Part 1:The clock is ticking right now, counting down to the day when television as you know it, ceases to exist, forever. That day is quickly approaching... February 17, 2009. That's the deadline, mandated by congress, for television stations across the nation to shut down their analog transmitters, permanently. From that point on, we will broadcast a digital signal only. and if you are not prepared, you will be left in the dark. Over the next three days, I'll give you a look at the digital switch, what it means, why it's happening, and what you need to do to be prepared.
It's hard to imagine a world without television. Yet when television stations began going on-line in the late 1940's, it was predicted to become a passing fad. But once television started arriving in households by the millions, the picture quickly became clear.
TV was here to stay. It's become an ever-present part of our lives.
"It's certainly been a big part of mine. Since entering the business in 1981, i've seen a lot of changes. Film has vanished and satellite dishes have appeared. But through all these years, from the beginning of television to today, the basic technology that puts a picture on your screen hasn't changed much at all."
Since the beginning of television, the image you see on the screen is sprayed on, line by line, by an electron gun. 525 lines per frame, 30 frames per second.
"There's definitely been improvements in cameras, there's been improvements in TV's. There's been improvements all along the way. But the basic fundamental process of the broadcast has not significantly changed until recently."
That is until the digital age brought us flat panel, LCD and plasma high definition televisions with 720, even 1080 lines of resolution.
"It's the biggest thing to happen to television since color TV."
It's John Stall's job to oversee the switch from analog to digital for KHSL and KNVN.
"The benefits of digital are, first it's a great picture. It's a motion picture quality, excellent sound."
"It's definitely a sharper, more brilliant picture, and they have extra channels."
That's right, extra channels. Digital broadcasting allows for multiple streams of video within the same signal. We broadcast the CW channel 10, for example, on a subcarrier of KHSL channel 12's digital signal. One transmitter, one signal, two channels.
"It's a wonderful thing. We just have to grab this technology and run with it because the opportunity's there."
Remarkabley, multicasting, as it's called, and all that impressive video quality occupies less airspace than analog broadcasts, valuable airspace. And that's why, in 2002 the federal government began forcing television stations across the country to provide digital signals, in addition to the traditional analog. It's in preparation for February 17th, 2009. that's when broadcasters are required to shut down those old analog transmitters... Forever.
