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June 21, 2007
HBO Networks to HD by Q2 ‘08
HBO’s origination facility in Hauppauge, NY will undergo a major revamp as the network aims to have all 26 channels of HBO and Cinemax delivered in HD by the second quarter of 2008. DirecTV says it will launch 11 of the channels when they become available in October.
“We’re already onto our third-generation of HD equipment in our facility and this is part of scaling up that generation of gear,” says Bob Zitter, HBO executive vice president and chief technology officer.
HBO became the first national cable network to offer an HD channel in 1999.
Zitter says there are three technical areas that will be expanded. Because all of the networks will be played off video servers, an additional 150 TB of Sun Servers and Hitachi storage will be added to a system that already has 350 TB. And because the network playout is heavily automated, the control rooms will need additional Harris automation gear, with one handling all HBO HD channels and another all Cinemax HD channels.
Lastly, the ingest side will be expanded so that all of the additional movies and other content can be placed onto the servers easily with MPEG4 encoders. The latter will allow for content to require much less storage than the MPEG2 alternative.
“We’ve been evaluating MPGE4 encoding, decoding and transcoding for a while and it’s exciting to have a major deployment of the technology for distribution early in its life cycle,” Zitter says. “We believe now that the quality and efficiency of MPEG4 is really there.”
With distributors like Comcast, DirecTV and Time Warner Cable talking about being capable of delivering hundreds of HD channels, the upgrade, while costly, is vital for HBO. “What we call HDTV is now TV and focusing on standard definition is something we’re just not doing,” says Zitter. “We’ve been impressed with the penetration of HD sets and we know people who have HD sets prefer to watch TV in HD. So in terms of serving the consumer, it’s quite clear you need to be an HD network.”
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Blockbuster Opts for Blu-ray
The battle between HD-DVD and Blu-ray swung in favor of Blu-ray, as Blockbuster announced it will only rent those high-definition DVDs. It’s a blow to the bigger-selling HD-DVD format, and to consumers who’ve invested in HD-DVD technology.
Blockbuster came to the conclusion after testing both formats at 250 stores. The company told the Associated Press that the trial stores rented 70% more Blu-ray movies than HD DVD.
“We are excited to be able to make more high-definition titles available to our customers in those stores where our research indicates there will be the most demand,” said Matthew Smith, senior vice president of merchandising for Blockbuster. “Obviously, when customers are ready we can expand the Blu-ray offering into more stores and add [high definition DVDs] to more locations if that's what customers tell us they want. We'll continue to work with the movie studios to ensure we have the right assortment of products.”
Analysts, however, see it differently. “Blockbuster is making a major mistake and they will eventually have to add titles in both formats,” says consumer analyst Jonathan Blum of Blumsday.com. “In the cold light of day there just is not enough difference between Blu-ray and HD-DVD technical specifications to warrant some sort of barrier.”
The North American HD DVD Promotional Group says Blockbuster's decision is skewed by the success of films released by Blu-ray studios in the first three months of the year. The group says that four weeks into its aggressive spring marketing campaign, HD DVD is significantly ahead in the consumer electronics player category, capturing 60% of all HD set-top players sold. At the same time, HD movie sales for HD DVD reached an all-time high for the month of May, exceeding 75,000 movies the last week of May alone. Overall high definition sales hit a record last week as well, hitting $5.2 million in consumer spending, 31% higher than the previous record for the two formats.
“The standard war really isn't a war at all,” says Blum. “Both will be in the market. They are just another inconvenience to the consumer, like differing cell phone specs or game platforms.”
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Survey Says: Consumer Want Their HD
A new survey from Hitachi highlights the quandary facing consumers making the move to HD. While more than three-fourths (78%) are interested in buying an HDTV the next time they buy a TV, only 34% are comfortable with HDTV and related terms like 720p or 1080i and DLP, LCD and plasma.
That confusion often manifests itself in consumer electronics showrooms, where shoppers are inundated with often confusing new terms and lingo.
As always, men and women differ on the ideal size of the set. While 32% of women want a 50-inch or 60-inch screen, 43% of men are believers in bigger is better. The survey also found that women are a growing force behind big consumer purchases, with nearly half of households (45 percent) reporting that they are either equally or more responsible for researching substantial electronics purchases.
“Multiple research findings, including our survey results released today, reveal the incredible influence women have on home electronics purchases,” says Daniel Lee, vice president of marketing for the consumer electronics unit of Hitachi America. Lee says the influence women have on the buying process has prompted Hitachi to design sets with a look and functionality that suits the entire household. “We also help both men and women understand how Hitachi’s breakthrough technologies help them get more out of their HDTV experience,” he says.
Hitachi and KRC conducted the nationwide telephone survey of 1,055 adults. The poll also revealed that 60% say picture quality is the most important factor in making a purchasing decision, with brand (11%) and screen size (9%) placing second and third. Nearly half (47%) of households with children want a screen that is 50 inches or larger (overall 37% want a 50-inch HDTV set), while 23% want a screen larger than 60 inches.
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Incredibly Shrinking HD
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Philip Garvin
Founder and Owner
Colorado Studios |
Companies in the high-definition production market are facing a stiff challenge, as networks are looking to bring HD to smaller productions like college sports and concerts. Philip Garvin, founder of production outfit Colorado Studios, has come up with an innovative solution to help the Big Ten Network go live with HD in August. He discussed the leap with B&C HD Update.
Q: Companies like Sony have introduced the MVP Trailer, a mobile production unit designed for events that don’t require massive HD vehicles. How is your approach different?
A: These are the first in a series of mid-level HD production trucks. They are 40-foot expando units. We can now build trucks that can have the exact same equipment as in the bigger trucks but with fewer cameras and less instant-replay capabilities. And we can do it at a much lower cost.
Q: Who will be using the trucks?
A: The first three will be used largely by the Big Ten Network to do about 450 events. The Big Ten Network has right of first refusal so they aren’t exclusively the Big Ten Network’s.
Q: A smaller truck means something was left out. Where did you compromise?
A: When you walk into the production area it will be very similar to any big HD truck except that instead of nine racks of equipment there will only be seven. Replay will only have room for four people as opposed to eight. The engineering area is also much smaller, while transmission is half the size.
Q: What’s next?
A: These units will be finished by the first week of July and the next ones will be a little larger, about 48-feet expando. This is all possible because the equipment our suppliers are producing is outstanding and what used to take an entire rack can now be fit into a quarter of a rack, and it’s more powerful.
--Interviewed by Ken Kerschbaumer
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EVS Powers Dual-Format French Open
(From a June 8 article at BroadcastingCable.com)
Instant replay specialist and production server supplier EVS has created a file-based production network for host broadcaster France Television to support both standard- and high-definition coverage of the French Open tennis tournament. Initially chosen for instant highlight editing and live slow motion replays of the tournament, EVS servers are now being used as part of an integrated network through all stages of production.
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The Black Donnellys Gets a New Life in HD
(From a June 5 article at BroadcastingCable.com)
High-definition programmer HDNet announced that it will air all 13 episodes of the ill-fated NBC drama, after reaching a rights agreement with NBC Universal Domestic Television Distribution. The first episode of the Donnellys series, which suffered poor ratings on NBC and was pulled from the network's schedule last season after only six episodes, will air on HDNet on Wednesday, June 13, at 8:00 p.m. EDT, in the 1080-line interlace (1080i) HD format.
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Sony Chief: DTV Education Push Starts This Fall
(From a June 13 article in BroadcastingCable.com)
From a June 13 article in BroadcastingCable.com Consumer electronics manufacturers’ campaign to educate viewers about the Feb. 17, 2009 turnoff of analog broadcast signals will begin this fall, according to the leading seller of high-definition TV sets. “It will start this fall, and then be very heavy the following fall,” said Sony Electronics President and COO Stan Glasgow at a press briefing in New York Wednesday.
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HBO Plans Full HD Slate
(From a June 12 article at BroadcastingCable.com)
Premium cable programmer HBO has committed to make all 26 of its program feeds, representing all the HBO and Cinemax multiplex channels, available in 1080-line-interlace (1080i) HDTV. The high-def expansion, announced by HBO Chairman and CEO Bill Nelson, will begin later this year with anticipated completion by the end of second quarter 2008. "We have a long history of firsts in technology – satellite, multiplex and SVOD," said Nelson in a statement. "Such a commitment reinforces our tradition of giving our customers the best programming when they want it and how they want it."
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Entropic Bumps Home Networks to 180 Mbps
(From a June 15 article in Multichannel News)
Chip-maker Entropic Communications said it boosted the usable data rate of its home-networking technology from 100 megabits per second to 180 mbps -- using a proprietary packet-aggregation technique -- and doubled the number of supported devices on one network from eight to 16. The new features operate at the media-access-control (MAC) layer, rather than the physical (PHY) layer, Entropic product-line manager Gregory Jones said. So while Entropic has previously claimed that its chips provide up to 270 mbps via the PHY layer, that translates into about 100 mbps of usable bandwidth.
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Report: DirecTV, Dish Team Up on Intelsat Bid
(From a June 14 article at MultichannelNews.com)
The country’s two largest direct-broadcast satellite providers appear to be more closely aligning by reportedly readying a joint bid for Intelsat and reaching broadband deals with cell-phone magnate Craig McCaw’s Clearwire. DirecTV and EchoStar announced that they had distribution agreements to offer Clearwire’s wireless high-speed Internet service to their subscribers. That deal will provide all three companies a way to offer a bundle of video, voice and data services to their customers and better compete with cable. AP first reported in April that Intelsat was on the auction block, and that the sale was prompted by an approach from the Blackstone Group. Bids are expected to be in the $4.5 billion-$5.5 billion range, according to The Journal.
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Sony Bullish On Blu-ray Sales, Other Categories
(From a June 14 article at TWICE.com)
Sony expects sales of Blu-ray players to expand by six to seven times in calendar year 2007 compared to last year. Randy Waynick, senior VP of home products division, said that last year the chain sold from 100,000 to 125,000 Blu-ray set-top players, not including PlayStation3 or Vaio drives. “We see sales expanding at six to seven times that. [Blu-ray] only had a limited number of units available by the end of last year.” And in software Waynick said Blu-ray software is selling “three to one over HD-DVD.”
For more…
Samsung Paces World Q1 LCD TV Shipments
(From a June 14 article at TWICE.com)
Samsung had a comparatively strong first quarter in global LCD TV shipments, while Philips saw its market share drop, according to a global category ranking from market research firm iSuppli. The research firm said all of the global top five LCD TV brands suffered seasonal declines since the fourth quarter of 2006, but Philips was hit the hardest in the period, relative to the other top five brands. Philips Electronics saw a 26 percent slide in sales from the fourth quarter of 2006, causing it to fall to third place in the market, down from second in the fourth quarter of 2006, iSuppli said. Overall, global LCD TV shipments declined to 13.99 million units in the first quarter, down 8 percent from 15.2 million in the fourth quarter, as is typical for the season.
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Sharp Kicks Off $30 Million Ad Campaign
(From a June 6 article at TWICE.com)
Sharp is kicking off one of its largest summer and fall advertising campaigns in its history, in an effort to reclaim lost market share in LCD TV, company executives told reporters at a roundtable press conference. Bob Scaglione, Sharp Electronics Marketing Company of America (SEMCA) product marketing group, senior VP and group manager, said Sharp is deploying a $30 million advertising and promotional campaign running through September. The effort will employ network and cable TV spots, magazines, newspapers, online and billboard ads to generate an estimated 1 billion impressions, he said.
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They Couldn’t Believe Their Eyes
The Cleveland Plain Dealer reports that while the NBA’s Cleveland Cavaliers couldn’t deliver a win in the Finals against the San Antonio Spurs, the franchise at least delivered a unique viewing experience: a chance to watch the game in 3D HD. About 14,000 fans packed the Cavaliers’ home arena, The Q, to watch the game on four 3D HD screens, 40 feet wide and 23 feet tall. Reaction was positive. "It's much better than TV at home," said Paul Dulick, 33, of Parma, OH. "The 3D is as good as the technology at Disney or anywhere else." Free tickets for the event were gone in two hours.
For more…
Sony Planning TV Line for Wal-Mart, Target
USA Today reports that Sony will soon be selling a line of televisions specifically for Wal-Mart, Target and other discount retailers. Randy Waynick, Sony Electronics' senior vice president of marketing, said that the company would supply a "unique series of models" of liquid-crystal display (LCD) televisions to big-box retailers for availability in the next 60 days. It's part of the corporation’s strategy to sell to targeted groups of consumers. That means that smaller specialty electronics sellers will also be supplied specific models, so they won't be competing as directly with Wal-Mart, the largest retailer in the world.
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The HD Dilemma
TheAge.com reports on HD consumer camcorders that can be as baffling to buy as an HD set. First consumers need to decide what format they want to record on, whether it’s a tape-based camcorder, DVD, or hard-drive models. In addition, those with multiple larger sensors have better imaging and, in turn, higher prices.
For more…
NY School Deploys HD CCTV Surveillance System
The Journal.com reports that HDTV technology continues to do more than just help broadcasters deliver sharper images: it’s also helping security professionals do their job. With the mission of preparing at-risk children to live safely within their communities The Berkshire Farm Center in Canaan, N.Y., upgraded its aging CCTV surveillance system to a network-based, high-definition system. It’s using the CoVi Crystal HD system, the first phase of a large deployment of cameras installed throughout the campus that capture and record video in high-definition--up to 12 times greater resolution quality than traditional analog video surveillance systems.
For more…
Not-So-High-Definition Camcorders
The New York Times reports that the phrase “High Definition” that once denoted pristine pictures is being watered down by the marketing community. Companies have begun selling “high definition” camcorders whose video recordings can actually look worse than standard def: Canon’s PowerShot TX1 ($475), Sanyo’s Xacti VPC-HD2 ($610) and Panasonic’s very first consumer high-def camcorder, the HDC-SD1 ($810). The verdict? They’re loaded with breakthroughs, but also saddled by disappointments.
For more…
Toshiba Slashes HD DVD Sales Forecast
DigitalTrends.com reports that Toshiba Corporation is substantially cutting its sales targets for HD DVD players in the wake of lackluster sales. Toshiba says it expects to sell 1 million HD DVD players in North America by the end of 2007, a substantial reduction from its initial goal of 1.8 million. And although the Blu-ray camp has claimed victory in the smoldering format war between it and HD DVD, that’s being driven by sales of the PlayStation 3 game console, which includes a Blu-ray player.
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