The recent launch of Hulu.com represents not only one of the most aggressive attempts to provide users with a wide range of high quality video on the Web. It is also a major example of the growing importance of high-def content on the Web and a graphic illustration of some of the challenges faced by companies trying to improve the quality of online video.
As executives trek to Las Vegas for this year’s NAB, VegasHD will be launching new mobile HD production facilities that will allow broadcasters and clients to deliver signals over fiber from the Las Vegas market.
FSN Southwest took a step into the future of high-def programming last week with the production of the first regular season NBA game in 3D HD. The March 25th game between the Dallas Mavericks and Los Angeles Clippers was only the third 3D HD airing of a live sporting event in the U.S. and the first time that signals for a U.S. production was transmitted by satellite rather than fiber.
In the run-up to this year’s NAB convention and the annual meeting of Radio-Television News Directors Association, Barbara Cochran, president of the RTNDA and the Radio and Television News Directors Foundation talks about the state of the TV news business and what her members are doing to expand their newscasts in HD.
What Stations Want at NAB
(From a March 31 article in Broadcasting & Cable)
HD gear is high on the shopping list of major station groups on the even of the NAB, with Earl Arbuckle, the Fox Television Stations’ VP of engineering, noting “we have three stations broadcasting local, in-studio newscasts in high-definition right now, and we are working on another half-dozen. It’s going to take us about three years to migrate the entire group.” Buying plans for Media General, Sinclair, Hearst-Argyle, Scripps, and CBS are also profiled.
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Google's 'White Space' Plan
(From a March 31 article in Broadcasting & Cable)
Google is trying to convince the FCC that it holds a compromise on the contentious issue of sharing spectrum space with new digital TV channels. In an issue that broadcasters contend could have an important impact on the ability of viewers to receive digital and high def signals, Google is hoping to win over some converts in the broadcast community as well as the government, but broadcasters counter that unlicensed devices, such as laptops and spectrum-sensing radios, and DTV channels cannot co-exist.
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FCC Allows Satellite-TV Providers to Phase In HD
(From a March 27 article at Broadcastingcable.com)
Satellite companies gained a victory last week when the Federal Communications Commission voted that Dish Network and DirecTV will have until February 17, 2013 to carry 100% of local stations’ HD signals. Per that schedule, satellite broadcasters must carry TV stations' HD signals in 15% of the markets in which they carry any HD signals by Feb. 17, 2010; 30% of those by Feb. 17, 2011; 60% by Feb. 17, 2012; and 100% by Feb. 17, 2013.
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Hallmark Movie Channel to Go HD on April 2
(From a March 26 article at Broadcastingcable.com)
Hallmark has unveiled a production slate of 30 original movies that fit its family-friendly brand and announced plans to launch Hallmark Movie Channel, in HD April 2. Hallmark Movie Channel has been in beta phase, in several million homes, since 2004. It will launch in HD April 2. The 24-hour channel plays classical films, original Hallmark Channel movies and movies from the Hallmark Hall of Fame library.
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Dish Network Adds HD Local Markets, NESN HD
(From a March 27 article at Broadcastingcable.com)
Dish Network added four new local markets to its HD-programming lineup. Austin, Texas; Flint, Mich.; and Orlando and West Palm Beach, Fla., are the latest local markets to get the HD treatment on Dish, bringing the satellite-TV provider’s total number of HD local markets to 39. Dish also added New England Sports Network HD (NESN) to its HD lineup.
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File-based Workflows, Automation Help With HD
(From a March 24 article in Broadcastingcable.com)
File-based workflows and automation are helping TV newsrooms face the disparate challenges of moving their standard-definition newscasts to high-definition, while also expanding their Websites with more low-resolution video and original content. In a climate where stations face extreme competitive pressure and, in most cases, tight budgets, file-based operations offer a number of advantages, by speeding production, making it easier to repurpose content and by simplifying multi-platform production.
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Test Claims Comcast Overly Compresses HD In Virginia
(From a March 27 article at Multichannel.com)
Comcast has said it can pack three high-definition signals into space typically used for two without viewers noticing a drop in quality. But at least one viewer has. One member of the AVS Forum, a community site for audio/video enthusiasts, has posted results of a test that showed Comcast is delivering certain MPEG-2 HD channels at bit rates as much as 28% lower than Verizon, resulting in lower-quality pictures.
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FSN: More Hits In HD
(From a March 25 article at Multichannel.com)
With the Major League Baseball season officially under way, FSN said it will offer more than 1,000 live baseball telecasts in high-definition during the 2008 season. FSN’s 16 owned-and-operated regional sports networks will collectively offer live, high-definition telecasts of approximately 1,024 MLB games. That is 63% of FSN’s entire baseball schedule of 1,622 games and more than double the amount of high-definition telecasts produced last year.
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Cablevision Switches Up Voom
(From a March 24 article at Multichannelnews.com)
Cablevision Systems will soon start delivering Voom HD Networks’ 15 high-definition channels using switched digital video. As part of the change, the cable operator is offering subscribers with CableCard-based systems free use of an HD set-top box, making it possible to get Voom’s high-def networks as well as the operator’s international programming packages and other switched video channels.
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Bird Watching in HD
(From a March 24 article in Multichannel News magazine)
With its new bird falling short in its orbit, Dish Network lost a round in the competitive HDTV arms race while DirecTV got a literal rocket boost for its ambitious expansion plans. Problems with the Dish satellite weren’t the first dismal news the satellite provider has received in its plans to expand its HDTV offering, which lags way behind DirecTV’s. SES Americom disclosed that its March 14 launch of the satellite AMC-14, which Dish Network was going to use to expand its local HD service, had gone awry.
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Verizon Stocks VOD Shelves
(From a March 19 article from Multichannel.com)
Verizon Communications has announced a string of new deals for VOD titles in both standard and high-def with such content providers as CBS, Discovery Channel, Smithsonian Channel, Ovation TV, Music Choice; Howcast, and Discovery Channel's Planet Earth series. Verizon said its VOD service now offers more than 10,000 titles each month, 70% of which are free. By the end of 2008, Verizon expects to increase its HD VOD titles to more than 1,000.
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Pantel Introduces ‘Weatherproof’ HDTVs
(From a March 27 article at Twice.com)
Pantel announced it had added two weatherproof LCD HDTVs to its offerings: a 32-inch and a 42-inch model. Previous high-definition TVs used outdoors had to be used under canopies or other types of overhangs, said the company, but were still often unprotected. The company’s new models feature proprietary dual-flow ventilation system that’s meant to keep the TVs cool and a state-of-the-art heating system creates heat to keep Pantel TVs working in colder climates, the company said.
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Runco Shows 70-Inch LCD TV
(From a March 27 article at Twice.com)
Dealers attending Runco’s Mexican Getaway were shown the company’s first 70-inch 1080p LCD TV, among a lineup of flagship items coming to market this year. The 70-inch model, which will be priced between $25,000 and $30,000, addresses one of the company’s product goals, which is to expand and upgrade the flat-panel LCD offerings with larger screen sizes and 1080p resolution.
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