The FCC gave XM new approval for 3 plug & play receiver models after finding them compliant with Commission power- emission rules, XM said Fri. XM said it’s telling makers of the Audiovox Xpress, Delphi RoadyXT and XM Sportscaster to resume production. The 3, among XM’s “primary” receivers in the retail aftermarket, are expected to be available for the holiday selling season, XM said. Not mentioned by XM was the status of 5 other models under FCC probe -- the Delphi SKYFi2, MyFi, Airwave, Tao and Roady 2 (CED Aug 14 p7). XM “is in the process of determining which of those radios it will submit for FCC approval,” a spokesman told us. OEMs may need weeks to get units through the supply chain, Bank of America research analyst Jonathan Jacoby said Fri. in a report. XM likely will need to air-freight stock to assure stores have holiday inventory, he said. So there’s a risk Q4 subscriber acquisition costs will exceed projections, Jacoby said. XM conceded in its last quarterly earnings call it would take “a bit over a month” to begin filling the pipeline with compliant product once an FCC probe ended (CED July 28 p4). They said expedited-shipping costs would be a necessity in getting radios to stores for Q4. Jacoby speculated XM’s newly compliant radios -- which drop wireless FM transmitters in favor of a wired fix -- could prove less popular with consumers because they'll need costlier professional installation.
Paul Gluckman
Paul Gluckman, Executive Senior Editor, is a 30-year Warren Communications News veteran having joined the company in May 1989 to launch its Audio Week publication. In his long career, Paul has chronicled the rise and fall of physical entertainment media like the CD, DVD and Blu-ray and the advent of ATSC 3.0 broadcast technology from its rudimentary standardization roots to its anticipated 2020 commercial launch.
Polk Audio co-founders George Klopfer and Matthew Polk each will get $83,000 annually under employment agreements they'll sign after Directed Electronics completes its Polk acquisition in late Sept., Directed said in an 8-K report filed at the SEC. Klopfer and Polk have agreed to provide “advisory services” to Polk’s new owner, Directed CEO Jim Minarik told analysts in a conference call.
Comcast is willing to make 2 concessions in its CableCARD waiver request at the FCC on low-cost, limited- capability digital cable set-tops if it will promote faster Commission action on the request, Comcast CEO Brian Roberts wrote FCC Chmn. Martin in a letter Mon.
Comcast is willing to make 2 concessions in its CableCARD waiver request at the FCC on low-cost, limited- capability digital cable set-tops if it will promote faster Commission action on the request, Comcast CEO Brian Roberts wrote FCC Chmn. Martin in a letter Mon.
There was “nothing unreasonable” in the FCC’s March 2005 decision letting stand the integration ban on digital cable set-tops, the U.S. Appeals Court, D.C., said Fri., denying a cable industry challenge.
The FCC Thurs. rejected a petition by a supplier of video systems for hospitals, dialysis centers and nursing homes to exempt its products from the March 2007 DTV tuner mandate on sets 13” and smaller (CED Jan 31 p4). But the Commission gave the company an extra year to comply. PDI Communications Systems of Springboro, O., doesn’t make or sell TVs for “general” consumer use, but is “in the niche industry” of supplying video entertainment systems for health facilities “that require specialized systems meeting demanding safety requirements,” it told the FCC in its petition. Requiring PDI to include DTV tuners in its systems “would not advance the policy goals that the Commission set forth” in its DTV tuner order, PDI said. PDI monitors aren’t consumer products and thus can’t spur consumer demand, it said. But the FCC said it found no “merit” in that argument. Yes, PDI viewing units differ from most TV receivers with screens smaller than 13” “in that they are designed to receive service from a separate antenna connected through a cable rather than an attached antenna,” the FCC said. But that doesn’t “alter the fact that the PDI units would not be able to receive off-the-air TV signals when analog TV service ends unless they include a DTV tuner,” the FCC said: “If the PDI viewing units are not able to receive digital TV service after the transition ends, those patients who view off-the- air TV signals on them, as well as the health care providers who own and operate the systems, will lose the benefits of that service. In this regard, we recognize that when analog TV service ends those PDI systems that are configured with analog only viewing units will not be able to offer off-the- air TV service. Applying the DTV tuner requirement to new viewing units will include the PDI systems in the transition process and minimize the number of viewing units that will need to be replaced when analog service ends.” LG, which has supplied video monitors to PDI, opposed the petition and was alone in filing comments for or against.
CEA reacted Wed. with predictable anger to NCTA’s bid to add 2-plus years -- to Dec. 31, 2009 -- to the CableCARD deadline for deploying cable’s downloadable conditional access system (DCAS). CE makers, though “not surprised” by NCTA’s waiver request, “are still deeply troubled” by it, CEA said.
BEVERLY HILLS -- Full 1080p “is just the beginning” of what’s possible in HDTV reception, Sony Electronics Pres. Stan Glasgow told the DisplaySearch HDTV Conference in a keynote here Wed. But for the new generations to arrive, the industry first must relieve consumer confusion over HDTV set purchases to reduce a spate of product returns, Glasgow said.
“Everything came together” when all 64 World Cup matches were telecast live in HD on ESPN HD, ESPN2 HD and ABC, said Bryan Burns, ESPN senior vp-strategic business planning & development, at the DisplaySearch HDTV conference. The World Cup “had it all,” combining the “power” of the ESPN brand and a “visually pleasing experience” for viewers, Burns said. The telecasts overcame “a thousand” details invisible to consumers, including the conversion of World Cup HD programming from native European broadcast standards to 720p in the U.S., he said. The number of HD “events” on ESPN HD and ESPN2 HD will jump to 762 this year from 474 in 2005, he said. ESPN will concentrate short-term on “internal” infrastructure growth, he said. For example, ESPN is building a 2nd HD production facility to join its original Bristol, Conn., center, Burns said. The new facility will be next to the Staples Center in L.A. ESPN may use it as a base for some late-night SportsCenter shows to respond to critics who complain SportsCenter has an “East Coast bias” because many in the Bristol work force are Red Sox or Yankees fans, Burns said with tongue in cheek. ESPN also may use the L.A. facility as a disaster recovery center because that makes “prudent” business sense, he said. As for programming, ESPN would like to do more newsgathering in HD, Burns said.
Because the “industry itself was unable” to unify Blu- ray and HD DVD, “it’s possible that the marketplace will essentially force format unification by demanding dual-format players,” Jim Taylor, senior vp-gen. mgr. of Sonic Solutions’ Advanced Technology Group, told a panel discussion Tues. “A number of companies” are working on dual-format laser optics and other components and devices, “so maybe we won’t have to wait for a winner” in the format war, Taylor said. Even if dual-format players cost 10% more, “that’s pretty cheap insurance to make sure you've got a player that can play both formats. So I think that’s certainly a potential outcome. It means that players will be more complicated and a bit more complicated, but at least we'd have a unified playback environment.” The industry is likelier to move to dual- format players than for Blu-ray or HD DVD to die in a shootout at the O.K. Corral, Mark Knox, adviser to the Toshiba HD DVD Promotion Div., said. Two Blu-ray panelists - - Sony Vp Mktg. Jeff Goldstein and Panasonic Hollywood Lab Managing Dir. Eisuke Tsuyuzaki -- voiced confidence Blu-ray would win in a short-lived format battle. Earlier in the session, Knox deployed a new rhetorical weapon in HD DVD’s campaign against Blu-ray’s 0.1-mm cover layer. Past HD DVD presentations have said the cover layer would be difficult and expensive to produce in today’s DVD replication plants. But at DisplaySearch, Knox argued that the 0.1 layer would be “a lot less robust” than HD DVD’s 0.6 -- “unless you take some special action” to fight the “CD rot” phenomenon. CD rot occurs when air penetrates the 0.1-mm label side of the CD and oxidizes metal inside, Knox said. He said Blu-ray’s prescription is to “buy some expensive Armor-All to kind of treat that surface” -- an apparent reference to Blu-ray’s hard coat. Tsuyuzaki didn’t directly answer Knox’s CD rot comments. But Blu-ray’s hard coat makes the discs impervious to fingerprints and other blemishes, even if “you throw spaghetti at it,” Tsuyuzaki said.