With dtv underway down south and Canadians in a holding pattern, what will the savvy broadcaster have on the shopping list this year at nab? Aside from shopping for ongoing plant upgrades, the technical chiefs of Canadian broadcasters will be taking careful notes on the cost/performance/future-friendliness equation on all manner of high-definition-capable gear in the interest of safeguarding the possible high-def future of their operations.

u.s. broadcasters have had a dtv timetable in place for the past two years, and began a dtv launch in November 1998, with further rollout deadlines for top-10 stations for May 1999, a full commercial dtv over-the-air conversion by 2002, and an analog kiss-off in 2006, a date many have acknowledged as unrealistic. These are deadlines for digital television transmission, not high-definition television, which provides the gee-whiz pictures that launched this whole argument in the first place.

So far, Canada has adopted the atsc standard and Industry Canada recently allocated spectrum to over-the-air broadcasters. But with no edict for dtv deadlines coming from on high, Canadian broadcasters continue to watch the u.s. example unfold while trying to make educated decisions about a future which holds only one certain thing: lots of extra expense.

While equipment shopping will prove challenging enough, other issues loom for broadcasters: cable carriage (or non carriage), tower capacity and finding a business plan to carry them through the expense of transition.

Here, those closest to the technical side of broadcasting discuss nab shopping and the future of dtv and hdtv in Canada.

For CanWest Global, this year’s nab will be a hands-on experience for its Australian branch plant, which is working with a 2001 timetable for dtv launch. With the Australian contingent coming to nab looking for hd solutions, the Canadian broadcaster can take some practical lessons from that example, although operating with a different standard than North America and Europe (30-frame pal) Australia will likely be its own special case.

All eyes to the south

Doug Bonar, vp technology and broadcast operations for CanWest Global, and others like him say it’s too early to make the calls on Canadian dtv, like which of the 18 formats within the atsc standard will likely become transmission standard here. The u.s. networks have gone a number of ways on transmission formats for standard-definition dtv and for hdtv broadcast. (As announced at last year’s nab show, Fox and abc have a 480P scenario for sd and 720P for hd; cbs and nbc picked 1080i for hd.)

‘I think it would be easier for everyone if we did work on one standard,’ says Bonar. ‘But getting agreement is another matter.’

The technical committee of Canadian Digital tv, the body founded to oversee and advise on dtv transition, is discussing the merits of adopting a single format here, based on what, if any economic advantages would result for broadcasters and/or consumers.

Bonar also acknowledges the potential side effect of a one-standard broadcasting landscape, which would be to effectively ‘anoint’ one manufacturer. ‘It’s not known yet how it will play out here,’ he says, ‘all of our eyes are to the south – watching how this unfolds in the u.s.’

First step, transmission

Given the multi-standard format scheme in the u.s., conversion equipment will ultimately be on every Canadian broadcaster’s shopping list, but for this agenda, NAB99 is a few years too early for anything but serious tire kicking.

‘We will take a particular interest in conversion equipment, but we believe analog transmission will be with us for at least another 10 years,’ says Bonar. ‘That is our bread and butter and we will continue to replace outdated and worn equipment to sustain our main business.’

Bonar says the first equipment consideration would potentially be a transmitter.

‘We have our frequencies now and if a timetable was announced we would attempt to secure antenna positions for transmission, that would be the first step,’ says Bonar.

But again, it’s an item which will be poked and prodded at the show but which won’t be going on the Global Gold Card in the near future.

‘We expect that by the time we’re getting into transmission or production or editing equipment, much will have changed with the manufacturers because it could be two years from now before we’re involved in serious purchasing,’ says Bonar.

Likewise, Allan Morris, vp engineering for ctv, says that network’s nab attendees will be looking at the range of dtv-related gear very closely. As format choices are made and the dtv market grows, there will be a potential impact on the pricing availability and sophistication of equipment, says Morris.

‘I’m looking to perhaps a broader range of that equipment so the buyer has more range and more opportunity.’

Cost considerations

While the u.s. dtv rollout will likely yield some technical lessons and cautionary tales, the most desperately sought element in all of this, a sound business model, does not seem readily apparent. Apparently, some of the early examples of dtv launches have failed to provide the stellar inspiration one might have hoped would fuel Canadian imaginations.

Both Morris and Bonar have visited u.s. dtv stations recently and both report that each station was broadcasting to ‘about three tv sets.’

With the vast majority of Canadian homes getting their signals from cable, the challenge of getting over-the-air broadcasters up on dtv is only the beginning.

Bonar points to the fact that initially broadcasters will be bearing the expense of erecting digital transmission for a tiny audience.

‘A very small portion of our audience would receive the signal over the air – they’re mostly cable (when the transmitter goes up it means viewers would initially need some kind of antenna to pick up the signal). There are still many hurdles to overcome – one of them is cable carriage,’ says Bonar. ‘And there is no concrete plan at this time to carry this digital signal over cable.’

Morris says a discussion of which formats will be adopted for dtv is secondary to the primary question: Is there a business case for it?

‘We’d have a huge capital cost for transmission facilities and then how do we deal with distribution for the home?’

Morris points to the potential benefits of multicasting, whereby the bandwidth that would be gobbled up by an hd signal is used for more than one sd or data services on dtv. He points to the added factor of the high cost of hd sets (somewhere between $5,000 and $9,000) and the potentially greater take-up rate of a simple digital-ready set.

‘Perhaps if it’s a dtv unit and it’s less expensive it might be adopted more widely,’ says Morris. ‘That doesn’t help us in terms of infrastructure costs, but if it’s adopted by a greater percentage of the population, then there’s potentially a greater business case for it.’

Gearing up for dtv is an expense that comes with no initial return whatever, adds Bonar. With the u.s. analog cut-off date of 2006 an unrealistic goal, and with Canada likely lagging two years behind, Bonar points to an overlap of several years where broadcasters will have to bear the cost of running an analog and a digital transmission facility.

Initially, the dtv system might consist of some kind of simulcast with an unconverted, improved signal, moving toward an eventual all-hd programming scenario.

‘As we run dual systems, that’s were the real expense comes in,’ says Bonar. ‘There will be hardware purchasing capital required, and then once we get into production, there will be an ongoing operating expense that is much higher in hd than it is in the standard tv world.’

But Bonar says if the transition is taking place, hd should be the ultimate goal. ‘My view is why try to sell the public on this improved picture and then say, `I’m not going to do that, I’ll divide it and give you four separate programs,’ says Bonar. ‘It’s very expensive to program one channel and have an audience; to have four channels multiplexed and have to pay for the programming and split the audience even further, it doesn’t make any economic sense to me. It’s either this advanced tv hd signal or stay where we are.’

With frequency allotment, CanWest Global will reside in the 60s on the dial, but a home for its new Toronto antenna is still an unknown (although a Vancouver antenna scenario has been worked out).

‘We’re currently on the CN Tower, but there is no more room there for us, so we have to go somewhere else and we don’t know where that is,’ says Bonar.

So, if you’re a broadcaster, what’s the upside to the new digital, high-def world? ‘From our point of view, I don’t know that there is an upside,’ says Morris.

Systems upgrades

Providing further nab distractions will be newsroom solutions and other facility upgrades. Both broadcasters will be scoping the disc-based news production systems including the offerings of the new Avid/Tektronix company Avstar.

‘We’re looking at changing our computerized newsroom to a system that deals with hooking our various stations together for a better exchange of news information and data,’ says Bonar.

ctv will also be looking at ‘new ways of dealing with news,’ says Morris. The network has standardized its news system across the country with Avid Newstar (now Avstar) and will continue to look at upgrades for that system.