DTV-Future Video Technology
Hello Broadcaster,
We thank you for the time you and your colleagues in video spent responding to our first survey about HDTV and DTV last September. Your answers surprised us and have of course forced us to ask more questions. We know you are busier now than you've probably ever been in your career but we'd like to impose on you one more time to answer the questions below. Many of them are follow-ups to the original questions we asked you last September. To help you in your future planning and to give us a better idea of what you really meant by those answers, we've included the compiled results from some of the original questions. I think you'll be as surprised as we were with your collective previous answers.
The first survey was sent to you and 746 other broadcasters around the country. We received responses from 13.5% of you, an excellent response rate. In the hopes that even more of you will respond this time, we've also made this survey available on our web site - www.hdtvnews.com/survey. If you'd prefer, please fill out the survey posted there instead of this paper version in your hands.
The complete results of the original survey will be available after January 31st for the price of $1,895. However, if you sign your response and indicate interest in receiving the compiled results of the original survey... in light of your cooperation once again in completing this survey, we will offer it to you Half Price. The results have been graphically compiled into two hundred seventy nine pages of charts and tables broken up by network.
Thank you very much.
Dale Cripps
Advanced Television Publishing
KEY
Text in this style (Italic) denotes a question from the previous survey and its results below.
YES 60%
NO 40%
Text in this style (Plain) denotes our response to your collective answers and any further questions based on your responses.
NOTE: Percentages attributed to responses don't always add up to 100% because of some percentage of non-responses.
Would you continue to broadcast your locally produced materials in NTSC resolution but digitally?
YES 92%
NO 5%
No discussion about this, you basically all agreed that you won't upgrade your local production equipment for some time.
1. If that is true, do you plan to continue buying new NTSC video equipment or just let the equipment you have now wear out and replace it with DTV capable equipment as it becomes available? Continue buying new NTSC/PAL Replace worn out NTSC/PAL with DTV Buy all new DTV a.s.a.p. Other Not Sure 2. Do you plan to upconvert to higher resolutions? Yes Maybe No Not Sure N/A 3. If so, what scan converters/video scalers have you considered? 1) 2) 3) 4) 4. How much do you expect to spend on a scan converter/video scaler? -Select One- $10K or less $11K to $29K $30K to $59K $60K to $99K $100K or more 5. What MPEG2 encoders have you considered? 1) 2) 3) 4) 6. How much do you expect to spend on an MPEG2 DTV capable encoder? -Select One- $10K or less $30K to $79K $80K to $149K $150K or more.
1. If that is true, do you plan to continue buying new NTSC video equipment or just let the equipment you have now wear out and replace it with DTV capable equipment as it becomes available?
Continue buying new NTSC/PAL Replace worn out NTSC/PAL with DTV Buy all new DTV a.s.a.p. Other Not Sure
2. Do you plan to upconvert to higher resolutions?
Yes Maybe No Not Sure N/A
3. If so, what scan converters/video scalers have you considered?
1) 2) 3) 4)
4. How much do you expect to spend on a scan converter/video scaler?
-Select One- $10K or less $11K to $29K $30K to $59K $60K to $99K $100K or more
5. What MPEG2 encoders have you considered?
6. How much do you expect to spend on an MPEG2 DTV capable encoder?
-Select One- $10K or less $30K to $79K $80K to $149K $150K or more.
Will you broadcast the Grand Alliance HDTV (1920x1080x30i) or the Microsoft/Intel/Compaq (MIC) DTV (1280x720x24p)?
GA 77%
MIC 5%
No discussion about the Grand Alliance format, or is there? See the next question.
If the MIC DTV looks better than HDTV, would you be interested in broadcasting it?
YES 62%
NO 26%
So though you're all ready to follow the standards, nearly two thirds of you are ready to give the public something better.
If you discover that a larger percentage of homes in your viewing area have computers/TVs that are capable of receiving and displaying MIC DTV than new HDTV compatible televisions, will you broadcast MIC DTV?
YES 55%
NO 27%
And more than half of you are ready to transmit in whatever format the highest number of viewers can receive.
This last question should be re-phrased now.
7. If you discover that some percentage of your viewing audience is capable of receiving some kind of digital version of your "content", will you invest in a separate method to provide that "content"; to them in parallel with your normal DTV broadcasts? Yes Maybe No Not Sure N/A 8. If you could simultaneously broadcast your "content" in a variety of digital formats to reach these small niches, would you do it? Yes Maybe No Not Sure N/A 9. What if it cost you an additional $100K in equipment to reach each "content- niche", would you still do it? Yes Maybe No Not Sure N/A 10. If you could easily and, for less than $100K worth of equipment, continuously advertise and sell your best locally produced content (news, documentaries, entertainment, etc.) to other broadcasters or content distributors, would you do it? Yes Maybe No Not Sure N/A 11. If you found that you could make money selling your locally produced content, would you produce more content? Yes Maybe No Not Sure N/A 12. Do you plan to be on the air with DTV in 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, beyond? 1998 1999 2000 2001 Beyond
7. If you discover that some percentage of your viewing audience is capable of receiving some kind of digital version of your "content", will you invest in a separate method to provide that "content"; to them in parallel with your normal DTV broadcasts?
8. If you could simultaneously broadcast your "content" in a variety of digital formats to reach these small niches, would you do it?
9. What if it cost you an additional $100K in equipment to reach each "content- niche", would you still do it?
10. If you could easily and, for less than $100K worth of equipment, continuously advertise and sell your best locally produced content (news, documentaries, entertainment, etc.) to other broadcasters or content distributors, would you do it?
11. If you found that you could make money selling your locally produced content, would you produce more content?
12. Do you plan to be on the air with DTV in 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, beyond?
1998 1999 2000 2001 Beyond
Have you considered transmitting other information along with the HDTV video and audio?
YES 88%
NO 12%
Nearly all of you are thinking about transmitting more than just digital video and audio.
If a data standard is implemented in HDTV/DTV televisions to receive and decode the additional data that could be transmitted with the video and audio, would you consider broadcasting data?
YES 96%
NO 4%
And even more are thinking about transmitting some standardized kind of "data".
If broadcasting the additional data meant partnering with or becoming an "internet service provider" would you still consider it?
YES 94%
But we never would have guessed that so many of you are ready to become internet service providers.
13. With the increasing quality of web video, are you considering starting a web page for your station with web capable video copied from your regular television programs (similar to CNN Interactive) ? Yes Maybe No Not Sure N/A 14. If you could publish a web page that contained relatively high-quality web capable versions of your regular television programs and/or news-stories at a cost of $100K for the equipment and $200K per year in operating expenses, would you do it? Yes Maybe No Not Sure N/A 15. Do you think you could get additional advertising dollars for web based broadcasting? Yes Maybe No Not Sure N/A 16. If you knew that some advertisers pay web site owners a percentage of the profits on sales directly attributable to the web page, would you be interested then? Yes Maybe No Not Sure N/A 17. Some people are suggesting that DTV bandwidth be used to "broadcast" high quality digital video and other data to be stored in a viewer's home PC/TV for later playback a sort-of forward and store system using faster than realtime video/data transmission to give viewers the appearance of instant random access (at least to the video they've already received and stored on their PC/TV sets.) Are you considering devoting some of your 19.4Mbps of DTV bandwidth for this use? Yes Maybe No Not Sure N/A 18. Do you expect this use of DTV bandwidth to be a large money maker for you? Yes Maybe No Not Sure N/A
13. With the increasing quality of web video, are you considering starting a web page for your station with web capable video copied from your regular television programs (similar to CNN Interactive) ?
14. If you could publish a web page that contained relatively high-quality web capable versions of your regular television programs and/or news-stories at a cost of $100K for the equipment and $200K per year in operating expenses, would you do it?
15. Do you think you could get additional advertising dollars for web based broadcasting?
16. If you knew that some advertisers pay web site owners a percentage of the profits on sales directly attributable to the web page, would you be interested then?
17. Some people are suggesting that DTV bandwidth be used to "broadcast" high quality digital video and other data to be stored in a viewer's home PC/TV for later playback a sort-of forward and store system using faster than realtime video/data transmission to give viewers the appearance of instant random access (at least to the video they've already received and stored on their PC/TV sets.) Are you considering devoting some of your 19.4Mbps of DTV bandwidth for this use?
18. Do you expect this use of DTV bandwidth to be a large money maker for you?
If you don't presently have a video server, is it something you were considering purchasing regardless of HDTV?
YES 72%
Nearly three quarters of you are thinking of buying a "video server" for your regular NTSC operations.
Do you plan on purchasing a video server for your news or on-air operations?
NO 24%
And about the same percent are actually planning to get a "video server" for your news and/or on-air operations.
Will HDTV make it more likely that you would purchase a video server?
YES 54%
NO 33%
More than half of you are being prodded into buying a "video server" because of digital television.
If you could purchase a VCR that could record both NTSC and HDTV would you buy it?
YES 90%
NO 8%
Nearly all of you said you'd buy a resolution flexible VCR if it was available.
If you could buy a video server that would work as well on both NTSC, compressed HDTV and uncompressed HDTV, would you buy it?
YES 84%
NO 9%
And confirming the VCR question, you'd also be likely to buy a resolution flexible "video server".
If you could buy a video server that recorded both NTSC and HDTV would you be more likely to buy it sooner?
YES 56%
NO 30%
And more than half of you said you'd buy a resolution flexible "video server" sooner than a just a standard resolution "video server".
If that multi-format video server cost 50% more (excluding storage costs) would you buy it?=
YES 52%
NO 36%
But there is a price limit on how much you'd pay for that added resolution flexibility.
If you knew that storage costs were more than 50% of the cost of any video server whether NTSC or HDTV, would you still consider the multi-format video server at a 50% price premium?
YES 48%
NO 42%
And when the actual cost of the storage for video servers is made apparent, even fewer of you thought the resolution flexibility was important.
19. If you've been considering getting a "video server" what brands have you been looking at? 1) 2) 3) 4)
19. If you've been considering getting a "video server" what brands have you been looking at?
If you were to get a "video server"...
20. How many hours of material would you need to have instant access to (online)? -Select One- 24 hours 48 hours 72 hours 96 hours 120+ hours 21. How many hours of material would you need to have available for use within fifteen minutes of a request for it (near-online)? -Select One- Less than 48 hours (two days) More than 48 hours (two days) Less than 168 hours (one week) More than 168 hours (one week) Less than 720 hours (one month) More than 720 hours (one month) 22. How many hours of material do you think you'd put into the permanent archive every year (offline)? -Select One- Less than 48 hours (two days) More than 48 hours (two days) Less than 168 hours (one week) More than 168 hours (one week) Less than 720 hours (one month) More than 720 hours (one month) 23. Would the archival material include just the final edited "stories" or would it also contain the original footage from which the stories were edited? Final Edited Original Other 24. Would you also want to store closed-captions, SAP, EDLs, Graphics, etc. with the archival material? Yes Maybe No Not Sure N/A 25. What compression rate would be acceptable for editing from a "video server"? -Select One- 2:1 3:1 4:1 5:1 6:1 26. What compression rate would be acceptable for broadcasting from a "video server"? -Select One- 2:1 3:1 4:1 5:1 6:1 27. What tape or digital file formats would you use to permanently archive your media? 28. How many users/editors/producers would need to have access to the materials stored on the "video server". 2 or less 3 to 5 6 to 10 11 or more 29. How many output channels (to-air?) would you need from the "video server"? 1 2 3 4 5 or more 30. Do you have a database system in place now for keeping track of your archival materials? Yes Maybe No Not Sure N/A 31. Have you considered a database or "asset management" system for keeping track of all your materials? Yes Maybe No Not Sure N/A 32. If so, what brands? 1) 2) 3) 4) 33. If you could buy a "video server" that you could expand incrementally over time to handle any amount of users, inputs, outputs and storage, would you be more likely to buy it than a more limited server from your favorite video equipment vendor? Yes Maybe No Not Sure N/A
20. How many hours of material would you need to have instant access to (online)?
-Select One- 24 hours 48 hours 72 hours 96 hours 120+ hours
21. How many hours of material would you need to have available for use within fifteen minutes of a request for it (near-online)?
-Select One- Less than 48 hours (two days) More than 48 hours (two days) Less than 168 hours (one week) More than 168 hours (one week) Less than 720 hours (one month) More than 720 hours (one month)
22. How many hours of material do you think you'd put into the permanent archive every year (offline)?
23. Would the archival material include just the final edited "stories" or would it also contain the original footage from which the stories were edited?
Final Edited Original Other
24. Would you also want to store closed-captions, SAP, EDLs, Graphics, etc. with the archival material?
25. What compression rate would be acceptable for editing from a "video server"?
-Select One- 2:1 3:1 4:1 5:1 6:1
26. What compression rate would be acceptable for broadcasting from a "video server"?
27. What tape or digital file formats would you use to permanently archive your media?
28. How many users/editors/producers would need to have access to the materials stored on the "video server".
2 or less 3 to 5 6 to 10 11 or more
29. How many output channels (to-air?) would you need from the "video server"?
1 2 3 4 5 or more
30. Do you have a database system in place now for keeping track of your archival materials?
31. Have you considered a database or "asset management" system for keeping track of all your materials?
32. If so, what brands?
33. If you could buy a "video server" that you could expand incrementally over time to handle any amount of users, inputs, outputs and storage, would you be more likely to buy it than a more limited server from your favorite video equipment vendor?
How many editing stations/suites do you have?
85% said 10 or less
Taken with ...
How many non-linear editing stations do you have?
95% said 5 or less
This leads us to conclude that for most of you, less than half of your editors are non-linear editors.
What brand of editors do you have?
Sony 39% Grass Valley= 14%
Avid 13% Ampex 8%
CMX 7% Panasonic 6%
And Avid was the only non-linear editer manufacturer's name that showed up.
We suspect that some of those Grass Valley editers you have are the rebundled Media100. 34. What brand and model of editers do you have? 35. How many of each? 36. What brand and model of editers do you intend to buy in the next couple of years? 37. Do you expect to eventually replace all your linear editers with non-linear editors? Yes Maybe No Not Sure N/A 38. If you could buy complete video editers at a cost of only $10K per editor, how many editors would you have? -Select One- 1 to 2 3 to 5 6 to 10 11 or more 39. If you bought a "video server ," would you want to connect your editers to it? Yes Maybe No Not Sure N/A NAB 98 40. How important will this NAB be for helping you choose DTV or other future technology equipment? Very Important Somewhat Important Not Important N/A 41. Do you plan to purchase DTV or other future technology video equipment at the NAB? Yes Maybe No Not Sure N/A 42. If so, what equipment? 43. Do you normally purchase or place orders for new equipment atNAB? -Select One- Yes, I purchase at NAB Within 3 months of NAB Immediately after NAB No relationship to NAB
We suspect that some of those Grass Valley editers you have are the rebundled Media100.
34. What brand and model of editers do you have?
35. How many of each?
36. What brand and model of editers do you intend to buy in the next couple of years?
37. Do you expect to eventually replace all your linear editers with non-linear editors?
38. If you could buy complete video editers at a cost of only $10K per editor, how many editors would you have?
-Select One- 1 to 2 3 to 5 6 to 10 11 or more
39. If you bought a "video server ," would you want to connect your editers to it?
NAB 98
40. How important will this NAB be for helping you choose DTV or other future technology equipment?
Very Important Somewhat Important Not Important N/A
41. Do you plan to purchase DTV or other future technology video equipment at the NAB?
42. If so, what equipment?
43. Do you normally purchase or place orders for new equipment atNAB?
-Select One- Yes, I purchase at NAB Within 3 months of NAB Immediately after NAB No relationship to NAB
Your Name:
Your Job Title:
Your Station's Name:
Your Address:
Your City:
Your State:
Your Zip Code:
Your Phone number:
Your Email address:
Network Affiliation:
The name of the company that owns your station, if any.
Would it be okay if our sponsoring equipment manufacturers contacted you directly?
-Select One- Yes No Don't Care