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Transition to digital TVEli Noam

Columbia, December 12, 2008

• Welcome

• Darcy Gerbarg

• Jim Alleman

• Paul Rappoport

• John Heywood

• Roberta Tasley

• Loy Phillips

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• The issue: digital transition, from analog to digital TV

• Long term, and short term issues

• From a historical standpoint, this is the first time in over half a century that the basic format for TV transmission has changed. The last major change in TV transmission standards took place when compatible color broadcasts began in 1953. That change was engineered to be backwards-compatible, meaning that existing black-and-white TV sets would receive and display "compatible-color" broadcasts (in monochrome) without modification. The impending change to digital from analog is not backwards-compatible.

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Short Term Issues

• Moving viewers over to digital

• Digital tv divide

• Income, ethnicity, age

• In Feb, there will be problems.

• 120 mil HH, even if only 1/10 of 1 percent, this means 120,000 problems, 120,000 potential unfavorable news stories, 120,000 complaints to members of congress

• Some existing analog equipment will be less functional with the use of a converter box. For example, television remote controls will no longer be effective at changing channels, because that function will instead be handled by the converter box. Similarly, video recorders for analog signals (including both tape-based VCRsand hard-drive-based DVRs) will not be able to select channels, limiting their ability to automatically record programs via a timer or based on downloaded program information. ATSC-capable VCRs are likely to be far less common than their NTSC counterparts, with most current offerings being VCR/DVD combo units. Also, older handheld televisions, which rely primarily on over-the-air signals and battery operation, will be rendered impractical since the proposed converter boxes are not portable nor powered with batteries,

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• Unlike analog televisions, digital televisions have a significant delay when changing channels, making "channel surfing" more difficult.

• Different devices need different amounts of preload time to begin showing the broadcast stream, resulting in an audio echo effect when two televisions in adjacent rooms of a house are tuned to the same channel.

• while other devices may go directly from perfect to no picture at all (and thus not show even a slightly damaged picture). This latter effect is known as the digital cliff or cliff effect.

• For remote locations, distant analog channels that were previously usable in a snowy and degraded state may be anything from perfect to completely unavailable. In areas where transmitting antennas are located on mountains, viewers who are too close to the transmitter may find reception difficult or impossible because the strongest part of the broadcast signals pass above them

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• The use of higher frequencies will add to these problems, especially in cases where a clear line-of-sight from the receiving antenna to the transmitter is not available. Many intermittent signal fading conditions, such as the rapid-fade effect caused by reflections of UHF television signals from passing aircraft, will not produce intermittently-snowy video, but potential intermittent loss of the entire signal.

• n early 2006 the US Deficit Reduction Act of 2005[5] became law, which calls for full power over-the-air television stations to cease their analog broadcasts by February 17, 2009[6] (this cut-off date had been moved several times previously).

• Following that date, TVs and other equipment with legacy NTSCtuners would be unable to receive over-the-air broadcasts. Canada has a similar analogue TV termination date set to 2011.

• The US switch-off will make millions of non-Cable and non-Satellite connected TV sets to "go dark". Viewers who do not upgrade, either to a television with a digital tuner or a set-top box, will end up losing their only source of television. A Congressional bill has authorized subsidizing converter boxes in a way that would allow viewers to receive the new digital broadcasts on their old TVs.

• The final plan[7] is to make two $40 coupons available to qualifying households from January 1, 2008 through March 31, 2009. All households are eligible to receive coupons from the initial $990million allocated, after which an additional $510 million in coupons will be available to households that rely exclusively on over-the-air television reception.

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• DTV Tuners are not in most retail stores in Canada due to tariff restrictions and due to a CRTC edict to prevent it from happening here till at least 2011 to protect canadiancontent and the cable and satellite industries as long as possible.

• In Canada, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), has set August 31, 2011 as the date that over-the-air analog TV transmission service will cease in most parts of the country except in parts of the far North.[8] [9] But unlike the United States, there is currently no plan to provide ATSC receivers at a discount to households as of January 1, 2007.

• n a recent study, 70% of over-the-air viewers expected to get a DTV converter box, 10% would switch to pay TV services, and 20% would abandon TV altogether.[7] About 15% of TV viewers depend on over-the-air TV, thus 3% of the overall TV viewership would be lost due to the DTV conversion, negatively impacting TV advertising and pledge drive revenue for stations that have already had to pay for millions of dollars each in new DTV equipment, while receiving nothing in subsidies to comply with the government mandate.

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• The new Obama Admin will be on the front line, and will take some credit or blame for the transition.

• Its FCC leadership will be on the front line of criticiswm and implementation. Their faces will be on TV, explaining.

• So the best thing would be to be right there in the front, to explain, build understanding, use this as an opprotunityto pose as actively cleaning up after the previous administration

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• And at the same time, to sue this transition as a tool, as an opportunity to educate and to inspire.

• About where TV is coming from, and where it is going

• As a step in the progression of media technology, quality, and opportunity.

Long term, big picutre

• Where did all this come from?

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0G: Pre-TV TV

TV (John Logie Baird) 1926

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High Definition TV 1936, 240 lines

2. NTSC TV

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http://media-2.web.britannica.com/eb-media/31/71331-004-CDC77097.jpg

NTSC

Eli M. Noam, Production

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Centrist Content For Limited Channel TV

Program Content Pitch

Audience

X

Qx

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2nd Gen TV: Wider

Tranmission

Bandwidth, Same

Display

• Cable TV

• DBS

Eli M. Noam, Production

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Content Quality Level

Audience

XY Z

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Narrowcasting: Long Tail Content

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And Now, 3rd Gen

TV

Dimensions of 3rd Generation TV

• Widening

• Deepening

• 2-way

• Mobility

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“Widening” of TV-- More TV Options

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Are You Ready?

Larger Screen

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MediaFLO

http://cache.viewimages.com/xc/57263045.jpg?v=1&c=ViewImages&k=2&d=17A4AD9FDB9CF1939847EC77F5F8D1CE326120C381348B40A40A659CEC4C8CB6

• In 1981, the first HDTV demonstration in the United States was held. It had the same 5:3 aspect ratio as the Japanese system.[4] Upon visiting a demonstration of the Japanese Multiple sub-nyquistsampling Encoding system (MUSE) HDTV system in Washington, US President Ronald Reagan was most impressed and officially declared it "a matter of national interest" to introduce HDTV to the USA

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http://biglerproductions.com/gif_files/HD_resolution_fish.gif

Richard Wiley, Chairman,

Advisory Committee on

Advanced Television Service

(ACATS)

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High Definition TV ≠ DTV

• “Hi-Vision” initiated 1969 in Japan by government through public broadcaster NHK– but analog, not digital technology

– MUSE standard for “Hi-Vision” TV

– Experimental 1989; commercial broadcasting 1997.

(h ttp:// www.pbs .or g/opb/cr ash co urse/digi tal v analog /ghost.htm l)

Advantages of digital

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Digital TV Broadcasting

• Initial use: digital TV satellite (DBS/DTH)

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• US, Europeans reject Muse– One aim: to advance technology against Japanese superiority

• 1990: FCC panel estimates an all-digital approach 10 years in the future

• But in the same year, General Instruments announced an all-digital system

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• 1992: FCC adopted digital approach

• Competing standards proposed by:

– Philips-Thomson

– Sarnoff

– Zenith

– AT&T

– MIT

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• 1993: FCC “encouraged” the 4 remaining groups to merge their systems into a single “best-of-the-best” system, the “Grand Alliance”

• The Grand Alliance(GA) standard, modified by the FCC, became the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) standard.

• Standard published in 1995, adopted by FCC in 1996

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(http://itelco_usa.com/press/issue14/8vsb.mod.htm)

Early Experimental Digital GA Television

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(http://www.pbs.org/opb/crashcourse/resolution/pixel.html)

(http://www.wral-hd.com/believeit/picturescanning.html)

Progressive vs. Interlaced Scanning

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• broadcasters can pick – one high quality HDTV program 1125 lines or several "NTSC-equivalent" digital programs (525 lines)

– Frame rates of 60, 30 or 24Hz

– progressive scanning or interlaced

ATSC Flexibility

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• MPEG2 compression

• Packetized data transport

• Layered digital architecture that is compatible with the international OSI model of data communications

• CD-quality digital audio (5.1-channel Dolby AC-3 surround-sound)

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(http://www.pbs.org/opb/crashcourse/digital_v_analog/sound.html)

Alternative: European Digital Standard

• Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB).

• DVB standards development consortium involved more than 200 broadcasters and manufacturers. 1993 for terrestrial TV

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• DVB is a family of specifications for various MPEG-2 bitstreams to the home. Routed through satellite, cable, or terrestrial networks

• Europe: Digital terrestrial television

• 1998 Sweden– - 4 networks licensed

• UK: ONdigital, the terrestrial platform owned by the ITV network companies Carlton and Granada, giving away free set top boxes.

• Spain (Onda Digital)

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(http://www.bbc.co.uk/review/dig tv spec.html)

Digital Television Penetration In England

DTV in Japan• Terrestrial digital television broadcasting services started 12-1-03 in the three major urban areas of Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka

• Japan Broadcasting Corp. (NHK) and private TV stations

Source: “Digital TV Broadcasting to Start in Three Major Japanese Urban Areas Monday,” Kyodo News International, 12-1-03

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Standards Wars?

• 3 standards: – ATSC (US)

– DVB (Europe)

– ISDB(Japan).

– Incompatible: ATSC uses vestigial sideband (VSB) transmission, whereas DVB, ISBD use coded orthogonal frequency division multiplex (COFDM) modulation.

– Same MPEG2, but different audio

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Standards• But ATSC most integrated into computer communications, higher data rate

• ATSC lower construction cost

– ISDB more stable than ATSC in mobility(trains)

• DVB more ghosts in indoor reception

• The first country to make a wholesale switch to Digital Over-the-Air (terrestrial) broadcasting was Luxembourg, then the Netherlands, in 2006. This was followed by Finland in 2007. [1] After February 17, 2009, full-power television stations in the USA will broadcast in digital only. Germany, maybe end of 2008. US first major country. Cable-dense countries tend to be fastest, because transition easier. In Canada, this is scheduled to happen Aug. 31, 2011. China is scheduled to switch in 2015.

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• While the majority of the viewers of over-the-air broadcasting in the USA watch full-power stations (which number about 1800), there are three other categories of TV stations in the USA: “low-power”stations, “Class A” stations, and “TV translator” stations. There is presently no deadline for these stations, about 7100 in number, to convert to digital broadcasting.

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Digital TV in US

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Digital TV in US

• After FCC set ATSC standards, the Telecommunications Act of 1996:– broadcasters given a free DTV channel

– must broadcast programs in both analog and DTV

– after ten years, (2006) the analog channel should be returned to the government

• US broadcasters can choose within ATSC 18 different formats, but they have settled on 4.

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– 1080p - Highest resolution but beyond the capacity of current TV channels, not offered

– 1080i - High-definition format with 1,080 horizontal lines of resolution, and interlaced.

– 720p - 720 horizontal lines, broadcast progressively. Because progressive signals are clearer than interlaced ones, 720p looks nearly as good as 1080i and is also HD

– 480p - sharper than traditional

– ~500 line analog TV( SDTV)

– 480i: SDTV

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Reality of Digital TV in US

• 1998: 41 terrestrial TV stations started digital broadcasts

�8-10 years

before DTV

gained

penetration.

(Cont.)

• Acceleration due to

– DVD quality experience

– Flat-screen TV upgrades

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Coordination problems of Digital TV

• TV networks choose different formats:

• Satellites, cable have their own digital format

• Cable is reluctant

• Digital VCRs slow on market

Opposition by Cable TV

• Multicasting is competitive threat to cable• Cable operators resist obligation to “must - carry” digital

channels, especially of “multicasting” broadcast channels

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• FCC requires “must carry” only of one channel (analog or digital)

DTV in the US• Last day of analog broadcasts is February 17, 2009

• As of March 1, 2007 no more analog sets can be shipped for sale but those in stock can still be sold

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Cost• CBS Network: $150 million to convert production facilities to DTV

• Expensive for local broadcasters to upgrade and operate in DTV

• Estimates US TV stations will spend $16 billion to convert to digital

• Network subsidizes affiliate station estimated ~$150,000 for equipment to receive DTV feed.

• Alternative Strategy: “multicasting”, splitting the allotted spectrum.– HDTV for special occasions only

• squeeze 5-15 channels into the HDTV space

Multicasting

HDTV

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What kind of content implications?

• More braodcast channels

• Will lead to narrowcasting

• More competition to cable and satellite.

• But, what is the bus model?

• Advertsiing. Some subscription.

• But not payments from cable companies.

“Pull” vs “Push” TV

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4K Display

http://people.freenet.de/FoLLgo

TT/gladiator_vergleich.png

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2-Way TV---P2P TV

http://cafe.naver.com/yoniwoongi.cafe?iframe_url=/ArticleRead.nhn%3Farticleid=6969

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3-D TV

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Virtual Reality

Interactive Games

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Avatars and Virtual Worlds

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Next Generation TV

• Immersive

• Interactive

• Will DTV and HDTV be only a small step in that direction?

• Will the main contribution be the digital element, enabling integration with computer techynology, rather than the HD aspect?

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