Public Power - May 2008 - (Page 40)

COMMUNITY BROADBAND Digital Conversion: Cable TV’s Next Act By Cathy Swirbul February 2009, analog television broadcasts will go the way of the rotary telephone. The Federal Communications Commission has mandated that all TV stations broadcast in digital only in order to free up wireless spectrum for emergency communications and next-generation wireless broadband services. Digital channels require much less bandwidth than analog. Typically, cable providers can carry 10 to 12 standard definition or two to three high-definition digital channels for every one analog channel using 6 MHz of system capacity. But does the full-scale transition to all digital put the industry in an uproar? Not really, according to the municipal cable operators interviewed for this article. It just changes some of the rules and brings up new issues. “The whole transition issue is foggy because of the recent FCC ruling that you can continue in theory to have an analog system until 2012, said Sal LoBianco, director of generation and telecommunications for Muscatine Power & Water in Iowa. “At one time cable operators felt that the FCC, based on its rulings, seemed to have a bent toward wanting all cable systems to be completely digital by February 2009. Now they have backed off from that. Broadcasters will quit broadcasting in analog after February 2009, but operators can convert the broadcasters’ digital signals through February 2012. But who knows what 40 MAY 2008 By will happen after 2012.” Municipal cable operators say the majority of their customers still have analog TVs as their primary set. Customers of Braintree Electric Light Department in Massachusetts are an exception. “Most of our customers who have analog only are elderly people who don’t want to deal with new technology,” said JoAnn Stak Bregnard, the utility’s marketing and programming director. “Our bigger problem is that nearly all our customers have a second TV in a back bedroom or office that is analog.” To ease the transition, municipal utilities are beginning to educate customers on options to continue receiving programming once broadcasts become digital only. They are advising residents with TV sets that rely on “over-the-air” broadcasting with set-top or rooftop antenna to: • Purchase digital-to-analog converter boxes for affected TV sets. The federal government is helping consumers cover the cost by offering two $40 coupons per household toward the purchase of the boxes. Details are available at www.dtv.gov; • Replace their analog TV with a new TV with a built-in digital turner; or • Switch to cable, satellite or another pay service. In Washington state, Tacoma Power’s Click! Network began educating its customers by offering a workshop called Cable 101: Preparing for Digital TV. “We had more than 300 people show up and had no idea there would be that much interest,” said Diane Lachel, government and community relations manager. “So we videotaped a second workshop and make it available to our customers through free video on demand. When customers call with questions, we answer them but also direct them to the free VOD. We are also offering internal workshops to educate employees of Tacoma Power and Tacoma Water.” Some municipal utilities also plan to offer digital simulcast to make the transition gradual. “We carry 70 analog channels and we will continue to provide those in both analog and digital for a period of time,” said Betty Zeman, marketing manager at Cedar Falls Utilities in Iowa “We are fortunate in that our system is fairly new so we have enough bandwidth to offer the simulcast. It is not an option for providers with lower bandwidth systems. The day will come when we will pull the plug on analog. When the majority of our customers have digital equipment, then it will be an easy decision.” Tacoma Power’s Click! Network already simulcasts all its channels in both digital and analog. “This takes a lot of bandwidth,” Lachel said. “Network real estate is very valuable. We don’t need to upgrade our system bandwidth, which is 760 MHz, but we need to use it more efficiently. So, we are starting to move some channels from analog and digital, to digital only. This will encourage customers with analog only to switch to a digital receiver if they want to receive those channels.” Muscatine will encourage its customers to go digital once it starts offering a digital simulcast. “We don’t have enough bandwidth on our system to substantially increase our current high-definition and video-on-demand content without going all digital and reclaiming some of the bandwidth,” said LoBianco. “But converting to all digital is costly because it requires new head-end equipment. We have been trying to decide when is the best time to spend the money to go all digital. With the FCC’s extension of dates, we are not up against a tight deadline just because broadcasters will cease providing analog. The more pressing concern is that many providers are nearly out of bandwidth and more people are going to start wanting additional high-definition content.” To recover the necessary bandwidth to provide a digital simulcast, Muscatine will remove the analog premium channels, such as HBO, Cinemax and Showtime. Then subscribers will be required to use digital set-top boxes on every analog TV for which they would like to view the premium service. Braintree Electric Light Department does not have the bandwidth to offer a simulcast, but has budgeted to upgrade its head-end equipment in 2008. That will add new channels using rate shaping and digital compression technology. Standard digital channels can be compressed up to 12 individual channels in one six Mhz channel slot. New rate shaping technology will also compress three high definition channels in the same six-Mhz bandwidth. The utility is still PUBLIC POWER http://www.dtv.gov

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Public Power - May 2008

Public Power - May 2008 Contents Perspective LEEDing the Way Ontario Moves to Mandatory Time-of-Use Pricing Journey to the Smart Grid Right-Sizing Transformers Energy Audits for Large Industries Economic Development Community Broadband Reliability Hometown Connections Parting Shot

Public Power - May 2008

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.