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FCC Soon to Unveil
DTV Consumer Education
Plan Sought By Markey
Warren's
Consumer Electronics Daily By Anne Veigle June 12, 2007
An FCC plan for a
consumer education campaign on the DTV transition is expected to
be made public soon, Hill committee sources said. House Telecom
Subcommittee Chmn. Markey (D- Mass.) set a June 11 deadline for
delivery of a comprehensive plan for managing the DTV
transition, including a "clear chain of command, concrete
and measurable goals and mechanisms for oversight and
accountability," a letter to the Commission said.
The FCC is working
on the plan and Congress wants to give the agency some space to
fine-tune it, a committee spokeswoman said Mon. But the plan
should be unveiled soon, perhaps today (Tues.). Meanwhile,
NTIA's DTV converter box coupon program is "on track,"
with a contractor to be named in mid-Aug., NTIA consumer
education program mgr. Francine Jefferson told a Capitol Hill
panel on DTV transition consumer issues. The box program is
NTIA's top priority, Jefferson said.
NTIA already is
working closely with the FCC on consumer education, an effort to
expand after a vendor is picked, an NTIA spokesman said. Many
lawmakers have complained that the $1.5 billion Congress
appropriate won't ensure every American is informed fully about
the transition and that all those who need them get boxes for
analog TVs. Even the FCC sought $1.5 million more for education
in its 2008 budget request.
But Jefferson said
NTIA is leveraging existing resources to reach out to groups it
hopes will convey the message. AARP is a prime conduit for
reaching seniors, whom Jefferson fears will be hardest to reach
because many don't use computers, the Internet or e-mail.
Non-profit senior groups and churches are other avenues through
which NTIA hopes to deliver DTV consumer information to the
elderly.
Congress should
consider giving the consumer program more money, said Frank
Lopez, pres.-U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. The Hispanic
chamber is teaming up with 200 local chambers to ballyhoo the
transition, Lopez said. Hispanic families are at high from the
cost of adapting analog TVs, he said. Volunteer efforts may
work, but participants may "push back" when they tally
the cost of mailings and other outreach.
NAB's public
service announcement (PSA) effort will run like an election
campaign, said Jonathan Collegio, vp-digital transition. NAB
will produce PSAs in several languages; its coalition includes
about 119 groups, he said. Broadcasters have a website and a
speaker's bureau with consumer materials, Collegio said:
"Our campaign will run in multiple of tens of millions of
dollars."
Audio technology
company THAT Corp. demanded Congressional hearings on what it
calls a flaw in converter boxes the govt. is ordering. THAT
Pres. Leslie Tyler said NTIA failed to take the company's advice
and mandate that the boxes pass BTSC stereo audio through their
RF outputs. NTIA left that decision to manufacturers.
THAT succeeded dbx
Inc. and as such, administers BTSC patents and licenses. THAT
commented actively in NTIA's rulemaking, urging that
coupon-eligible converter boxes (CECBs) have to pass BTSC stereo
audio through their RF outputs. Most CECB buyers will connect
them to a TV through the RF outputs, it said. It's essential
that stereo audio information be present not only at the
baseband composite video and left and right audio jacks, but
also at the RF output, THAT argued: "The RF output will
contain stereo (left/right) information if, and only if, the
output contains BTSC stereo information."
NTIA refused,
telling CE makers in its final rules that BTSC via the RF output
would be permitted in CECBs, but not required.
"Manufacturers may provide output for the main channel
audio service and associated audio services on the RF Type F
connector by using either of the following 2 methods," the
rules said. "NTIA will permit manufacturers to follow
current industry practice regarding RF outputs for audio/video
equipment which provides a mono RF output which is switchable
between a station's main channel audio and other associated
audio services. In this instance, consumers could use a button
on the converter box remote control to select the RF output for
a station's monaural main channel audio or toggle through a
station's visually impaired or other associated audio
services."
NTIA will let
makers provide BTSC stereo audio in the RF output, the rules
said. The BTSC stereo audio signal and included SAP carrier will
provide stereo main channel or visually impaired or other
associated audio service to the television receiver as the
viewer selects, they said. Users will have the option of
receiving stereo audio through the converter box's left/right
audio outputs (RCA connectors).
Its bid for a
mandatory CECB RF-output feature rebuffed, THAT has argued at
its website and in company literature that without "dbx-TV
BTSC" encoders inside, "those converter boxes will
deliver only mono audio to legacy TV sets." THAT
"offers the winning combination of technology and
intellectual property rights in its dbx-TV BTSC encoder
licenses," it said.
LG, one of 3 CE
makers committed to supplying CECBs, has built a prototype CECB
that doesn't pass BTSC through the RF output, Vp John Taylor
said. Thomson couldn't be reached for comment. Samsung isn't
ready yet to announce the features of its CECB, John Godfrey,
vp-govt. & public affairs, told us.
THAT has had 2
"distinct" licensing programs for BTSC -- the original
analog and the digital, it said. The original program was based
on dbx engineers' fundamental 1980s-era inventions, most
significantly in U.S. patent 4,539,526. The program ended in
Jan. 2004, when the last fundamental analog patent expired
worldwide, it said. A digital licensing program began in the mid
1990s with development of the first DSP-based implementations of
BTSC, it said: "This pioneering work led to several
patents, which were licensed separately from the original
portfolio of dbx patents. As the name implies, the digital
program covers digital implementations only."
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