By Ed Milbourn • Oct 28, 10:45pmHere again, the US consumer electronics industry as well as broadcasters find themselves and their consumers in a technical/marketing quandary because of lack of foresight, planning and just plain incompetence.
This time it may really hurt.
It didn't take any genius to foresee the possibilities of in-home 3D years ago, particularly in light of the economic success of digital 3D movies over the past three years.
Since movies derive more than 55% (and climbing) of their revenues from in-home distribution channels (disc, VOD, PPV etc.), it doesn't take much prescience to predict 3DTV possibilities.
Did the salient organizations react? Yes.
Being unencumbered by the thought process, their reaction was something like a bunch of night drunks during a bar raid.
A couple of years ago a few manufactures started marketing "3D ready" rear projection units with no particular performance standards or technology in mind.
Then about a year and a half ago...
By Ed Milbourn • Aug 5, 3:10pm"Cognitive Radio." What a strange, oblique name for one of the greatest technology advances in telecommunications since Ma Bell decided that ones and zeros made better use of our precious spectrum (over both wired and wireless media) than wavy, wriggly voltage changes.
Clearly, the academics who coined the name failed PR101.
Why not call it "Smart Radio" - because that's what it is - really smart radio.
So, I'll compromise in this wheeze on the subject by cowardly retreating into the technical acronym morass - henceforth tagging "Cognitive Radio" as "COR" and its TV version as "COTV."
The precise definition of COR...
By Ed Milbourn • Apr 1, 3:55pmWhen working for Sirius Satellite Radio (now Sirius-XM), I was asked to attend a seminar in Newark, N.J., sponsored by iBiquity, the developer of the HD Radio standard.
I was uninformed as to the purpose of the seminar and assumed it was a "spy" mission.
With the invitation in my hot little hand, I presented myself at the conference room sign-in desk.
Since the HD radio group considered Satellite radio the mortal enemy, I was greeted with a lot of upturned eyebrows and numerous whispers.
I discovered that...
By Ed Milbourn • Mar 26, 3:49pmI am sure most of you have experienced the superb HD picture offered by Blu-ray discs, and wonder why over-the air (OTA) HD broadcast do not exhibit the same quality.
The answer to this question is compound and has been discussed in similar blurbs on this subject.
However, one of the broadcasters' limitations to optimizing HDTV is inherent in the ATSC standard itself, and that is the obsolete MPEG-2 compression system.
When the digital (HD or SD) signal is originally digitized...
By Ed Milbourn • Mar 23, 3:47pmAs mentioned in my prior wheezes on this subject, the present US economic climate would appear to present over-the-air (OTA) television broadcasters with fantastic possibilities.
With the tremendous opportunities offered by digital production and transmission (i.e.
HD and SD multi-channel and mobile and IP capabilities all at the same time), and most of it "free" to viewers, one would think that the time is ideal for OTAs to take a big chunk of penetration from their pay brethren.
However, as an undying cheerleader for success of OTA, I feel there are a couple of wishes that must be granted before broadcasters have any hopes of stopping and successfully reversing their 15% household penetration ratio.
First...
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