Digital Doubts.Every television station in the country is required to shift to digital broadcasting Digital broadcasting is the practice of using digital data rather than analogue waveforms to carry broadcasts over television channels or assigned radio frequency bands. It is becoming increasingly popular for television usage (especially satellite television) but is having a in the next seven years, following broadcast standards developed and approved by the federal government. The broadcast industry is spending billions of dollars to implement the Federal Communications Commission's orders; more than 100 stations reaching 50 percent of the American people An American people may be:
The idea is simple enough: Use the government to speed up and coordinate the adoption of the next generation of broadcasting technology. In January, the Sinclair Broadcast Group The Sinclair Broadcast Group (SBG) NASDAQ: SBGI is the operator of the largest number of local television stations in the United States with a total of 59 stations across the country in 38 primarily small and medium markets, many of which are located in the South and performed independent field tests for digital broadcasting in Baltimore and Washington, D.C. The result: In many parts of the cities, digital high-definition TV See HDTV. sets received no pictures at all. Oops. The problem is with "MultiMate" distortions, which on analog TV sets cause "ghosts"--outlines caused by television signals bouncing off nearby buildings and walls. The new digital standard was designed to be ghost-free, but in many cities it not only got rid of ghosts, but eliminated the pictures altogether. Another problem: Most cable systems are not technically able to relay the signals, which means that the roughly 60 percent of households with cable will not be able to show high-definition pictures anytime soon. Oops again. What went wrong? In establishing the new standard, the FCC's field tests evaluated digital TV reception using 30-foot antenna booms on trucks, not the antennas used by most American viewers. And neither the government nor the industry tested digital reception indoors--that is, where most people watch television. Meanwhile, in each location tested by Sinclair, all the stations could be received by an inexpensive two-inch Sony Watchman For other uses, see Watchman. The Sony Watchman is a line of portable pocket televisions trademarked and produced by Sony. FD-210 The initial model was introduced in 1982 as the FD-210, becoming the first mass-produced pocket television. . "It is sobering that a Watchman WATCHMAN. An officer in many cities and towns, whose duty it is to watch during the night and take care of the property of the inhabitants. 2. He possesses generally the common law authority of a constable (q.v. costing less than $100 outperformed digital TV sets costing several thousands of dollars," comments Mark Hyman, Sinclair's head of corporate relations. So what happens next? Sinclair and some other broadcast groups want the FCC (1) (Federal Communications Commission, Washington, DC, www.fcc.gov) The U.S. government agency that regulates interstate and international communications including wire, cable, radio, TV and satellite. The FCC was created under the U.S. to amend the digital standard. But so far the commission, like all too many high-definition TV screens, is silent. |
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