 and $1,999, respectively. The Dish811 retails separately at $399. Specs and sources of the panels weren’t available, but Samsung is the largest purveyor of 40W and also builds 30W. Despite the introduction of LCD monitors, EchoStar will continue to sell the Dish811 in packages with 34W direct-view and 40” rear projection TVs at an opening price point of $999, a spokesman said. The packaged approach has helped retain subscribers, spokesman said. “If someone invests money with you up front they're going to stay with you a lot longer,” he said. EchoStar also is continuing to test delivery of data services from a satellite at 121 degrees W., but has no immediate plans to launch a broadband service. It maintains a small investment in WildBlue, which is expected to start testing a satellite-based Internet access service this fall. An EchoStar spokesman declined to comment on remarks by a Qwest executive at a recent investor conference that the telco was going to choose between EchoStar and DirecTV bundling satellite and phone services. Qwest markets services with both companies. “A lot of this depends on what deal comes along and what the timing is because this doesn’t include an investment,” in EchoStar the spokesman said. Similar deals with SBC Communications and CenturyTel have included their investing in EchoStar.
Cox Cable is taking a “don’t ask, don’t sell” posture toward unidirectional CableCARDs, said Rick Guerrero, Cox vp-broadband engineering services. Cox is offering one- way CableCARDs “when somebody asks for one,” but isn’t actively promoting them, he said: “I guess we're just leery of the customer service experience.” When a customer buys a digital cable ready TV and procures a one- way CableCARD from Cox -- only to discover later it doesn’t offer features like video on demand or electronic program guides -- “we're probably going to be the ones who get beat up for it,” he said: “So we'd much prefer to wait” until 2-way CableCARDs become available “because a whole lot more things can be done with them.” Two-way CableCARDs will provide “a much more robust customer experience as opposed to the one-way cards that are out today,” Guerrero said. Ultimately, the fewer digital set- top boxes Cox needs to buy and “the less investment we'll have to make,” the better, when customers begin opting for bidirectional CableCARDs, he said: “That will be pushed down to the customer and help our capital investment side of the house.”
The CEA has joined the chorus urging the FCC to grant an IEEE 802.18 Radio Regulatory Technical Advisory Group request to extend the comments deadline for a proceeding on using the white spaces between TV channels for unlicensed devices (CED Aug 18 p4).
The Advanced TV Systems Committee (ATSC) approved a synchronization standard for distributed transmission. The standard allows broadcaster to use multiple transmitters to send their digital signals on the same channel, ATSC Pres. Mark Richer told us. The FCC had indicated it would approve the standard, he said. The standard is best for stations located in mountainous or other areas with obstructions because it greatly improves the coverage and service area of DTV transmission, Richer said. The transmission involves the use of a separate distribution channel to feed each transmitter in an single-frequency network. This channel can be a conventional studio-to-transmitter link, or it can be a broadcast channel different from where the transmitter operates. The transmission systems must be carefully implemented, so ATSC is developing a companion recommended practice on the design of multiple transmitter networks. That practice is expected to be approved in a month, Richer said.
While no specific fines were provided for under the FCC’s ATSC tuner mandate, the Commission “does have broad enforcement authority” to assure set-makers compliance, CEA Vp-Technology Policy Michael Petricone told Consumer Electronics Daily. Some 6 weeks after the July 1 deadline by which manufacturers were required to begin incorporating ATSC tuners in 50% of their sets 36” and larger with an NTSC tuner, Petricone said it’s still not clear from the Commission’s order whether the 50% benchmark applies to the beginning of the phase-in for the next smaller class of TV sets, next July 1, or the end of the period. “Of course, at the end of the period you need to be at the 100% benchmark anyway,” he said. Petricone said the important point is that most of the new ATSC sets will also be equipped with digital CableCARD slots for unidirectional plug-&-play capability. Sales of ATSC tuners “are largely tied to the success of plug-&-play,” he said. “Manufacturers are working extremely hard to promote plug-&-play, whose success will depend, in large part, on cable’s “aggressively promoting the service and ensuring that viewers can get CableCARDs from their MSOs in a simple and consumer-friendly manner,” he said.