UK &
European Digital TV
Players Impact NAB2000
by Ken
Freed.
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American
broadcasters paid close attention to what Europeans
vendors demonstrated at the 2000 show.
American
broadcasters at NAB2000 were very keen to discover what
their European counterparts are doing in digital
television.
There are
significant differences in the European and American
implentnations of digital TV. Yet there were European
exhibitors present attempting to show how the divide may
be crossed. They were not bashful about promoting their
"solutions."
DVB
Meets ATSC
An important
European technology demonstration at NAB was a live HDTV
broadcast using DVB-T from the mountaintop transmitter of
local station KVWB, owned by Sinclair Broadcasting.
Embedded in the 6 MHz channel was a simulcast modulated
with COFDM for mobile reception. Sinclair's Nat Ostroff
demonstrated indoor reception of the COFDM signal on a
portable Nokia MediaScreen.
"ATSC with 8-VSB
modulation doesn't support mobile services," said Peter
Macavock, head of the DVB Project office. "But DVB-T
COFDM lets broadcasters deliver DTV to both roof-top
antennas and mobile devices, doing it as an embedded
signal, not as a multicast."
The DVB stand also
demonstrated DVB-MHP, the multimedia home platform
standard for the set-top box. Further, the stand featured
representatives from DigiTag, the Digital Television
Action Group, and the DVB/DAVIC Interoperability
Consortium.
Both DVB and ATSC
can transport digital video, Macavock said, "but claiming
that one is better than the other is like saying diesel
fuel is better than petrol. Which you choose depends on
the engine and what you want the car to do for you. The
point is that the digital broadcaster has more options to
make their service competitive with DVB than with its
ATSC counterpart."
Macavock was
undeterred by the political fact that U.S. terrestrial
broadcasters are required to implement ATSC, not DVB. He
noted that most American TV equipment vendors are active
DVB members "because if they want to sell anything
outside the United States, they need to support the DVB
standards,"
And terrestrial
broadcasters are not the only market. Two U.S. cable
system operators are implementing DVB-C, he noted, and
the whole MMDS "wireless cable" industry is considering
DVB.
The U.S.
direct-to-home digital broadcast satellite (DBS) services
are already using DVB, he observed. DirecTV implemented a
draft of DVB for its direct digital satellite (DSS)
service. Echostar uses the latest version of DVB-S in its
Dish Network DBS service, plus Echostar competes
worldwide as a DVB box manufacturer.
Comparing satellite
to cable and terrestrial, Macavock said, "I think it's
fair to say the vast majority of digital television
viewers in the United States today are DVB viewers. By
virtue of the huge DVB market already in America, the
U.S. television community will continue being an
important factor in DVB deliberations."
More
Euro Players
Revealing a
different aspect of the European contribution, BBC
Resources used NAB for launching a new business and
technical consultancy for broadcasters worldwide. The
wholly-owned BBC subsidiary also presented its BNCS
broadcast control software for managing 8 to 43 digital
streams out of the master control room, reducing
personnel while increasing profitability.
"People are looking
around for business models for digital TV," said Domininc
Lunney, head of commercial resources technology for BBC
Resources. "One of the best ideas is multiple revenues
streams, such as we're doing with BBC Interactive, which
must be available for every TV platform because BBC is a
public service broadcaster."
The Tandberg
Television stand debuted the technologies acquired last
year in a buyout of the NDS digital broadcast division.
The sale let NDS focus on its conditional access products
while Tandberg adapted the NDS middleware for
interoperability with other CA systems, including Canal+
MediaGuard, ViaAccess, Iredeto, and Nagra Kudeleski --
all European companies with stands at NAB.
"Open solutions are
the key," said Carl Fergusson, terrestrial segment
business manager for Tandberg. "Take the example of
electronic and satellite newsgathering [ENG, SNG]
for enhanced or interactive television. When digital
video and audio is not the only information that a news
reporter would transmit, what matters is understanding
the customers' requirements, recognising when the
customers are willing to pay for enhanced or interactive
content."
Elsewhere in the
exhibit halls, the Thomcast stand touted its "end-to-end
digital datacasting solution." Philips announced new
solid-state Ultimate 1 kW transmitter, designed for
low-power operations. Also shown were the transmitters
being deployed in the Netherlands' first single-frequency
DVB-T network.
Philips introduced
a new triple CCD camera with 9.2 million pixels in each
frame of video. Also introduced at the Philips stand was
the new Seriph HD-35 digital production switcher,
configurable for either 720p or 1080I. Philips Research
announced a DTV testing project with the Fox network
owned by NewsCorp.
Pace contributed to
the European presence at NAB by entering the U.S. market
for personal video recorders with its own "XTV" hard-disk
PDR box, which was demonstrated at the Pace stand. The
Pace XTV launch represents the first substantial
competition for Tivo and Replay, which have had the PDR
market to themselves.
"The DTV services
in the UK and Europe are showing what can be done," said
Andrew Wallace at Pace, "and Americans are paying
attention." 
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