The DTV/HDTV future will continue to be debated and shaped when the industry converges on Las Vegas for the ’99 National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) convention, April 17 to 22.
John Marino, VP, science and technology at the NAB, predicted that attendees would be seriously looking to make purchases this year. "This will be an implementation year," he commented. "Stations need to get on the air. People creating content need to get moving. The manufacturers are gearing up to provide a lot of hardware and will show a lot of new products that are ready for sale."
For the production/postproduction community, many of the major manufacturers will be touting the benefits of technology supporting 24P-the worldwide standard for film
(see separate story p. 1). This will likely trigger much discussion of subjects, including electronic cinematography and postproduction standards. What is real and what is vaporware will, of course, determine the impact of these announcements. And if the technology is indeed real, when can manufacturers get it into the hands of users?
With DTV’s implications extending their reach, some commercial makers on the agency and production company sides of the business will be joining the post community at NAB to analyze the future of the industry. Other indicators of commercial interest include The Advertising Council, which will be on hand, to make broadcasters more aware of the availability of a number of PSA campaigns already completed in HD. (See SHOOT "DTV and Advertising" supplement).
"It’s important for production companies to be looking toward the future, especially where broadcasting is going," said Kirk Hokanson, executive producer of Minneapolis-based Voodoo Arts. Hokanson is also AICP/Minneapolis chapter president and an AICP national board member.
Hokanson-who will be attending his second NAB-added, "I think there’s too much complacency in our industry. We need to be trendsetters and decide what we need to know, particularly in light of HDTV.
"The biggest problem we are facing is that clients need to be more cost effective; [meanwhile] we are on the brink of DTV. …What does that mean to our clients?"
These are key issues that Buzz Warren, senior VP/deputy director of commercial production at Grey Advertising, New York, is also trekking to Vegas to explore. Notably, Warren is one of many who predict there will be a period in the not too distant future during which agencies will have to complete spots in standard and HD formats-and in 4:3 and 16:9 aspect ratios. He wants to explore options. "Clearly there’s a cost implication," Warren said. "There has to be a reasonable approach."
"I think too many production companies are waiting to see what will happen with HD. I want [Voodoo] to be a company that promotes it, pushes it and has a solution," Hokanson asserted. One specific item on his agenda is to examine DVD as a format for directors’ reels, as well as for its compatibility with coming DTV technologies.
Electronic Cinematography
Another development-which has built a sizable pre-NAB buzz-is electronic cinematography. With advancing technology, it seems that growing numbers are beginning to consider this medium a viable acquisition option to film for various applications. This premise is supported by some high profile examples, including Lucasfilm’s announced plans to shoot Star Wars Episode II in HD video.
"Economics must drive this," said Dean Winkler, president of New York-based Post Perfect and COO of New York Media Group. "It’s got the economics behind it."(See SHOOT "DTV and Advertising" Supplement.) His enthusiasm is driven by emerging 24P technology. Previously, Winkler explained, the limited frame rate "made extremely problematic as a quality issue." 24P changes that, he said.
"1080/24P is the Holy Grail of electronic cinema," he commented. "This is the missing link that we’ve been waiting for to make digital image acquisition a viable option."
Mike Cunningham, president of San Francisco-based Western Images, also believes digital acquisition "will become more real." So he will be following this trail at NAB to see what it means for post. "If digital acquisition at the high end is going to be in demand, and there is an argument that it will be, we want to be able to interface and understand how that works. It [impacts our] decisions for digital technologies and solutions."
He noted that with electronic acquisition, the film to tape step would be eliminated and "color correction would be handled in the 2-D and 3-D environment. … It also begs the question: What is the distribution format? [It] may be different from the production format."
Formats
These questions are likely to be debated during NAB. While still unresolved, there is a camp in the spot community whose choice option for a HD postproduction mastering standard for film-originated work is 1080/24P. Proponents of this option point out that it is the highest resolution offered in the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) standards table (known as ‘Table 3’), thus paralleling what D1 represents in the analog world. Their rationale is master in 1080/24P and then convert to whatever format is required for a given project. Of course, technology to support this option is not available. At NAB this year, some major manufacturers promise to unveil 1080/24P-supported products. Then more questions will follow, including: What is real product?; When will the technology ship?; and will there be an infrastructure for these tools?
"In one short year [the industry is introducing] progressive [scan] at 1080-what everyone thought was three to five years down the road," pointed out David Perry, executive VP/director of broadcast production at Saatchi & Saatchi, New York, who is heading for his second NAB. "[Last year] it was talked about as something we’d like to migrate toward. All of a sudden it’s there. That’s an important change. We reached the zenith of HD this quickly."
The standards issue dates back to December ’96 when Table 3 was introduced. This left the marketplace to determine which standards would be adopted. With little to no available HD equipment, the networks supporting different DTV formats, and the need for post houses to continue to service the 601 world, this has resulted in an uncertain future for a post industry with no standards in a multiformat world.
Although the industry’s future is still uncertain, Winkler believes this pre-NAB climate indicates that HDTV will prevail in the digital future. "This year, people are still going to be debating HD," he said. "Will the world go multistream standard def or hi-def? Next year, everyone is going to say ‘of course its HD.’ This is the last year that debate is going to be appearing."
