Summary

Sinclair Broadcast Group staged a live COFDM demonstration at the NAB convention in Las Vegas, transmitting HDTV and SDTV signals from a mountaintop DTV station 20 miles away to portable Nokia receivers inside the hall. The demonstration prompted the Association of Maximum Service Television board to vote for multimillion-dollar field tests comparing COFDM, 8VSB, and 2VSB.

Source document circa 2000 preserved as-is
Sincliar At NAB

Sinclair Broadcast Group boast that they "knocked the socks off broadcasters at the NAB convention in Las Vegas" today, with a live transmission of digital TV signals using the COFDM standard used in Europe.

The demonstration allowed visitors to pick up HDTV and SDTV signals on flat, portable Nokia receivers inside the convention hall the size of an Etch-A-Sketch. "I was impressed," said Gary Chapman of LIN Television. "Incredible," Clear Channel chief Lowry Mays observed. At a press conference, Sinclair's Nat Ostroff said the demonstration, which used over-the-air signals from the company's mountaintop DTV station 20 miles away, showed COFDM is able to get signals to small indoor, portable antennas an area the existing standard has been found wanting.

"The time for promises is over,'' Mr. Ostroff said. Also reportedly wowed by the demonstration were board members of the Assocaiton of Maximum Service Television, which has been a bastion of support for the official standard, known as ATSC/8VSB.

The MSTV board voted Sunday to launch a multimillion-dollar series of field tests of COFDM, 8VSB and another new transmission standard, 2VSB.