Sometimes Death is a Good Thing
The death of analog TV, now a foregone conclusion in the U.S., is going to make millions of TV viewers very happy, but very frustrated.
Despite the headlines that surround IPTV, Google video, and all these cool shows you can now download to your video iPOD over the Internet, many people don’t realize that digital TV is here now, for free – over the air.
People have largely overlooked that this “free to air” digital broadcasting could be a big time, big deal market (even though only 15 to 20 percent of consumers today get TV signals terrestrially). So does this mark a return to rabbit ear antennas for TVs? Maybe, maybe not. Here’s some context:
The government (Congress and the FCC) has mandated that by February 17, 2009, analog TV broadcasts end and that all TVs come equipped with a digital ATSC (Advanced Television Systems Committee) tuners. They have also freed (for billions of potential profit...some say north of $10B) the 700 MHz analog band which should make broadband networks cheaper and easier to deploy (cuz the lower frequency radio waves propagate farther and go through obstacles better).
Meanwhile TV stations (right now) around the country are transmitting digital TV (DTV) and HDTV. AntennaWeb will even tell you where the actual towers are located and give you a list of all the digital broadcast channels in your area. And TitanTV can tell you what HD programs are available in your area.
That’s great, but receiving these digital signals and moving them around your home is still a big pain in the rumpus (that was another choice we had for our company name – more on that soon). Directional antennas that self-tune (like we have but ours are used for Wi-Fi today) are perfect for this and basically automate the process.
Another problem is that these digital signals aren’t wrapped in IP. IP encapsulation makes it easier to move stuff around the home because the digital information now has addressing. So two things are clear:
- there will need to be special antennas or antenna technology that automatically tunes to find the best signal so the digital TV signal looks as good delivered as sent and
- there will need to be some sort of IP encapsulation (read Sling-like) device that makes it easier for consumers to move this stuff around their homes.
Once that happens….who needs cable? J
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