October 31, 2005 | Volume 2, Issue 20 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
News
Thank you to our sponsors of this issue: |
Introduction Editorial
Special Announcement Feature Article
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Introduction In the news this issue, one of the first stories is about two studies that found consumers are currently more concerned with good sound than good video in their home theaters. This is great news for home theater integrators. With flat-panel TV and projector prices falling fast, plus the fact most are pretty equal in quality, the audio factor is where you can profit from your consulting, design and installation services. OK, you knew that, but it’s great news that consumers agree that good sound is a priority. In our feature article by Chris Chinnock of Insight Media, Chris takes a look at aspect ratios – what’s being created and what’s possible to display. Finally, we have one spot for a sponsor of this newsletter. Our primary readership is the installation/integration community so this is a great opportunity for any manufacturer in the market. Enjoy the issue!
Click above for more information Editorial Local news is dying a slow (and obviously painful) death. Just take a look for yourself. And, seriously, think about it. During the hurricane mess in New Orleans and Mississippi, which channel did you watch? During the elections of 2004, to what station was your TV tuned? Where do you get your national news? Where do you get your local sports? Do you even know the call letters of your local NBC affiliate? Think about it. What do you even use local news for? I’ll tell you what I use it for – and according to TV tracking analysts I’m pretty average. In the morning I may turn it on to see the weather for the day. But, I certainly don’t at night. Know why? Well, have you noticed how much time the local news (you know the one I am talking about, the 6 p.m. newscast) takes to give you the weather? They actually spend, statistically, more time telling you what the weather WAS than what it WILL BE the next day – and the five-day forecast; forget about it – I can’t remember the last time it was right. Sports? Heck no, I have ESPN. Or, better yet, I have ESPN-dot-com. Quality: Well, no way to put this any nicer: local news just sucks. It’s biased while claiming not to be biased, it’s poorly presented, and it’s hype. They not only over-dramatize the actual broadcast with a bunch of wanna-be CNN and FOX News Channel anchors and silly traffic guys and pregnant weatherbabes, but they do the same to the promotions. I actually heard this being, literally, yelled last week: “Your kids could die during recess at school! Tune in to Thursday’s newscast and find out how.” Seriously. This was on a Monday afternoon. So, my kids could die hanging out at school and I have to wait until Thursday to find out how? Is this that sweeps-week thing? Legacy: Legacy is why local news is still around – and still the same as it was when we were kids. Because it’s always been that way. There’s simply no creativity out there on the local level. Sure, they can creatively plagiarize as well as anyone around, but to come up with a totally new format or way to present – forget about it. Remember when the Internet first started and pundits predicted the quick demise of the local newspaper? Well, they were wrong. I actually pay more attention to the newspaper for daily local news blurbs than to my local TV station. I’ve figured out how to read beyond the hype in a lot less time than 30 minutes. Who has 30 minutes for local news – not to mention one-third of that being spent on has-been weather? And, what the heck is the deal with the local news now attempting to deliver the national and world news, too. If I don’t like they way they present local news, trust me when I say that I ain’t gonna pay attention to their presentation of the world news.Just give me weather, a little sports and the stock ticker stuff in five minutes or less or I’m outta here. But not all is doom and gloom. There’s still hope. Take a look at what people ARE watching: FOX and CNN (and even more recently MSNBC). All three of them have evolved into what people want with news: clearly stated, clearly presented and entertaining. OK, the journalism school professors I had way back in college will hate to hear this and I am sure are fighting this trend with their anti-cable/entertaining news agenda, but they can fight this one all the way to retirement. But, no worry, Sean Hannity, Alan Colmes, Bill O’Reilly, Larry King and Tucker Carlson are all waiting in the wings to teach new journalism. What is new journalism? Well, I’m sure there’s no secret to the fact that, before retiring earlier this year, CBS’s Dan Rather was accused of presenting (or “slanting”) the news with an inherent bias – in fact, all of CBS was in the book by former CBS news correspondent Bernard Goldberg. The problem with this sort of presentation is that uneducated viewers don’t see beyond it – they believe much, if not all, of what they hear or see. With FOX and many of their correspondents, they label themselves: Hannity proudly wears the conservative badge, Colmes the liberal one, O’Reilly the Libertarian, etc. At CNN, King is clearly liberal and everyone recognizes it. At MSNBC you have Carlson who used be the Hannity of CNN’s conservative/liberal format on the show Crossfire. Traditional journalists may not like it, but they have to wake up and recognize it’s the way we (the public) want news presented – or at least the way we have demonstrated we want it presented based on how much we watch and how highly we rate it through Nielson and other tracking agencies. You see, the difference between what I am comparing – traditional news like the CBS Evening News with Dan Rather and the new-news formats like FOX’s or CNN’s presentation of the news — is that the latter are clearly stating their opinions and everyone knows that – not slanting the news in a way that the viewer has no clue is happening. And, yes, the local news does this too. The question is, do you notice it? And, do you even care? I don’t as no one listening to them anyway. I truly believe that all we watch local news for is weather and traffic – and maybe the occasional local sports scores from schools too small that even ESPN doesn’t cover them. The exception, of course, is when there is a major, local issue; say, an earthquake, a flood or even a house fire in our hometown. So, we do NEED the local news to survive – in some form or another. Take the Amber Alert system for example. When it works (and the local news stations want it to work), it works well. When it doesn’t, it’s sad. A colleague of mine, Denise Harrison, Editor-in-Chief of rAVe, recently relayed a story about a pre-Amber Alert failure while she was living in Los Angeles. She explained that one morning she was watching KABC (the LA area ABC affiliate station) and during a show’s commercial break, the local news talent exclaimed (and I quote), “local girl abducted; story during the 4 p.m. newscast”. She even said they did that four or five times that day. So, here’s a girl who’s just been abducted, they told their audience that fact but didn’t show a picture nor did they tell the area of LA the abduction took place (and, LA’s a big place). It turned out to be Samantha Runnion – remember her? Well, needless to say, she wasn’t found alive. Harrison actually called KABC and asked to be put through to the newsroom as she had a complaint. She was connected to a woman who after listening to Harrison’s complaint about no picture, no details on the prior day’s ”news tease,” actually responded with, “we didn’t?” So, what can they do to save themselves? Well, first of all, stop hiding the biases. They (the newscasters) freely share their opinions about the weather, the latest movie and even their favorite teams and schools. But, when it comes to reporting the news, the biases are there but in innuendos and backhanded comments that many watchers wouldn’t even notice. If they’re going to have biases (which, obviously they do) then modify the format to allow for them to be obvious and to equally cover both sides of an issue. This brings me to suggestion number two. Consider a news format more like what you see from FOX’s Hannity and Colmes. Hannity, the obvious conservative, and Colmes, the consummate liberal. They respect each other’s opinions, but they clearly state their opinions and where they differ. It’s entertaining (I know, journalism schools hate that word when referencing news, but GET OVER IT) and it’s enlightening to hear both sides of an issue. I find myself agreeing with each of them on different issues – I seldom find myself agreeing with one over the other most of the time. Point being, they not only tell me the news, I learn all sides of the issues so that I can make up my own mind about it. Third, editorialize. Columnists are some of the best-read writers in both the local and national press. People want to hear opinions so they can see if they agree or not. And, either way, they are engaged in the subject, be it a story or about an event. Local news does not engage us right now much at all. Here is what I don’t want: 1. Don’t hype local junk. Don’t break into the middle of “The King of Queens” and tell me that my kid could die on the schoolyard playground if I don’t watch your newscast. It’s not fair and had I known you were going to wait until the 29th minute of the 30-minute broadcast to tell me “how,” I would have never bothered to watch in the first place. For this, you lost my respect, my attention and my time in the future. You are now a running joke of a broadcast around the office. I recall another occasion when I was watching TV and on came an announcement at 10:30pm exclaiming, “plane crash kills 50, story at 11.” Of course, the crash story was revealed at, literally, 11:28pm and was actually in Zimbabwe. 2. Don’t spend nine minutes on weather. I don’t care what the weather WAS – I know what it was as I was living it, today. OK, if it was some sort of record, fine. But otherwise, just get to tomorrow’s weather. Sports: just cover the local stuff. I don’t care what the California (or is it the Los Angeles or Anaheim, I can’t remember) Angels score was. Here is what I do want: 1. Fill me in on what’s going on around me and give me your opinion of how it’s going to affect me. If they are redistricting the school system because they want to evenly disperse the poor-performing kids in each elementary school instead of having them all clustered at one school in the district, say it’s so. Don’t hide it by using terms like equity, diversity and equality. 2. Tell me what there is for me to do with the kids on the weekend, at night and what’s going on around the town. This is something we all want to know about and, instead (and ironically) it’s barely mentioned as a “community calendar” feature during a go-to-commercial 30-second spot that simply lists the town events for the week. COVER these events! I would much rather hear about this than a three-minute story about how the ride operator at the state fair might be fined $40,000 for not having all the rides open and operational by the time the state fair opened. Who cares? Tell me about the state fair instead. What’s going on at the history museum, the library, and the local bookstore events, which teams are in town and how do I get tickets and what shows and movies are worth seeing? Interestingly enough (or, ironically enough) the problems could be remedied at, of all places, journalism schools. They teach how to report the news but they don’t teach how to produce compelling programs. There’s no reason why a semester class and final projects couldn’t result in dozens of great ideas, ideas the students will carry with them into their newsroom careers. In fact, they might as well be part of the change since they’re the next generation who won’t be watching local news. CEDIA ANNOUNCES DATES FOR 2006 MANAGEMENT CONFERENCE AND ELECTRONIC LIFESTYLES® FORUM Mark your calendars now! The CEDIA Management Conference is scheduled for February 20-23 in San Francisco, CA. Also, for the first time, CEDIA is unveiling a brand new event, CEDIA Electronic Lifestyles® Forum, held immediately after the Management Conference, February 23-25 also in San Francisco. At these two events attends will be able to network with industry peers as well as industry partners in the residential homebuilding/design market including architects, builders, and interior designers. CEDIA Management Conference – Profit from Experience February 20-23, 2006 • Learn from your peers through sharing of ideas and successes • Renowned, motivating keynotes and cross-industry speakers • Small group forums covering all aspects of business
Electronic Lifestyles® Forum – How We Live February 23-25 Collaborated effort to share ideas and education among industry partners who are engaged in the residential homebuilding/design market: • Network with architects, builders, and interior designers • Learn how to work better with industry partners • Keynotes, round table and panel discussions Don't miss these two key events. Make plans now to attend the 2006 Management Conference and Electronic Lifestyles® Forum. For sponsorship opportunities please contact Tom Bewsey at tbewsey@cedia.org or by phone at 1.800.669.5329 ext: 176. Look for more information coming soon on CEDIA's Website at http://www.cedia.org News Have a news tip? Send them to rAVe Editor-in-Chief Denise Harrison — dharrison@kayye.com
Industry News
1. SureWest to Offer 260 TV Channels Via Broadband The monopolies enjoyed by cable companies are likely short-lived. Between telephone carriers, satellite providers and a variety of other communications types of companies, cable is finally getting competition. In plenty of cases, cable companies deliver awful service because they could get away with it without fearing competition. This is going to be an interesting market to watch, especially if other providers can beat high premium cable and satellite prices. SureWest, a California-based communications company, says the company plans to offer TV over IP, including HD. The beta testing began last week and the full launch is planned for November. SureWest says its fiber network currently provides speed of up to 10 megabits per second (Mbps) high-speed Internet service (both downloading and uploading), with the option to double that speed up to 20 Mbps. The company built an FTTP network throughout the Sacramento region, passing 80,000 potential subscribers. For more information, go to http://www.surw.com/media_relations/press/releases/ShowPR.php?Head_ID=164
2. No Surprise: New Report Declares Decline in Cinema Attendance In fact, it’s so bad that during the research for this report, only 14 percent of survey respondents agreed that going to the movies is still a good value for the price. According to the report, increasing prices isn’t the answer and the only foreseeable revenue increase will be from digital cinema advertising. For more information, go to http://www.researchandmarkets.com/index.asp
3. Two Different Studies Say Sound High Among Home Theater Priorities Two recent studies indicate consumers deem good sound quality among the most important parts of their home entertainment systems. In the DTS/Nielson study, surround sound was found to have an impact on DVD purchases and home theater systems purchases. For more information, go to http://www.dts.com/company/press/press-article.php?ID=1422266117&yID=2005&cID=3 In "Home Theater: Capturing the Digital Entertainment Center,” a report by NPD Group, more than half connected separate component speakers, 30 percent use Home Theater in a Box (HTIB) systems and 10 percent connected their TVs to stereo systems. Traditional audio is getting competition from MP3 players and satellite radio receivers and 10 percent of those surveyed plan to add one or the other to their home theater. Another finding is that more than 50 percent of respondents claim some physical limitation as a reason for not installing a home theater system, with 26 percent stating small room size was a factor, 23 percent stating aesthetic reasons such as exposed cables and wires, and nine percent stating they had no interest in reconstructing or remodeling in order to have a home theater. For more information on this study, go to http://www.npd.com/dynamic/releases/press_051018.html 4. 3D Ready for Prime Time One of the more aggressive developers of 3D technology, DDD Group, unveiled its new TriDef Vision+ 3D set top box. You need to have the 3D LCD TV from Arisawa to use it, but the box converts any content to 3D and users can select 3D from the remote, put on the 3D glasses, and watch any broadcast, DVD or VCR content in 3D (or watch 2D). In addition to this real-time conversion feature, the company says Vision+ also supports the playback of specially made 3D movies. That’s pretty cool when all those upcoming 3D films come out in DVD and that might well be the driving force for sales of this set top box. The Vision+ is compatible with DVD, video and broadcast standards used in the United States, Japan and Europe. (Vision+ also supports twin projectors for showing in large rooms or public venues, such as tradeshows or lecture halls.) Both Arisawa and DDD are now in presentations and discussions with other flat screen display manufacturers in hopes of licensing the combined solution for mass-market 3D TV. Pricing on the Vision+ has yet to be announced. For more information, go to http://www.ddd.com/about/Press%20Releases/pr_051018.html
5. New UPB Products From Web Mountain Web Mountain Technologies will show some new products at EHX, which begins November 9 in Anaheim, Calif. The new of Universal Powerline Bus (UPB) products include a new stand-alone UPB timer, a window covering control using UPB, and a multi-function UPB switch that combines load switching and a multi-button control pad in a single module. For more about Web Mountain, go to http://www.webmtn.com/index.php6. Same Day Shipping of Off-Air Antennas From Antennas Direct/Terrestrial Digital For more on SolidSignal.com, go to http://www.solidsignal.com/ For more information about HDTV antennas, go to http://www.solidsignal.com/manu/antennasdirect/ Players 7. New 20GB Media Player From ARCHOS The Gmini 402 measures 4.17" x 2.37" x 0.69" and weighs 5.64 ounces. It is priced at $299.95 in the U.S. and comes with earphones, USB cable, USB Host adaptor, AC power charger, and a pouch. Accessories include car adaptor, protective case, additional power charger, sound case, FM remote control and double headphone kit. It’s so new, it’s not on the website yet. For more information on ARCHOS products, go to http://www.archos.com/home.html
Media Distribution and Recording 8. Sony Introduces Living Room PC Sony made an impressive entry this month into the living room PC category with its Windows Media Center Edition-based VAIO XL1 Digital Living System. This system includes a multimedia PC and a 200-disc media changer/recorder. Users can basically store all their DVD and CD content on the changer. And when discs are inserted into the changer, the PC downloads (over wired or wireless network) available metadata on each one, including jewel case covers and artist information. For movies, an in-depth synopsis is also downloaded in addition to the star, director, producer details, etc. The info is sorted and accessed using the wireless keyboard or remote. Now, being able to store 200 discs is pretty good, especially one a one-rack unit. As Sony puts it, all those discs are usually relegated to the bookshelf. Well, you still need to do something with the cases, which I doubt consumers will toss out. At least, not at first. But with the metadata Sony promises (assuming it’s available for all movies and CDs), consumers might get used to tossing the case after all. Now, here’s where it gets even more interesting. Consumers can back up CDs on the hard drive and store them with album covers and track info, and of course, store downloaded music, photos, video – everything a PC allows. And it also lets users record TV to the hard drive and transfer them (probably just series, not movies) to blank DVDs stored in the changer. The system alerts as to how many discs are needed to burn a whole season of the show onto DVDs. Consumers can also browse the web. The Digital Living System is priced around $2,300 and will ship in November. For more information, go to http://products.sel.sony.com/xl1/index.html Click above for more information The HDTV Business Conference will be held on January 4, 2006, the day before CES 2006 begins, at the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas. This one-day executive-level event will cover the hottest topics in the HDTV industry. Topics to include: HD content, ipTV, mobile video, MSO competitiveness, digital rights management, HD DVD vs. Blu-ray, MD-TV, LCD-TV, PDP-TV, retailing and merchandizing, new channels of distribution and who is making money? Confirmed or likely speakers are from Qualcomm, Comcast, Microsoft, Intel, Toshiba, ESPN, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Samsung, Texas Instruments, Tweeter, Syntax-Brillian and SG Cowen. Who should attend? • Technologists and executives participating in related industries • Newcomers to the world of HDTV Why attend? • Hear from top industry executives about the strategic issues facing the Digital TV industry • Understand the key positions of industry leaders and where they are taking their companies • Build knowledge in all aspects of the HDTV industry • Gain insight to make strategic business decisions • Network Reception with the industry’s movers and shakers • Enhance your CES experience For program, conference registration, and sponsorship opportunities, please visit www.hdtv-bc.com. Or call Insight Media at (203) 831-8464. Feature Article One of the interesting discussions that began at CEDIA was the renewed attention being given to the CinemaScope format – a 2.35:1 picture aspect ratio where the width of the image is 2.35 times that of the height. This is a popular theater format and wider than the 16:9 aspect ratio (1.77) that is the HDTV standard. I began thinking about what this format would mean for a display system, and, as a result, “I Want My Scope TV!” Have you watched a DVD movie lately and noticed how many films display on your TV in the CinemaScope format? You can tell because even on a 16:9 aspect ratio TV, you will see black bands above and below the picture. Letterbox a movie formatted in 2.35:1 on your 1.77 screen, and you reduce the screen height. This picture is puny. In addition, it may even appear dimmer, especially on microdisplay projection systems, where fewer pixels of the imaging devices are illuminated. There are ways to fix this, but they are not too attractive. For example, in projection systems, electronics can stretch the image in the vertical direction to fill the screen. Alternatively, anamorphic lenses can optically expand the image from 2.35 to 1.77. But both methods can often create geometric distortion that is objectionable to most viewers, such as very tall and skinny people. Another method uses electronic vertical stretching to first fill the height of the imagers. This provides more pixels to render the image and, consequently, higher image brightness. Next, an anamorphic lens optically stretches the image out to the original 2.35 format. However, now you have layered both electronic and optical processing onto the original image. If you later want to show movies or HD video formatted to a 16:9 image, you have to move the anamorphic lens out of the way. This solution may be fine for high-end home theaters, but it is impractical for everyday solutions. Therefore, the best solution is to develop imagers, LCD panels or PDP panels with a native 2.35 aspect format. The choices for format are shown in the table below. The first option for a “Scope TV” fixes the horizontal pixels at 1920, which means there are 817 vertical lines. The second option fixes the vertical lines at 720, which means there are 1692 horizontal pixels. The third option fixes the vertical lines at 1080, thus requiring 2538 horizontal pixels. The currently available options today are shown in the forth and fifth columns, along with their respective aspect ratios. Why do I think this format might be good for TV? First, screen height would be maintained, regardless of movie or content width. This means 16:9 content would have small black bars on the left and right side of the screen, which I would prefer to top and bottom bars. Finally, when 2.35 content was available, it could be shown in full aspect with no scaling or optical processing. It would be like the curtains moving back at the theater as the main feature begins. Not only does the CinemaScope format fill more of your horizontal vision, it can create a more immersive feeling. You will see more of a scene. And for sports, it might be really awesome. So that is the dream, but the reality is much more difficult. First of all, there are a variety of film formats – not just 1.85, 1.9 and 2.35. There is also 2.40 and even 2.75. The classic Ben Hur film was shot in 2.75, for example. So which format do you choose? When I asked around about how many movies were available in the 2.35 format, I got a wide variety of answers. Some said very few films, and others said up to 30% of all movies and up to 50% of the blockbusters. I don’t know who is right on this one. Not all cinematographers and producers like the format either. But, in some sense, it doesn’t matter. If CinemaScope movies are to be made available on digital media, they need to be mastered in the native 2.35 format. A letterboxed CinemaScope image on a DVD has at most about 205 lines of picture detail. If you want a movie mastered in one of the above resolutions, it has to be done in a post-production house and then output to a storage medium. That brings up the next problem – you need HD DVD or Blu-ray discs to write the digital movie file to. There are conflicting stories as to whether the full-resolution CinemaScope is supported, but if there was demand pull, it certainly would be. In terms of broadcast for CinemaScope, the standard today is to letterbox the content to maintain the width of the image. But for native-resolution CinemaScope, movies would need to be delivered in ROM formats, or mastered a second time in 16:9 for broadcast. Finally, we have the issue of making the TV itself. Since we are talking about a new pixel structure, someone needs to make the investment to produce the microdisplays, LCDs or PDP panels to display in a native 2.35 aspect ratio. New electronics would be needed too. And would sales of this novel format justify the investment? Until more of the questions above can be answered, I think not. So, for now, my Scope TV is more a dream than a possibility. But hey, we all can dream, right? Excerpted from the October 2005 edition of Display Watch, providing executive level analysis and commentary on all aspects of the display industry, published monthly by Insight Media – http://www.insightmedia.info By Chris Chinnock, Sr. Analyst, Insight Media, 203-831-8404, chris@insightmedia.info | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Thanks for reading, and tell your friends by clicking on the “forward” button at the top of the newsletter or sending them to Copyright 2005 – Kayye Consulting – All rights reserved. For reprint policies, contact us at Kayye Consulting, Inc. Editorial: dharrison@kayye.com Gary Kayye's rAVe contains the opinions of the author only and does not necessarily reflect the opinions of other persons or companies or its sponsors. |