They were like excited children, standing, seated in chairs and sitting cross-legged on the lobby carpet–about three dozen employees of WKOW-TV gathered around two giant, black television monitors, waiting for the launch of the space shuttle Discovery.
They knew they had the best seats in town, one of the precious few places in the Midwest, or anywhere for that matter, to see Thursday’s blastoff via high-definition television.
But 38 seconds into the launch, the stunningly clear transmission on the 65-inch screens cracked. The shuttle froze in mid-flight and then disappeared. The sound dropped off. And the employees groaned.
“Now we gotta watch the crappy one,” one said, referring to the standard color monitors that have defined television viewing for more than three decades.
Station engineers patched up the problem quickly and the high-definition picture and sound were back a few minutes later, although the video portion of the broadcast’s commentators–former astronaut Pete Conrad and anchor Mary Alice Williams–ran as much as 2 seconds ahead of the audio.
No matter that there were frequent technical glitches. No matter that scant few even saw the broadcast. And no matter that the 850-pound sets they were watching cost an eye-popping $8,700, far out of the economic reach of nearly every American. HDTV had arrived in all of its brilliance in the smallest of the television markets that, beginning Sunday, will broadcast high-definition TV programming.
“It was fantastic,” gushed Steve Zimmerman, chief engineer at WKOW.
“I’ve been watching this technology develop for 12 years, waiting for it to happen, and now it has,” General Manager Bob Miller said after the launch. “But it’s not over. Now we have to get consumer acceptance.”
With a prod from the federal government, television history is about to repeat itself. Just as some Baby Boomers and their parents remember going to a neighbor’s house or a Main Street store 50 years ago to see the new medium, Americans will be checking out the new world of digital broadcasting to see if it measures up to years of promotional hoopla. Then they’ll have to figure out if they can afford it.
HDTV is the so-called next generation of television. The government has mandated that TV stations begin the shift to digital transmission: By 2006, according to the current plan, television broadcasting will shift from the current analog format to digital. That deadline may well be premature, but there is no doubting the government’s intent to make digital the TV format of the future.
Television executives emphasize the transition to digital TV–with picture and sound quality superior to that delivered by standard analog sets and the capability to deliver multiple channels for information, entertainment and data exchange–is much more important historically than the 1960s’ move to color TV from black and white.
It is also much more expensive, costing each station about $3 million to $5 million in initial transmission costs, and possibly another $30 million or more over the next several years to make their operations digital. Left unresolved is whether this huge upfront investment will pay off with broad consumer acceptance.
“I think this is a revolution, and revolutions always bring with them great chaos,” said Dave Foran, a spokesman for Milwaukee’s WMVS-TV, a public television affiliate that also broadcast Thursday’s shuttle launch in the HDTV format.
Part of the chaos is being played out in Chicago. WMAQ-TV originally was scheduled to begin HDTV broadcasts Sunday, but the station–along with other Chicago TV outlets–has been unable to find broadcast tower space. The Sears and Hancock towers have no room for the new technology, so HDTV’s arrival in the Chicago market has been delayed at least six months. A digital signal needs a clear path, which is why a new tower will be needed to accommodate the new signals.
“We’re hoping to get on in the near future, possibly May 1,” said Tom Powers, WMAQ’s director of broadcast operations and engineering. Tower problems also are hindering HDTV broadcast schedules for the CBS station in Detroit and the NBC outlet in New York.
At least 42 stations will be HDTV-ready this month. Fox Television Network stations will air “The Lost World” in the HDTV format Sunday night. ABC stations, including Madison’s WKOW, will air “101 Dalmations.” In both cases, they will be seen by minuscule and select audiences because hardly any HDTV monitors can be bought now.
WKOW has invited about 90 local dignitaries and advertisers to its station lobby to watch “Dalmations” and two other HDTV productions on what are believed to be the only three HDTV monitors in Madison.
“Rather than seeing if it plays in Peoria, we’ll see if it plays in Madison,” said Terry Kelly, WKOW’s executive vice president.
WBNS-TV in Columbus, Ohio, broadcast the Ohio State-West Virginia college football game in HDTV on Sept. 5 to a theater crowd of about 350. John Owen, the station’s chief engineer, said “no one went away disappointed.”
That is a frequent refrain heard about HDTV pictures, which have a more rectangular screen shape, much like a movie screen, and have theater-quality video and audio. Movies, sporting events and National Geographic-type specials are held up as programming that plays to the strengths of the new technology. Analog transmission alters broadcast waves to create an image, but digital uses the broadcast to transmit a computerized version of the picture, resulting in superior picture quality.
But Owen does not shrug off the economic obstacles that must be hurdled. WBNS spent about $5 million this year to be HDTV-ready and will spend another $6 million to $7 million next year. Owen said tower and new transmission costs range from $3.5 million to $5 million, while in-house editing equipment cost about $1.5 million. Future costs will mount as stations need to buy HDTV cameras and other equipment. “I like to think that we’re pioneers in this,” he said. “But you know the definition of a pioneer: He’s the guy lying face down in the dirt with an arrow in his back.”
The excitement over the technical improvements in the new television format is tempered by the economic realities of television competition. The cable television industry, which faces its own competition and cost pressures, has not agreed to carry the broadcast networks’ HDTV signals. Because 7 out of 10 U.S. households are hooked up to cable, cable’s participation in HDTV transmission is seen as critical not only for the broadcast networks, but for the technology itself.
The broadcast networks have been struggling financially, with their share of the viewing audience shrinking. Competition from cable has made programming a far more risky venture, and producing programs for HDTV transmission is more expensive.
Much like the 1960s, when the networks chose selected programs to broadcast in color, the rollout of HDTV programming will be slow. ABC has committed to three to four hours a week.
“I think the networks will have to step up and spend large amounts on a continuing basis to produce high-definition programming,” WKOW’s Kelly said. “Unless you can make the audience salivate for what they’re missing . . . people aren’t going to want to spend $5,000 for a set.”
