Copyright © 1997 George Arvanitis. All rights reserved.
The success of the Internet, specifically the World Wide Web, has been a catalyst for booming changes in the landscape of culture and business. The Internet has become a powerful tool for education and entertainment, as well as an outpost for small and large businesses. Email, chat and newsgroups have brought the realization of electronic community to computer users worldwide. Maybe even more importantly, the success of the Web has served as the electronic model of true two-way interactive media that the television and broadcast industry can understand. The presence of an existing infrastructure, standard publishing formats and instant distribution are factors that broadcast executives, advertisers and investors find appealing.
These facts were evident at this year's National Association of Broadcasters and NAB Multimedia World Convention in Las Vegas, Nevada, April 5-9. Over 100,000 attendees trekked over 750,000 square feet of floor space, having secured sturdy nylon or canvas bags. If you're trade show savvy, you know that the first thing you must do is get one of those canvas bags to pack to the gills with product literature. Yet, you'd think in the age of magnetic swipe cards and kiosks that you could forget the paper stuff. Not so! We humans are comfortable with combinations of that which we know and have trusted in the past, and that which is innovative and promises new benefits.
If you agree that in the last two decades we have progressed from large mainframe computers to standalone PCs, to dialup modems, to networks, to multimedia PCs and more recently to the Internet, then I have a question for you. Do you find yourself slowly recovering from "perpetual computer upgrade disorder," "multimedia madness" and "Weblash"? If you do, you're in great company. And with this year's NAB '97 completed, we can add a couple of new spreading epidemics: "digital TV frenzy" and "hybrid bandwidth syndrome." If you immunize yourself in time, you might be healthy and ready for the 21st century.
Digital Convergence
This year's NAB '97 theme, "Setting the Pace for Convergence," was immediately bolstered by key computer industry announcements. On Sunday, April 6, Microsoft's Craig Mundie, Senior Vice President of the consumer platforms group, announced the acquisition of WebTV for a reported $425 million. WebTV, who will operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of Microsoft, has been offering set-top boxes through the consumer electronics market. These set-top boxes allow Web content to be displayed on existing television sets. Internet access is delivered through a phone line utilizing the advanced compression and picture improvement technologies of the WebTV box, which is currently being manufactured by Sony Electronics and Phillips/Magnavox. "We're entering a new era in broadcast and computing," Mundie said, "and this era has many implications for both the computer industry as well as the entire broadcasting industry. Through (WebTV) efforts combined with the Windows CE program, we hope to dramatically accelerate the merger of the Internet and television." According to Steve Perlman, CEO of WebTV, "[WebTV is] thrilled to become a part of Microsoft's broad initiative to enable Internet access and digital broadcasting for televisions as well as PCs," Perlman said. "Our vision has been to make Internet access via TV a low-cost, fun, easy and compelling experience for consumers. We look forward to working with Microsoft to make that experience available to an even broader range of consumers, in conjunction with our combined content and hardware partners." Perlman was also a panel guest at the WebTV vs. Web PC conference session. When asked what the benefits of their relationship with Microsoft would mean, Perlman replied, "We will utilize the vast resources of Microsoft-which will assist us in producing advanced digital televisions of the future."
Microsoft, Intel and Compaq made a joint announcement on Monday, April 7, outlining initiatives to work with the television industry to broaden and accelerate digital television (DTV) guidelines and specifications that will be acceptable to both the computer and television industries. A whole line of television-equipped PCs, as well as PC-enabled televisions, will be available in late 1998. Exactly what features these new PC/TV systems have will be the next challenges for consumer market study.
DTV (formerly known as HDTV) has been on the table of the Federal Communications Commission and in hot debate for some years now as to what the standards, specs and business implications should be. On April 3, 1997, a historic decision was made. Just days before NAB '97 convention, FCC commissioners voted unanimously to award digital licenses to over 1,500 television stations, requiring a response of intent to build digital facilities. To accelerate the transition, the FCC will require affiliated stations in the top 10 US markets to begin digital broadcasts within two years. It is also interesting to note that the FCC has departed from its traditional one-size-fits-all method of de facto standards by allowing free market competition to define what the best DTV technical standards should be-changes in philosophy and position that have been occurring at the FCC in recent years. The milestone FCC rulings of the past year, as well as speech texts, can be found at the FCC site.
Hybrid Bandwidth
A host of hybrid bandwidth technologies will allow home consumers and business users to receive true "multimedia," including Web content, video and data broadcasts, and eventually two-way interactivity. Current products like Microsoft's Netshow demonstrate the ability to develop hybrid applications that combine Web content, and piped-in data and video. Some of the "multi-mediums" that could be combined in delivering content in this "visual computing" environment would include satellite, wireless, cable, ISDN, standard telephone, and local peripheral devices such as DVD and CD-ROM. Netshow will be included with Microsoft's "Memphis" and Windows NT version 5.0 releases, which are scheduled to be released by the end of the year. The first beta version can be downloaded from Microsoft. Intel's Intercast Software, one of the latest "push" technologies, uses Video Blanking Intervals (VBI) which utilize unused portions of the television spectrum to transfer video and data at up to 300Kbps. Broadcasters can deliver programming and predetermined Web content (one way) to PCs possessing television receiver add-on cards. Intercast users will also be able to surf the traditional Web in a dual or stand-alone browse mode through a telephone or, in select areas of the U.S., through wireless. Intercast ships with Microsoft Internet Explorer 3.0 and will be bundled with television capture cards. The software alone can be downloaded from Intel's Web site.
The Television vs. the Computer Mindset
Broadcasters have already been wrestling with questions as to why they would want to point someone to a Web page when doing so would divert their eyeballs away from the TV. Would ratings go down? Would advertisers cry foul? Philip Dodds, President of the Interactive Multimedia Association (IMA), during his Multimedia Bootcamp Conference, shared how he was frozen-in during a hard winter storm on the East coast a few years ago. He showed a slide that seemed to be a picture of a television promo for a newscast. It turned out to be a Web page with a very television-like appearance. He was suprised to find out that he was able to get up-to-the-minute weather updates far ahead of the televised news and was able to prepare accordingly. In the "WebTV vs. Web PC" conference John Brody, the moderator, correctly pointed out, "It is not just the number of viewers that advertisers care about, but the number of impacted viewers."
On the PC side of things, users of computers have a different experience. The PC was designed with obsolescence built in. Regular upgrades or even whole new systems are seemingly needed every few years in order to keep up with the changes needed to run new software applications. PC users have come to expect and prepare for constant change. People surfing the Net are familiar and comfortable being part of an involved interactive experience. Conversely, nontechnical television viewers are accustomed to a passive medium where little interaction is required, or maybe even wanted. Will consumers want a computer television? Will they want to be involved with the content they are watching? For many people, figuring out all of the buttons on the remote control or programming a VCR can be a difficult experience. For 50 years the television has been a passive device that required minimal interactivity-with programming designed to keep your eyeshare focused. It is likely that the new DTVs will have a passive and an active option. In either case, the competition in the digital marketplace will be for your mindshare and your dollars.
The Road Ahead
The transition to full digital media is on the way. On April 3, 1997, the FCC opened the starting gate. Each of the converging industries has a model which they know works, and a new one they are seeking to define together. The question is: how they will merge and combine those models? The sheer number of technical and financial opportunities in information, services, entertainment, education, medicine and free market commerce is repurposing existing businesses even now and will launch new ventures and mergers. While the combined techno-industries review internal specifications and standards, it is time to upgrade individual job skills, rethink the way we live and do business, and realistically plan for the future while living effectively in the present.
The road ahead will be exciting, but not necessarily smooth or wisely taken by all. There will be bumps to endure, some leaps to be made and potholes to avoid. That has been true in the past but, unlike any previous time in history, there is a rapid pace emerging in exponential growth of knowledge and the implementation of it. There will be job opportunities and whole new ways of interacting with the world we live in. There will be challenges that we have never faced before. Like we have seen on the World Wide Web in the last two years, there will be a voice and a presence for the individual, for the small company, and for diverse opinions. That window in time is open now as it has never been before. In the end, video, sound, graphics, text and data are just tools for communication. If you agree with that, then the only question left is this: What do you have to say and what are you going to do? It's time.