Summary

Warren P. Williamson III of WKBN-TV testified before the House Telecommunications Subcommittee in March 1996, arguing that a successful ATV transition requires 6 MHz transitional channels and careful spectrum planning. He warned that channel auctions for frequencies 60–69 would undermine the ATV channel pairing plan and jeopardize the entire digital television rollout.

Source document circa 1996 preserved as-is
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Oral Testimony Of Warren P. Williamson III
WKBN Broadcasting Corporation
Before The House Telecommunications Subcommittee
March 21, 1996

My name is Warren w Williamson III, of WKBN-TV in Youngstown, Ohio. I have been deeply involved in the journey towards advanced digital television from the first inquiries into the matter in 1979, For the past nine years, I have been involved in the intensive work on ATV issues undertaken by the FCC and the industry as Chairman of the Advanced Television Test C enter, and as former Chairman of MSTV and of the NAB ATV Task Force. As a professional engineer and a second generation broadcaster, I want to help usher broadcasting into the next millennium. Doing this in a consumer friendly and spectrum efficient way requires two things: First the use of 6 MHz transitional channels from recycled spectrum; and, second, the careful assignment of such channels so as to double the number of channels m the existing broadcast spectrum.

The first, indisputable principle is that there can be no roll-out of universally available, frees over-the-air ATV unless 6 MHz transitional channels are assigned to carry the service. This is true as a matter of technical and practical reality, Let's start with the technical reality,

A High definition broadcast packs 19,3 million bits of data per second. This is five times the amount of information carried by an analog signal. Digital technology permits this signal to be compressed into a 6 MHz channel, Choose narrower channels and you lose HDTV. Lose HDTV and for the first time American broadcasters and viewers are forced to settle for inferior picture qualify. Furthermore, the loss of HDTV, a prime attraction of digital service, would seriously endanger the success of any transition to ATV.

Some think a television station could broadcast ATV within the 6 MHz channel now used to deliver its analog signal. All evidence and all experts point against it. The analog TV signal is highly susceptible to degradation from other in-band signals. After years of work, the television industry has managed to slip about 500 kilobits per second of digital data into analog signals. Even this transmission degrades the analog service, and this is .s mere 3% of the data necessary for HDTV.

Even if it were technically possible to do HDTV in narrower channels, there is no transmission system that can do it, Moreover, there is no transmission system that transmits over-the-air digital television in any format in less than 6 MHz channels. The Grand Alliance system requires a channel of precisely 6 MHz, not 5, or 4, 0r 2. It simply cannot be scaled back. Abandon the Grand Alliance System and we will have wasted 9 years and hundreds of millions of dollars developing it.

..The second thing I want to mention are the serious interference concerns that constrain the way we fit twice as many channels in the existing broadcast spectrum. Video signals must be robust enough to navigate mountains, trees and buildings, and to withstand the interference caused by multiple signals on the same or other nearby channels. Stations operating on the same channel must be separated by several hundred miles. Channel planning attempts to minimize interference, maximize coverage, and control the costs of consumers' sets.

The ATV channel plan we endorse is a masterpiece of channel planning. For the first time in history, adjacent channels would be used to provide full coverage without any additional spectrum. This requires an engineered match between digital and analog channels, taking into account terrain and interference effects. It assumes that broadcasters will collocate their digital and analog facilities and carefully coordinate the radiation from their antennas. This is the only way to ensure that viewers don't lose their existing service and that they can tune in the ATV signals on their local stations.

ATV channel auctions would torpedo this channel pairing plan and the transition.

In the past six weeks, a number of proposals have been floated to auction some channels, such as Channels 60-69. All of these channels are necessary for the transition to ATV in the metropolitan areas. This may not be true in remote areas but that spectrum is worth very little. Instead, let us, broadcasters employ the expertise we've developed over these last ten years and get down to the business off ATV. The sooner we begin, the sooner consumers will receive a significantly upgraded service and the sooner spectrum will be cleared for other uses.

I worked at our station in 1953 when it was one of the first UHF stations in the country. UHF equipment didn't work well and consumers had no sets to receive the signal But we persevered and, with Congress' help, UHF became widely available and sets were manufactured to receive it. Our risks and hard work expanded television service to the public We're ready to do it again with our eyes open to the difficulties and our hopes that policymakers won't make it any more difficult.

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