Digital TV conversion

On February 17, 2009 all TV stations will be terminating all Analog Broadcasting across the nation. For some of us this will be a big deal but for others it won’t. If you currently have an HD TV set or watch all your TV on cable or from a Dish then you won’t be affect. This will only affect those that use an older TV set still relaying on the free Analog transmitted NTSC.

So why should we make the transition from an all analog to an all-digital TV signal? Why can’t we do both? Why should everyone be forced to move all digital? The answer is that digital is that much better. The video and audio quality far succeeds that of the old Analog system but that isn’t the main reason. The fact is that both systems have been in existence for a while, some as early as 1996. But the old Analog systems takes up a lot of bandwidth which is making it harder and harder to add wireless systems, and broadcast communications for emergency departments. When you look at all the wireless systems out there you see that more and more are popping up all over. From cell phone towers not only providing cell service but also full wireless internet service, and features like V-cast allowing you to watch TV from your phone. To TV, radio, and many government and Wi-fi services. You also have business sending their network across microwaves and satellite systems. You then need to add to that all the remote TV station feeds such as microwave trucks, and satellite trucks all so you can see the news. It is no wonder why the Government wants those airwaves to work off to be able to update their own systems for emergency uses. There is only so much air waves to work with the current technology and if we don’t move forward there is going to be a lot of problems.

What about the Broadcast industry, do they want to go all digital? Well, the broadcast industry as a whole is moving so fast that smaller broadcast companies can’t keep up. Manufacturers are at a standstill because they have no idea what everyone is looking for. Working in the broadcast industry you see a lot of confusion. For example, there are a countless number of different recording formats for digital. For instance at my job we were looking at purchasing a new video deck as a master deck for one of our studios. We began looking at all the different decks out there and began talking to venders. Half of the decks we looked at buying were either discontinued, going to be discontinued, brand new or were supporting a video format we didn’t want to use. Currently we are not HD but we are fully digital, and because we only produce in house stuff we don’t need to go HD, so we took a chance on a Standard definition hard drive recorder, and we absolutely love it. We also were looking at a an archive deck, now we would love to archive using a digital tape format but tape is expensive and all the manufactures are saying they will eventually be discontinuing their products supporting tape. Naturally we want to archive on DVD then because it is Cheep and lasts a long time. We began looking for a DVD deck that would record DVDs live. We found one, purchased it, and then found out they discontinued all support and production of the product, well, we got a bad one, so we forced the company to take it back and then searched for a new DVD deck. We ended up buying a very expensive deck mostly used for the medical field, The format was supporting DVD+R rather than DVD-R like we would have prefered but the fact was, It was the only professional deck out there. The only one! We couldn’t believe it. Luckily they have been working Ok for us but it was a frustrating process.

I say all that because the industry is looking for a direction. Currently they are making products for a wide range of needs but as soon as a manufacturer sees a product no longer having very much demand they drop all support because it is costing them too much money. With all broadcast companies being forced to give up all analogs support this will hopefully help manufactures focus on the products needed, driving down costs for broadcasters like me.

Also in the industry Technology is still being developed at a fast paste. They now have 2 cameras that can produce quality better than HD. In fact one camera can produce quality better than Film! It is only going to be about 5 years until the entire industry will start moving in this direction with full broadcast support.

In conclusion this digital switch is very much needed not only to free up the airwaves in order to add new technology for not only consumers but also for emergency services as well but it is also needed to give the broadcast industry some focus. To help manufactures focus on supporting fewer products rather than a wide variety. And last but not least it is need to keep technology moving forward. Now I don’t think this is going to fix the broadcast industry but I do think it is going to help. I think as soon as consumers go all HD if they haven’t already they are going to fall in love with this new product and it will be a win-win for everyone.