INTRODUCTION

A major socio-economic revolution is currently taking place that is firmly rooted in the creation, distribution, and use of information. Society is rapidly moving from a paradigm of physical management of information assets, such as libraries of books, to electronic management of information assets, including the World Wide Web. As computer and networking capabilities continue their pace of improvement, electronic information resources can become vastly more user-friendly and effective. Video offers one of the most compelling ways to present information. It is said that a picture is worth a thousand words.

The term Digital Video, as used in this paper, contemplates all of the existing applications of sequenced pictures (television, motion pictures, video, animations) and all extensions. This can include both natural and synthetic content and hybrid applications dependent upon interactivity with video content. Digital Video can readily support linking to a vast array of other information resources. Digital Video can be presented where and when desired to one person or to many. Digital Video can also be highly tailored to suit an audience of one.

Because digital video can offer such a compelling user experience it offers a greater knowledge transfer efficiency than other modes of delivery⁽¹⁾. This efficiency gain leads to enhanced productivity thus providing great opportunities for economic spillover benefits to the U.S. taxpayers. In addition, the U.S. is the major producer of entertainment content⁽²⁾ . Facilitating the entertainment industry's transition from analog to digital video technology will help preserve U.S. leadership.

Rudimentary digital video capabilities are only now beginning to appear. Tiny "live" video segments can be watched over the Internet. Direct Broadcast Satellites (DBS) transmit digital signals. Cable facilities are installing digital-capable infrastructure and there is a substantial growth in the availability of cable modem hookups⁽³⁾ . Video on Demand is an on-again off-again technology in search of an appropriate mix between technological capability and business models.

The end promise of this revolution is a dramatic simplification of the process of finding exactly the right information to nearly any question when and where needed. This information can then be presented in a compelling audio-visual experience tailored to the needs of the user. For example, accurate information on a particular marine ecosystem could be presented to a high school student, to a researcher or to a lobbyist. Each response could be custom assembled in response to each specific inquiry (and aware of the unique needs and preferences of the end-user) and exploiting different content, applying different presentation formats and supplying different linkages.

Vast archives of digital video will be available to the average consumer and the professional alike. Video will retain its vital entertainment role while greatly increasing its benefits to professionals. Whole new businesses are likely to develop that will focus on how to make the vast archives searchable, how to organize the fragments of information into coherent one-of-a-kind programs and how to add value to these resources through interactivity and other means. The rapid availability of these powerful capabilities will offer broad-based gains to U.S. industry through productivity and quality gains and offer widespread benefits in quality-of-life improvements to consumers. The U.S. economy will benefit not only from these widespread productivity gains but also by having U.S. businesses take a leadership role in the worldwide rollout of digital video products and services.

PROBLEM STATEMENT

The U.S. has a fully developed infrastructure for analog video. This infrastructure, however, cannot be extended in a cost-effective manner to serve the many new capabilities which are possible with digital video. For example, dynamic interactivity with analog video is extremely difficult whereas digital video is ideal for random and dynamic assembly of video content. Therefore, most significant advances in video technology will be digital.

Computers are the current devices of choice for interactive access to information. Through Compact Discs (CDs), the World Wide Web, and Digital Video Disks (DVDs), interactive content (with rudimentary video) is available to computer users. But computers are ultimately limited because they are unlikely to ever achieve the widespread market penetration of telephones or televisions. The telephone has long been recognized as a vital, "universal access," instrument for all Americans. Yet the market penetration of the telephone (93.9%⁽⁴⁾ ) lags that of the television (98%⁽⁵⁾ ). Therefore, the digital television is an optimal device⁽⁶⁾ for empowering the public with access to our information rich future.

Fully realizing the possibilities of information distribution through our emerging digital television infrastructure is a major challenge and opportunity. Even though television is generally thought of as a passive receive device, the new digital televisions will be capable of very low cost interactivity through the development of push technologies⁽⁷⁾. These interactive services will include information access, home shopping services, and public services (such as access to government information).

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has adopted a new Advanced Television⁽⁸⁾ broadcasting standard⁽⁹⁾ which embraces digital video. The FCC has also established a rapid adoption timetable for the new service, especially in the major markets⁽¹⁰⁾. Yet, the FCC standard and timetable were adopted without the commercial equipment necessary to actually roll out the service⁽¹¹⁾. In fact, many major technical challenges remain to be solved before digital broadcast television is a cost-effective alternative to analog NTSC⁽¹²⁾ broadcasting. If widespread adoption lags due to high cost and poor performance, the FCC could delay the final phase of digital television adoption. A rapid and full transition to digital television broadcasting is in the national interest as an enabling technology for universal access to interactive video services.

Technical solutions available today rely on expensive tape based methods (with little or no data compression) or on very expensive brute-force digital techniques. Technical ideas exist (such as compressed domain effects) which are both very risky and potentially significant contributors to cost and performance gains. With ATP support, industry can more aggressively attack these technical problems and more rapidly develop solutions to remaining cost and technical barriers. Since both broadcasters and equipment suppliers are just now becoming acutely aware of the technical shortfall in existing equipment capabilities, this is the ideal time for ATP support.

Digital video on the corporate user's desktop is today a novelty. While today it is commonplace for professionals to develop their own presentations with graphics, color and other effects to improve impact, video is seldom considered. If digital video was easy enough to produce, many opportunities for professional communications would be done with video. By extending the capabilities of desktop digital video, it can become a mainstream application of substantial value in day-to-day business.

Computers can also be extended to support advanced services, such as virtual telepresence and immersive simulations, drawing on a mix of video and rendered graphical images. These advanced services are likely to be significant businesses of the future. ATP can help assure that U.S. industry is a leading supplier of the technologies which make these services possible.

As multiple pathways are developed to distribute digital video, interoperability becomes a key concern. Isolated islands of access serve no one well, yet are one natural result of a proliferation of conflicting industry standards. Interoperable digital video across computing, communications and consumer electronics environments is highly desirable. Creating an interoperable digital video infrastructure is by no means a routine or inexpensive process. A variety of R&D and deployment considerations must be made at each step along the way. If effective interoperability gateways can be developed, competitive advantages can be preserved while advancing overall network interoperability.

To fully realize the potential of digital video, substantial infrastructure is required. Market forces are applying private capital to expedite a partial infrastructure rollout as seen by the continued growth of the World Wide Web and the rapid adoption timetable for Advanced Television. Market forces are not driving a digital video infrastructure suitable for powerful interactive video applications. Thus, needed infrastructure capabilities will not be built if interactive applications are not commercially interesting. By accelerating the availability interactive video applications which are economically significant, the rollout of video-enabled infrastructure will better provide for these interactive applications. Thus, ATP can help avoid an infrastructure lockout where the installed base cannot support needed services and cannot be upgraded due to the small marginal economic returns from the added services. Thus, ATP can facilitate substantial economic spillovers for the U.S.

TECHNICAL PROGRAM GOALS

This program is designed to accelerate industry's development of an information infrastructure to provide people the video they want, where they want it, and when they want it. The program is also designed to accelerate the use of this infrastructure for interactive end-user applications including those impractical using existing analog techniques. These requirements follow:

Requirement #1: Widespread access to digital video resources by consumers and non-video professionals alike.

Requirement #2: Simplifying the process of digital video authoring, production, post production, editing, management, handling and distribution.

Requirement #3: Interactive and multiple (n-way) participant video using simple information appliances over information network facilities that are as easy to use as telephones.

Requirement #4: Extending digital video's role in computer-based applications for enhanced impact, quality and efficiency.

Requirement #5: Extending digital video capabilities to serve both new applications and extend into areas which continue to be predominately analog.

The scope of the Digital Video program does not include core infrastructure needs not directly related to digital video requirements. For example, computer hardware improvements and broadband networking infrastructures are rapidly advancing independently of this program. Project proposals related to core infrastructure must clearly establish that the technical goals are critical to digital video and are unlikely to be accomplished independently in a timely manner.

Achieving these requirements requires focusing on the following four technical goals:

1. Raising the effective capacity and capability of the Video Information Infrastructure (Requirement #1, 2, 5)

Interactive video transmission and distribution demand huge information capacity, including two-way capability. Lack of sufficient information capacity can significantly restrict the number of consumers of video information services. Improvements in effective bandwidth can be accomplished by advances in data/video compression techniques.

Current generation video compression methods are unable to easily manage image manipulations and video effects. Techniques are needed which can dramatically lower the cost of manipulating digital video, primarily through operating in the compressed domain. Some capabilities which are easy to perform in analog systems are extremely difficult using digital systems (such as live picture in picture). Current techniques are unable to effectively handle the highest resolutions, as might be required for real-time distribution of feature films to movie theaters.

Next generation video compression must be developed to meet a wide range of quality and compression level requirements. Some applications such as video production, medical diagnosis, and scientific analysis may require high resolution with little or no quality loss. Other applications such as desktop telepresence conferencing or browsing a video library will allow lower quality. Significant advances in compression technology can offer wide ranging benefits to digital video applications.

2. Enable the design of interoperable system components and conversion equipment (Requirements #1 & 3)

Ideally, digital video can be sourced from a variety of locations, repackaged, stored, and carried by a variety of distribution networks to a variety of receiving appliances. These interconnected distribution systems should involve a loose coupling of sources with destinations so that a variety of sources can be connected to a variety of destinations via a variety of networks. When systems are not directly interoperable, coupling can sometimes be achieved with transcoders.

Brute force methods of achieving interoperability can be very costly, can lead to serious video quality degradation or can require slow off-line processing. These cost, quality and speed barriers reduce the ability of content providers to reach the widest audiences in a satisfactory manner. Technical innovations are needed to increase the transparency of conversion, substantially lower the cost of conversion and reduce processing requirements so that real time processing is practical.

There are approximately 250 million television receivers in the U.S. (98% household penetration⁽¹³⁾ and about 100 million personal computers (50% household penetration⁽¹⁴⁾. As the U.S. makes the transition to digital television, the functionality of televisions and personal computers is likely to become closer⁽¹⁵⁾. While televisions and computers are likely to maintain their separate market identification, computing on a television and viewing TV programs on computers is likely to become familiar. Increased interoperability between computers and televisions can increase the benefits to consumers who cannot afford both the latest model computer and latest model television. Technologies, such as advanced user interface methods, which can enhance the interoperability between these appliances are needed.

3. Advancing digital video creation and management tools (Requirements #2, 3, 4, 5)

To gain maximum usability of digital video, efficient and powerful authoring tools are needed. For professionals, an active market already exists in digital video tools. However, these tools are not highly integrated and are not well suited to the development of networked interactive applications. While the need for interactive applications tools is clearer, selected opportunities may exist for ATP to facilitate interoperability or integration of existing tool suites. More significantly, to reach beyond the professional editing booth, appropriate tools are needed for use by professionals in occupations unrelated to video.

Tools have to be developed for the construction and manipulation of the video databases; i.e., content organization, updating and editing, browsing, and retrieval. Measures must be developed for determining quality-of-service, and networks must be designed to guarantee levels of service quality. Tools, which deal with collateral issues necessary for the effective and widespread adoption of digital video (such as advanced program guides), are also needed.

The information infrastructure must provide for secure delivery of Digital Video (including high value motion pictures) to homes and offices. This can only happen if the intellectual property rights of content providers are respected by the inclusion of access control mechanisms for payment and audit, and security of storage, transmission and display at all levels. Content providers have made it clear that failure to provide these tools will significantly inhibit the development of information-providing services essential to the success of the network and its services. Technical innovations that can substantially aid intellectual property protection for networked video and interactive content are needed.

4. Extending Digital Video Capabilities (Requirements #3, 4, & 5)

Today when we think of digital video, we contemplate video programming delivered to the home, videoconferencing and other applications that have parallels in the analog world. Digitization of moving pictures will open up a new realm of possibilities for active participation with interactive video⁽¹⁶⁾. Video hyperlinks will probably be a key component supporting a whole new level of home shopping experiences and virtual video libraries. As we move forward, digital video will include a mix of real and synthetic content with various possibilities for interaction. Virtual telepresence⁽¹⁷⁾, for example, allows multiple people to "meet" in a virtual space and interact much as though the space was real. As real and synthetic content are merged real-time in an interactive experience, the reality of simulations can be greatly enhanced⁽¹⁸⁾. Multiple participants can collaborate in live video simulations. Furthermore, availability of important simulation technology can be extended to a much wider audience, even to the general public using consumer televisions. Virtual reality technologies relying upon realistic motion image quality are needed to facilitate these advances. Stereo viewing has long been a desirable idea that has never found an appropriately practical solution.

To maintain market leadership, technical barriers standing in the way of enhanced digital video capabilities need to be overcome. Many advanced applications have been demonstrated in corporate, university and military laboratories having substantial commercial potential if cost obstacles for commercial viability can be overcome.

BUSINESS GOALS

The goal of this program is to stimulate commerce in video and multimedia information services that can be delivered over an interoperable information infrastructure. This will be accomplished by industry's research to tackle video-specific technical barriers and to encourage interoperability between multiple equipment platforms. Presently, radio, television, cable television, satellite, telephone, and newspapers have separate distribution systems for image and video data tailored to the medium. In the digital era, information providers will provide "bit" information to "bit-way" distribution channels, enhancing access to all video-information sources and enabling all stakeholders to contribute to commerce in multimedia information.

The following specific business goals are targeted:

• Enable new classes of applications that increase commercial sector efficiency and employee productivity by incorporating video into computer-based applications.
• Accelerate the growth of multimedia information services by providing access to the broadest base of users using interoperable digital video capabilities across heterogeneous distributed information services, networks and appliances.
• Stimulate diversity of content by lowering market-entry costs for video and multimedia information service providers through creation of digital video authoring tools for the content creation and software industries.
• Enhance the efficiency of video production, editing and post production to allow faster creation of superior content at lower costs.
• Accelerate the emergence of commercially significant interactive video applications thereby facilitating the digital video infrastructure building process to adequately provide for interactive consumer applications.

PROGRAM DESCRIPTION AND PLAN

The Digital Video in Information Networks ATP program is concerned with developing key enabling and infrastructural technologies which may be able to offer the U.S. leadership in emerging digital video applications. The Digital Video ATP focused program held its first competition in 1995. The first DV competition is supporting key technologies for digital broadcast television and video technologies for use in office applications. With the progress already made, the future focus will shift from infrastructural issues to barriers precluding rapid deployment of interactive digital video applications.

The second competition will continue to be open to unsolved technical challenges identified in the first competition and will encourage new proposals addressing a new range of technical barriers affecting interactive applications. A third competition is anticipated in FY-99 or FY-00 which is expected to further move the focus away from infrastructure to enabling widespread economically-significant applications. The Technical Program Goals identified previously establish the scope of the competition. Of particular interest for this second competition are the following technical challenges:

Deploying Advanced Television

1. Digital effects in the compressed domain (fades, wipes, bugs, marquees, etc.) without going through decompression and recompression.

2. Remaining technical barriers (if any) to the widespread adoption of Advanced Television (ATV).

3. Key collateral technologies to digital video (not limited to ATV) such as automated closed captioning, innovations in program guides, intellectual property protection, incremental revenue collection and other important collateral technologies.

Interactive Digital Video

1. Advanced interactive video applications and effects including telepresence, personal avatars, virtual teleconferencing, etc.

2. Compression technologies particularly those related to MPEG-4 hybrid synthesis (including VRML as applied to hybrid composition).

3. Tools and key technologies to enable datacasting technologies (interactive push technologies particularly to consumer televisions).

4. Tools and key technologies to enable interactive networked video applications for customer support, training, and other information services.

5. Interactive video applications for public networks, particularly for consumers, which can demonstrate inexpensive on-demand dynamically-controllable access to video-enabled consumer information.

Extending Digital Video

1. Super High Definition (up to 7,000 lines of resolution) including production, post-production, secure electronic distribution to theaters, etc.

2. Content based archive searching and indexing.

3. Asset management technology for large video repositories.

4. Other technologies which can significantly enable widespread digital video applications.

U.S. ECONOMIC BENEFIT ⁽¹⁹⁾

There are a number of important pathways to U.S. economic benefit from this program. While in the absence of ATP support, Digital Video technologies would probably be developed somewhere eventually⁽²⁰⁾, the U.S. economy would lose substantial benefits. Without ATP, there is likely to be a substantial delay in availability, a significant shortfall in the required infrastructure and a significant increase in non-U.S. based technology solutions. With ATP support, these conditions can be mitigated thereby yielding substantial economic benefits for the United States. The Digital Video ATP program is designed to address what economists call a market failure.

"Market failure" is a term which describes the theoretical reasons for an underinvestment of private capital relative to the potential national benefit possible with a larger investment. Market failure means that the economy at large would benefit from a larger investment than the private sector would be willing to make alone. The private sector seeks to profit from innovation. "Spillovers" is the economics term for conditions where third parties derive benefits (which they do not pay for) from another's investment. Thus, the full reward of certain kinds of innovation extend far beyond the innovating firm. ATP sharing of part of the underlying research costs with industry to develop the required infrastructure will generate benefits not only for the industry, but for the consumer and the taxpayers.

There are three types of spillovers germane to the Digital Video program. "Market spillovers" are expected since there is likely to be an efficiency gain to the end-users of the new technologies. "Knowledge spillovers" will happen when other firms get cheap access to lessons learned in both technology and successful market models. Finally, "Network spillovers" represent the synergy which can develop by having multiple companies work on common problems and having related pieces of the infrastructure developed in a coordinated way and according to a condensed time schedule.

Digital video market spillovers are expected to be substantial. Of greatest long term significance are the personal efficiency gains a well developed video infrastructure can offer. Since both home based efficiency applications are contemplated as well as office-based efficiency applications, the potentially affected user base is the great bulk of the American public. Since television currently enjoys a 98% market penetration⁽²¹⁾, it is likely that Digital Video will ultimately be available to the vast majority of U.S. households.

The gains in information transfer efficiency stem from several sources. Video alone is often superior at information transfer than alternatives. This is true even if the difficulty of accessing the video resources is equally as difficult as accessing the alternative. However, digital video has the potential of being far easier to access. In many cases today, the inefficiency of information acquisition is so large that people elect to make decisions with highly imperfect information. If information efficiency is improved through Digital Video, the economy will benefit by higher quality (more informed) decisions. The U.S. economy will benefit from the more efficient transfer of information and from the greater likelihood of taking advantage of newly accessible information. Since these efficiency gains will not be possible until the technologies are available, there is a significant incentive to accelerate Digital Video technology development.

"Knowledge spillovers" also reduce private incentives to aggressively implement Digital Video technologies. This can be seen since important elements of each innovator=s technical solution and business models will be unprotectable (or released in papers). Knowledge dissemination will provide major no cost lessons learned to other companies, particularly later market entrants.

Currently the dominant suppliers of production and broadcast facility equipment are offshore. As the worldwide industry moves from analog to digital, the U.S. has an opportunity to reclaim a significant role in these markets. Since the new digital television standard will be adopted internationally, equipment suppliers will be selling to an international marketplace. If the U.S. can take an early leadership position, many of the knowledge spillover effects will tend to stay with U.S. businesses and boost U.S. advantage in the worldwide Digital Video market.

There are multiple ways that network spillovers will further enhance the national benefits from ATP support. The U.S. is the major supplier of entertainment content. Advanced entertainment content for digital television will likely exploit capabilities of the new television infrastructure which have no counterpart in other worldwide broadcast standards. To gain full advantage of U.S. entertainment content, U.S. compliant broadcast solutions will be needed. As foreign countries choose to adopt the U.S. standard, there will be a synergistic gain between the U.S. content producers and the U.S. infrastructure providers.

Aggressive pursuit of interactive applications now will provide hard information to infrastructure builders regarding system requirements. The original build-out of cable television infrastructure was not designed for digital use or interactive applications. Since digital conversion is motivating infrastructure upgrades, the window of opportunity is now. By accelerating the pace of Digital Video technology development, infrastructure providers will have a clearer view of application requirements and this will lead to superior infrastructure. The superior infrastructure will then further incentivize private sector application developers. ATP support now can help maximize network synergy.

INDUSTRY COMMITMENT

Digital video technology cuts across many industries, including content providers, information service providers, network service providers, suppliers of information appliances, and users of information. Several industry driven workshops have been convened to discuss the convergence of these industries.

NIST, the Electronics Industries Association, IEEE, the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers, the Advanced Television Systems Committee and the Cross-Industry Working Team sponsored a workshop on May 10-11, 1994 entitled "Advanced Digital Video in the National Information Infrastructure." Attendees included 187 representatives from 106 companies, 14 government organizations and 8 universities. Twelve papers were presented and four breakout group reports were developed to focus on the architectural, scaling, and performance issues regarding digital video within the information infrastructure.

Following this workshop, an ATP workshop was conducted on August 30-31, 1994 titled "Networking, Telecommunications, and Information Technology." The participants identified the need for a long-term program involving both industry and government to facilitate development of interface standards, address intellectual property rights, support R&D in interoperable systems, and establish pilot programs to apply advanced video technology. The ATP focused program resulting from this workshop, Digital Video in Information Networks, will fill a critical gap in the R&D part of this agenda.

This ATP focused program is based on original white papers submitted by private industry and based upon other extensive industry contact. Over 40 program ideas directly related to this program were received, in addition to other program ideas which assumed that the video problem would be solved and proposed new systems and applications. The first competition resulted in 38 proposals of which six were funded. While the first competition focused more heavily on infrastructure issues involving larger companies, many small firms applied for funding with video application ideas even more relevant now.

To test for continued industry interest, a public workshop was held on April 5, 1997. This workshop was hosted by the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) and co-sponsored by the IEEE Broadcast Technology Society. While an audience of up to 300 was planned the meeting room was standing room only. There are indications that well over 500 persons attended all or part of this workshop. There is clearly a very substantial industry interest in this digital video technology program. Industry interest has also been shown through presentations made at professional society meetings (including SMPTE) and direct industry interactions. The current revision of this white paper includes suggestions and ideas from many of these industry representatives. It is intended to reflect a composite industry viewpoint including both technical and business opportunities while also reflecting ATP's mission of supporting U.S. economic growth.

WHY ATP?

Industry recognizes that there is a brief window of opportunity to claim leadership in the development of an advanced digital video infrastructure. Without ATP support, it is expected that the necessary technological developments would be substantially slowed, and traditional non-U.S. sources of broadcast technology equipment would be able to secure continued leadership with the new digital standards. ATP support, which encourages consortia, can significantly facilitate the emergence of multi-vendor interoperable solutions which the broadcast market is demanding but not often finding. Thus, the ATP can play a significant role in ensuring that the U.S. has timely access to broadcast digital video infrastructure.

The United States also can also claim economic benefits by leading the way in the development and implementation of advanced interactive network-based digital video applications. While private sector initiatives may promptly bring forth the technical capabilities needed for entertainment applications, other powerful applications without a traditional supplier base will be slow to emerge. These applications will likely make electronic information and knowledge assets the preferred choice over traditional physical assets. Rapid adoption of these technologies and a commercial infrastructure to support these applications, which will be facilitated with ATP support, will yield large economic benefits to the nation.

WHY NOW?

The adoption of advanced digital video has been spurred by the FCC decisions to rapidly implement broadcast digital television and the computer industry's apparent commitment to make next generation personal computers television-enabled. Within five years this is expected to place in the hands of tens of millions of consumers very significant digital video hardware. The competition facilitated by the Telecommunications Act of 1996 is further accelerating the process of adopting digital video. Clearly the U.S. faces a tumultuous period as the installed base of analog equipment gives way to the new digital facilities and as totally new digital video applications vie for the "killer app" label.

The first competition in the Digital Video program has made significant contributions in innovating key infrastructures. Yet the transition is just beginning and many significant capabilities remain to be developed.

Digital video is an international opportunity. Many countries are planning to or are considering the adoption of the new U.S. ATSC digital television standard. By moving aggressively to ensure the that ATSC standard can indeed meet user need and provide compelling advantages over alternative standards, the U.S. stands a better chance of achieving the widest international adoption possible. ATP funding now can not only ensure that the required infrastructures are in place for the adoption of digital video but can also greatly accelerate the widespread deployment of economically significant interactive digital video applications. The convergence of broadcast infrastructure with interactive applications can be highly synergistic if the solutions are available quickly enough to meet this worldwide window of opportunity. Without significant ATP support, the U.S. will see a diminished worldwide adoption of our digital video broadcasting standard, a delay in economically significant interactive digital video applications and continued market dominance by non-U.S. vendors.

For information contact:

David Hermreck, Program Manager
Email: david.hermreck@nist.gov
Telephone: (301) 975-4328
Facsimile: (301) 975-4776



Dr. Omid Omidvar, Technical Program Manager
E-mail: omid.omidvar@nist.gov
Telephone: (301) 975-4401
Facsimile: (301) 926-9524

ENDNOTES

1. See "Theory and Technology: Design Consideration for Hypermedia/Discovery Learning Environments" by Judy Bartasis (At http://129.7.160.115/inst5931/Discovery_Learning.html on 8/5/97) - This paper addresses the benefits of hypermedia as a discovery learning mechanism and points out both problems and opportunities. Video merely enriches the "environment that engages the learner."

2. U.S. Industrial Outlook 1994, U.S. Department of Commerce, p. 31-2 for films, p. 31-3 for music..

3. "Gilder Technology Report" Vol. II, No. 7, Chart 6 - From February 1997 to June 1997 service availability doubled from 2 million household availability to 4 million household availability.

4. Preliminary 1996 Statistics of Communications Common Carriers, Table 1.7 - Telephone Development by State; Data is for March 1997 and is compiled by the U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, per agreement with the Federal Communications Commission. Available from the FCC.

5. U.S. Industrial Outlook 1994, U.S. Department of Commerce, p. 36-15.

6. "Transcending Access Toward a New Universal Service," Jorge Reina Schement, Rebecca R. Pressman, Laurance Povich; presented at the conference on "Universal Service in Context: A Multidisciplinary Perspective" held at New York Law School, December 6, 1995. The paper points out that a significant number (40-50%) of people without telephone service had cable TV service.

7. Push technologies over television infrastructure was discussed by Dr. Robert Thibadeau of ONTV - Pittsburgh at the Digital Video Workshop ("Digital Video on the (Near) Horizon,") NAB '97 April 5, 1997 in Las Vegas.

8. As the evolving standard for High Definition Television (HDTV) took on non-HDTV formats, the term Advanced Television was adopted as an overarching term. The term Advanced Television distinguishes from the various digital technologies currently in limited application with analog broadcasting.

9. On April 3, 1997 the FCC adopted its "Fifth Report and Order" and "concluded its proceedings on digital televlsion." (Report MM 97-8 dated April 3, 1997)

10. "The Commission requires the affiliates of the top four networks in the top 10 markets to be on the air with a digital signal by May 1, 1999. Affiliates of the top four networks in markets 11 - 30 must be on the air by November 1, 1999. The top ten markets include 30% of television households.", (FCC MM 97-8 dated April 3, 1997.)

11. A search for commercially ready digital television solutions on the trade show floor at the April 1997 National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) convention turned up a few non-U.S. components, virtually no U.S. solutions which were ready and no cost-effective system solutions. This was after the FCC announced the service rollout timetable.

12. The National Television Standards Committee (NTSC) defined black & white television standards in 1941 and color television in 1954. See Advanced Television Systems - Brave New TV by Joan M. Van Tassel, Focal Press, 1996, page 3.

13. U.S. Industrial Outlook 1994, U.S. Department of Commerce, p. 36-15.

14. Chart 12, "Gilder Technology Report", July 1997

15. In April of 1997 at the NAB convention in Las Vegas, a Microsoft, Intel and Compaq team claimed that 40 million digital TV-enabled PC's would be sold by the year 2000. The usual television suppliers anticipated sales of less than 2 million in the same time frame.

16. The convergence of the PC and the TV is explored in "The End of TV as we Know It" by Frank Rose, Fortune, December 23, 1996

17. Immersive Telepresence is a somewhat more expansive notion which was the subject of a special issue of "IEEE Multimedia," Jan-Mar. 1997.

18. See "Interactive Multimedia: Separating the Hope from the Hype" from Index Vanguard, 1995 - See discussion at (http://www.csc.com/csc_vanguard/u_mm2.html) as of 8/5/97

19. Since ATP is commissioning an economic study to determine the economic impact of this program, this paper does not include dollar estimates. George Gilder, the noted futurist specializing in these fields, asserted "At stake is some $2 trillion of potential value to the U.S. economy." See "From Wires to Waves," George Gilder in Forbes ASAP, June 5, 1995.

20. There are very substantial international efforts underway. For example, see "Beyond the Telephone, the Television and the PC" (http://www.oftel.gov.uk/superhwy/multi.htm) from the British Office of Telecommunicatoins.

21. The Consumer Electronics Research Center of the Electronic Industries Association (EIA) reports that for 1993, 1994, 1996 and 1997 direct view color televisions have enjoyed a 98% household penetration.

Date created: November 1997
Last updated: April 22, 2003