Broadcast Dinosaurs, Digital Formats and Bad Audio

By Jim Barthold

Here's a riddle for you. What's the difference between dinosaurs and broadcasters? Give up? Dinosaurs had the decency to go extinct while broadcasters keep hanging in there.

The preceding was brought to you courtesy of pre-NAB coverage as the creaking old guys of television once again prepare to trot out their wares and technology for a world that long ago expanded beyond their three channels. For the first time in years - at least the first time since there was an HDTV format mini-war - this year's NAB might actually be relevant.

The dinosaurs have been pushed to another pasture so the FCC can auction off their analog feeding grounds to a new breed - or maybe an old breed, who knows? - of wireless critters. That means that the dinos have to stop chewing their cud and start getting their digital act together because as of next February, the only time there will be snow on a TV screen will be during the weather report. Digital blocking, pixelization and drop-out, however, will move into the consumer mainstream.

Of course, if you own an HDTV, you've probably already started to experience the digital transformation. It isn't always a pretty sight, and it's generally not a pleasant sound.

"In many of these markets, the digital tier is still viewed as a secondary service. A lot of these operators, if they had an outage or any kind of issues with the digital broadcast, weren't that concerned because they viewed it as a secondary, almost beta, offering," said Tom Lattie, director of broadcast and satellite solutions at Harmonic, which predicts an "uptick" in business as the digital Armageddon approaches. "Digital broadcast is becoming their primary broadcast, and they're looking at it in a whole new light."

Now they're getting ready?

And isn't that encouraging? How long have these guys known they're supposed to get ready? Today's activity isn't exactly state-of-the-art, to coin a cliché.

"None of the ATSC broadcasters have any sort of real redundancy today ... whereas if you were to look at a satellite or cable headend today, you have back-up encoders, back-up multiplexers. We're seeing a lot of investment by the broadcasters this year in that redundancy as they begin to prepare for that being their only method of reaching their audiences," he said.

Of course, cable operators will be able to pass through the signals, but even then there will be some arrhythmic moments for cable operators since Lattie predicts that most broadcasters will skip standard definition and proceed right to high def. Cable, which will continue to deliver digital signals to TV sets, will have to take the new digital streams and pass them through for high def, standard def and analog TVs and even handle different aspect ratios "so if you have this 16:9 signal, you're going to scale it so it can be downconverted to display on a standard definition television," he said.

There are some who might see this whole broadcasting brouhaha as déjà vu all over again. Remember the late '90s wars over 1080i vs. 720p when the broadcasters thought the digital end was coming sooner than it would? Now you have HD vs. SD and 16:9 vs. 4:3 along with 1080i and 720p.

Harmonic ready to help

Cable does have a friend in this battle, considering Harmonic's long relationship with the industry.

"Our focus has been more of an advisory role to these networks and stations and some of the underlying things that are challenging them," Lattie said. "We focus on some of the more subtle challenges that face not only ATSC, but some of our other customers as well."

A not-so-subtle change that's been apparent to anyone with a high-end digital set-top connected through a Dolby audio receiver and into an HDTV - and there are more of us than you might think - is the blaring inconsistency of audio levels.

"These are Dolby-carried services," Lattie said.

Dolby says it has the gear to solve the problem, but the broadcasters aren't buying in. In fact, when it comes to audio, from stereo to mono to gramophones, probably, the broadcasters have never bought in if it costs money. Television, after all, is not radio; it's all about the pictures.

"This has been a problem for a number of years, even on analog broadcasts. Our cable customers have struggled for a long, long time normalizing audio across all the channels," he said.

No one's listening

It's worse these days because the broadcasters figure no one's listening - literally - and the sound equipment is so much better.

"My perception is you'll begin to see this focused on probably more this year and the beginning of next year," Lattie said. "As people have to watch this as their only service, you'll begin to get more complaints. Today the only people who really experience the audio levels are people with digital cable and HD receivers who are watching the HD version of the channel or people with off-air receivers."

Wait a minute. Aren't those supposed to be the elite consumers that the advertisers are targeting? Nah, the broadcasters can't be interested in high-end viewers - watch any prime time show and you'll see that.

"This is still considered their secondary broadcast channel, but I think you're beginning to see that change. I agree, as a consumer it is a struggle," said Lattie, before concluding somewhat ominously. "To be honest, some of the video quality on some of these systems leaves something to be desired as well, and we're seeing a bunch of investment in that space as well."

And isn't that a comforting thought?

- Jim Barthold