A year and a half ago, the National Association of Television Program Executives (NATPE) teamed with members of the broadcast, production and equipment manufacturing communities to form a group that would help to accelerate HD program development and TV set penetration into homes.
Now 300 members strong, NATPE’s HDTV Consortium has implemented a number of initiatives to help achieve its mission statement, which is "to speed the transition to HDTV by developing and acquiring HDTV broadcast materialanetwork feeds, local programming, funding of HD productions for special live events, syndicated shows and advertising content."
According to Beth Braen, NATPE senior VP, creative services, the idea for the consortium came about just prior to the ’99 NATPE general meeting. At that time, program managers from several local stations approached NATPE, saying that they were starting to make the transition to HD, but there weren’t many choices in terms of programming. They wanted to know whether other broadcasters were having a similar problem and, if so, what could be done.
Out of that initial interest, explains Braen, came an HDTV seminar at NATPE ’99 chaired by Doug Parker, station manager at WBNS-TV, Columbus, Ohio, and Susan Dahlin, marketing manager at WRAL-TV, Raleigh, N.C. The session drew some 125 people. "What came out of that meeting was the realization that there were enough people dealing with the same challenges that it would be worthwhile developing a consortium that could work together to bring these challenges to the forefront and come up with shared solutions," says Braen.
NATPE offered to act as a facilitator to the consortium as it dealt with the key issues that the trade association representedacontent and programming. Braen identifies several prime factors as slowing the deployment of HDTV, including the standards debate, and the fact that the cost of the transition is prohibitive for some stations.
A virtual headquarters for the consortium has been established on the NATPE Web site (www.natpe. org). The site contains news and information, and linkage to the NATPE HDTV E-list where consortium members can post questions to the 300 members on anything related to HD.
In July ’99, the consortium hosted a one-day event in Los Angeles with panel discussions tackling various HD issues. The consortium made further progress at NATPE 2000, held January 24-27 in New Orleans, where there was a HD pavilion with a number of exhibitors, and informational sessions. This resulted in the decision to form a steering committee to further examine the priorities and direction of the consortium.
The 10-person steering committee includes representatives from such sectors as the networks, PBS, small-market stations, the production community, the distribution arena and equipment manufacturing. Steering committee members are: Dahlin; Parker; Jerry Butler, senior director, Television Strategic Services Group, PBS, Alexandria, Va.; Randall Dark, president/CEO, HD Vision, Irving, Texas; Preston Davis, president, broadcasting operations and engineering, ABC-TV, New York; Conrad Denke, president, American Production Services, North Hollywood and Seattle; Bob Miller, general manager, WKOW-TV, Madison, Wis.; George NeJame, director of operations & production, Tribune Entertainment, Hollywood; Alec Shapiro, VP, public relations and advertising, Sony Electronics, Parkridge, N.J.; and Deborah Stewart, director of programming operations, Discovery Digital Networks, Bethesda, Md.
The steering committee first convened in a casual session at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) convention in Las Vegas this past April. "We talked about holding some additional panel discussions in the early fall where consortium members would have a chance to meet in a more formal way. There are some companies that are at the very beginning of making the transition to HD and there are some that are much further along, so finding resources, materials and information that are useful across the board is one of the challenges," explains Braen.
Steering committee members were then invited to attend a brainstorming session on June 14 at American Production Services’ North Hollywood complex. "It was agreed [at the meeting] that consumers and programmers must experience the quality of HD production and projection in order for the format to attain maximum impact," says Braen. It was also decided that at the 2001 NATPE Conference and Exhibition, to be held January 22-25 in Las Vegas, there will be a "HD Village," where demo areas featuring the best in HD technology will be made available for producers to showcase their HD programming. Panel session participants will include HDTV professionals, thus providing an information clearinghouse for attendees.
