Thanks for the pointer. I think it is very prescient. The guy who wrote it understands the whole industry fairly well and has the problems fairly well mapped. I think that the problem for the industry will be how to keep up with the demand. He is absolutely correct about HDTV. I saw it one year ago in the Smithsonian and I thought I was hallucinating. It was beyond anything that current TV offers and it will be an overwhelming hit, EVEN if it costs big $$$$. I think there is another opportunity here, just as there was for computers in the mid '70s through the '90s. Pick the winners here and you will have gotten in on Microsoft and Intel at the ground floor. The only problem is figuring out who will be the winners. I am very interested in the the STB as the interface for the digital interactive stream.
Currently, I am trying to take advantage of the first wave of commercial purchases, the purchase of transmitter equipment by broadcasters. My take on these players are Harris, SGS-Thomson, and Acrodyne. Then there is antenna equipment, Andrew is a player here. I am also interested in the hardware for the settop boxes and the TV's. Unfortunately, I am not sure that Zenith will survive for the birth of the baby it created when it set the broadcast standards of the Grand Alliance. Other specialized companies in programming and hardware are Leitch, Sony, and BMC Industries. I am primarily looking for the purer plays and have focused on Acrodyne, BMC, and Andrew for the current time. Leitch is attractive but high priced and on the Toronto exchange. The other players are so big, I fear that their other products will dilute their HDTV play. I have picked up two more to investigate from your article. |
