Aloha...
Hawaii station granted DTV permit
Dawn Hightower, senior associate editor
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10/30/97
Broadcast Engineering
Copyright (c) 1997 Intertec Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.
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KHVO, Hilo, HI, has been granted the first permit from the FCC to build a commercial digital TV station. The construction permit governs technical specs for transmission equipment. The Mass Media Bureau also awarded the station, owned by Hearst-Argyle, a free second channel needed for the switch from analog to digital.
This FCC action marks the first commercial construction permit since it adopted digital TV rules in April. According to Hundt, the FCC acted on the application within two days of its receipt.
The first all-digital TV station will use JVC's Digital-S as its station-wide format. KITV Channel 4 and the satellite stations KMAU-TV and KHVO-TV will be the first in Hawaii to achieve digital transmission and among the first on the mainland. The stations will offer digital HDTV as soon as the ABC network can deliver an HDTV signal.
The DTV station will operate on Channel 18. Although the FCC has issued permits for stations to experiment with DTV, the KHVO-TV permit moves the playing field to the commercial arena.
KITV has made a major investment in JVC's Digital-S, with the purchase of 22 BR-D85 Digital-S edit recorders, 11 BR-D40 Digital-S dockable recorders, 19 BR-D750 edit recorders and 22 SA-D80 digital I/O boards.
The equipment will be used for recording and airing syndicated programming and for acquiring and airing news and for commercial production, as well as for archiving. The 4:2:2 format will be used to get news from the field using the BR-D40s docked to JVC KY-27C cameras, which will be transferred to Avid Newscutters for editing and then back into Digital-S to air. Avid Air Play and Philips Media Pool also will be used.
FCC confirms Kennard as chairman of choice It's official. William Kennard will join the FCC as chairman. Joining him as commissioners are House Commerce Committee chief economist Harold Furchtgott-Roth, Justice Department antitrust chief of staff Michael Powell and New Mexico state corporation commission commissioner Gloria Tristani. Rounding off the commissioners is Susan Ness whose term will expire in June 1999.
No one knows for sure what Kennard's position on various broadcast issues will be - whether he will be an adversary or an advocate for the broadcast industry. However, he is no stranger to broadcasting. He graduated from Yale Law School and went to work for the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB). Soon after, he became its First Amendment counsel. While an attorney at the firm, Verner, Liipfert, Bernhard, McPherson & Hand, he represented broadcasters and cable operators. Kennard also has family connections to the TV business. His cousin, Lana Corbi, is vice president of network distribution for FOX. Debra Lee, Black Entertainment Television president, is also related to Kennard.
Kennard's communications expertise helped him in his 1993 appointment as FCC general counsel. If Kennard's performance as general counsel for the FCC is any indication of how he will do as chairman, then he should do well in his new capacity as chairman.
Japanese telecom to sue FCC KDD, Japan's international telecommunications company plans to sue the FCC over its plan to push foreign telephone companies to set lower connection rates.
The lawsuit will be filed in the next couple of months in the U.S. Court of Appeals. The decision to sue came after the FCC's August adoption of a plan to push for lowering the fees carriers pay each other to complete overseas calls. More international calls originate inside the United States and U.S. carriers are paying more, so the FCC wants to set lower fees to narrow the gap.
SBE elects new president The votes are in for the new SBE officers who were inducted and began their terms at the SBE national meeting in September. Edward J. Miller, CPBE, engineering manager at WEWS-TV 5 in Cleveland, OH, is president. He had been the vice president for the last two years. Troy D. Pennington, CSRE, chief engineer at WZZK AM/FM, WODL-FM, in Birmingham, AL, is vice president. He had served as the treasurer for the past two years. Thomas P. Weber, CPBE, engineering maintenance supervisor at WISH-TV 8 in Indianapolis, is secretary. Andy Butler, CPBE, director of engineering for Public Broadcasting Service in Alexandria, VA, is treasurer. Outgoing president, Terrence M. Baun, CPBE, Criterion Broadcast Services, Milwaukee, WI, will serve on the board as immediate past president.
How stations are facing the DTV upgrade
Steve Tadzynski
Last month, the Philadelphia chapters of SMPTE and SBE held a meeting to discuss the preparation for and implementation of digital television (DTV). Dr. Michael Isnardi (Sarnoff Research Labs) led with an overview of the ATSC system and committee work. Brief presentations were then given by local station and network engineers on how they plan to enter the DTV era.
Work done to date Charles Jablonski (NBC) stated that NBC has been committed to rolling out DTV. Starting about five years ago, it rebuilt its network origination operation around a 300Mb "set of plumbing" for an 11-disc-based digital network origination center. NBC's O&O stations will be going to a digital tape format with an eye toward DTV. NBC's only incremental investment will be in digital broadcast transmitters and antennas. Jablonski said the network needs to maintain flexibility, it doesn't want to forfeit any formats.
Bob Ross (CBS) talked about its experimental station, WCBS (HD), which has been on-air since NAB '97. Right now, the transmitter pumps a couple of kilowatts into a directional antenna. With that setup, the station has done a number of demos in the New York City area. In November, 1997, the project will go full power with an antenna atop the Empire State Building, broadcasting on Channel 56.
Ross said CBS currently occupies 10 transponders with no room for other programming, so it must first convert its satellite network to digital and compress it to free channels for high-definition or multichannel transmission.
Tom Hankison (ABC) identified three affiliates that must be built-out in 18 months. Two of the stations (Philadelphia and Los Angeles) have problems with the channels they were allotted due to interference with other NTSC stations nearby. In San Francisco, there is so much channel congestion due to surrounding markets that they probably can't get better assignments. After the first three stations are converted, ABC expects to convert more stations in 24 to 36 months. ABC's facility in New York City is 360Mb/s.
Bill Weber (WHYY-TV12, PBS affiliate) explained that PBS has been preparing for a multistream digital service. PBS's network is all digital - it has just migrated to MPEG -2 with all General Instruments techniques. When digital transmission services are launched, PBS will provide HDTV in the evening and go multicast mode (four to six channels) of standard-definition, possibly with some 16:9 during the day.
PBS is about to launch a 19.3Mb stream via satellite to provide a source for experimental stations, like WETA. At the local station level, Weber sees the most cost-effective approach to DTV implementation as receiving the network signal at the transmitter and passing it right through; local ID insertion would come with the next phase.
Weber sees the new format as tailor-made for public television: the network serves niche audiences at times, yet also serves a mass audience. Multicasting frees them from the bonds of being tied to one distribution channel. He also feels that multicasting can promote improved or new educational services.
Ron Lask (Pennsylvania Public Television Network) operates a program distribution service and statewide bidirectional microwave network in Hershey, PA. The network supplies 90% to 95% of PBS's daytime programming for most of the eight public TV stations in Pennsylvania. For example, it records Sesame Street in the morning, then plays it back 10 times during the day. His immediate concern is a potential scheduling problem: if the network schedules seven stations' programming during the day now, what happens if you multiply that by four to six channels per station? He'll need server and facility management systems that can handle all the programming and data communications.
Lask also stated that PBS realizes that most of its stations won't be able to receive HDTV at 45Mb, upconvert to 1.5Gb, do fancy logo insertions and re-encode it, so PBS is planning to originate the encoded ATSC signal, distribute it by satellite along with several other standard-definition NTSC channels (that affiliates already receive). That way, stations can get on the air with a DTV transmitter and just pass through the ATSC signal without having to do anything else.
Bob Good (WGAL-TV8, ABC affiliate) has the leading station in market 45 in Lancaster, PA. The station has been assigned Channel 58 and is not happy about the VHF station being assigned a UHF DTV frequency. Good is concerned about viewer confusion, channel "branding," and that, in its market, one UHF station has been assigned a VHF DTV frequency - Channel 4.
Sim Kolliner (WCAU-TV10, NBC affiliate) itemized his questions: bit format, bit rate, upconvert, downconvert, fiber STL, 45Mb on STL, tower, transmitter power, power to the transmitter, etc. He said that many stations will be in for a big surprise. UHF is different from VHF. UHF needs lots of power in the transmitter and lots of power to the transmitter. At WCAU's tower site, it must take three sections off the top of the tower before installing a new antenna and transmission line. During the three weeks of tower work, the station must transmit its signal from a 200-foot standby at reduced power and still adequately serve all the cable systems and viewers.
Timetable The assembled group agreed that in all of the discussions, planning and negotiation over DTV, one thing never foreseen was an aggressive, forced transition.
Dr. Isnardi suggested that NTSC's scheduled demise in 2006 might be a soft deadline. The government wants the analog channels returned by then so it can auction off those frequencies for revenue to balance the budget. Although broadcasters want to hold onto their analog channel until less than 5% homes lack DTV, the latest ruling states they must return the channel when more than 85% of their population area are served DTV by air or cable or satellite.
Jablonski joked that he can foresee AARP members writing to congress to complain about the analog shutdown and having to buy new receivers.
Opportunities Despite the tremendous challenge of implementing a new technology on a squeezed timeline with many standards yet to be set, there can be an upside. An audience member stated that when broadcasters combine physical facilities and transmission facilities, it will have a huge impact on the ability of small and public TV broadcasters to maintain the service they provide today.
Weber is looking forward to PBS and WHYY beginning datacasting: the digital Barney doll that interacts with a TV program or videotape runs off a datastream from the TV decoder - that's only the beginning of a different kind of service delivered by broadcasters to the home. He has a changing concept of what they do and what business they're in - from program producers to content producers with shared resources. Things that are produced for one purpose can be distributed in many different formats, including on-line, multimedia and video servers for products on demand.
Kolliner stated, engineering managers are now in the position to drive the technology instead of it driving them. He can't wait to get more capital than the news department! |
