John McCain's a la carte may be an empty plate
Senator John McCain's effort to challenge the media conglomerates could more resemble his last presidential bid than a successful effort to deliver viewers a la carte cable and satellite subscriptions.
UHDTV: A bridge too far?
Without a doubt, the top theme at this year’s NAB show was 4K. There were 4K cameras, video routers, recorders, multiviewers, fiber, projectors, slo-mo systems, 4K cine lenses and, of course, 4K editing, grading and production systems. Wow, with all that stuff available, why would anyone buy yesterday’s 3G and HD equipment?
World standard? Try compatible, first …
This behemoth, or benefit, consists of two new ATSC standards called 2.0 and 3.0. These new standards will be applied in serial fashion, one after the other, perhaps years apart.
3-D is dead. Long live 4K!
There is a striking similarity between how 4K is suddenly being pushed by the consumer electronics industry, and how those same vendors pushed the now dormant 3-D technology.
Next Generation BASE-T cabling coming
The formation of an IEEE study group for NGBASE-T is a recognition that balanced twisted pair copper cabling remains a cost effective media for Ethernet applications.
Are spinning disks dead?
InfoWeek writer Paul Venezia wrote in his Jan. 14 column that storage would soon evolve into “… a world devoid of the painfully outdated yet ubiquitous spinning disk.” Yep, and the familiar phrase “Tape is dead” has been bandied around for 25 years.
Tribune-owned newspapers dropping AP
The Chicago Tribune has announced that starting in January, the Chicago-based paper and six other Tribune-owned papers will drop the Associated Press as its chief wire service.
Yogi’s fork dilemma
Moving forward, the broadcasting and consumer industries need each other in order to be successful. As we head into 2013, Broadcast Engineering will provide you with several tools that allow you to better navigate this changing landscape.
HDTV on steroids
In late October, the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) begins the drum beat about innovation, new technology and, of course, new products. The noise is all focused on the association’s upcoming Consumer Electronics Show in January. It’s often hard to discern real product technology from all the smoke and mirrors as vendors scramble for attention. Although the event is titled “Consumer,” broadcasters should often take heed as the last two broadcast-related innovations originated at that show — digital/HDTV and 3-D. One worked; the other, not so much.
PCAST? Oh, please ...
Ronald Reagan once said, “... government does nothing as well, or as economically, as the private sector in the economy.”
Yet, it appears we are about to witness the next example of overreach and mismanagement by government bureaucrats — all under the pretext of solving the so-called spectrum crisis. In this instance, government’s solution comes from a blue-ribbon committee’s proposed new way to manage spectrum.
Remembering John Battison
We recently lost a good friend and fellow engineer. Long-time broadcast consultant and Broadcast Engineering writer John Battison passed away on Aug. 28, 2012. Just shy of turning 97, John spent more than 20 years writing for this publication and its sister version, Radio magazine. He retired from writing in 2009.
Squeeze play
Way back in July 2010, I predicted a good future for Google TV. That anticipation of success for Google’s IP content delivery network appears to have been overly
optimistic. Even so, this week’s list of press releases included one from Sony announcing a new version of Google TV, and one from Harman for a remote control that implements Google TV. In addition, you can hardly buy a DVD player that does not come equipped with a trial subscription to Netflix, VUDU, Hulu and a range of other IP-delivered content channels.
