Electronic Media

Published: 04-18-94





WHAT I LEARNED AT NAB ABOUT THE BIG BOYS        



Byline: By Joe Fedele 



 About this time last year, I had just returned from the 1993

National Association of Broadcasters convention.

 The phrase ``information superhighway'' was just starting to

catch on with many of us back then.

 Advances in computer-based hardware and new video compression

software showed the promise of revolutionizing the broadcast

industry in short order.

  Equipment manufacturers dangled visions of disk-based cameras

and video servers in front of our eyes like holding a carrot in

front of a tired old mule.

 So I was all fired up with high hopes for this year's NAB

convention. I had dreams of eliminating all my videotape stock

and expectations of a hard disk heaven.

 But then reality struck. As I walked the aisle at this year's

convention, I felt a little frustrated.

 What I found was that none of the usual big-name videotape

machine manufacturers had floor displays showcasing this leap in

technology.

 In fact, only one company, BTS Broadcast Television Systems,

had anything like this, and BTS had it hidden away in a suite on

the second floor of the convention center where only a select

few could gawk at it. 

  It seems that the big boys were still ``developing'' the

technology. And, I was told, ``It just hasn't been perfected

yet.''

  Now don't get me wrong, disk-based file servers were on

display all over the convention center. You could find at least

a dozen companies with just that.

 But none of them were also in the business of selling

videotape. Nor was their primary business built around videotape

machines.

 Surprisingly enough, some of the best equipment I saw was at

booths where you might not expect to find such things.

 Companies such as Accom, Avid, Dynatech, Immix and Tektronix,

just to name a few, all had real products that were ready to

ship.

 What this all gets down to is that the major companies such as

Ampex, JVC, Panasonic, and Sony are not quite ready to lose all

the research and development money they invested in videotape

machine technology.

 And Sony is certainly not out to lose the lucrative videotape

market to some computer hard disk manufacturer.

 Now, in all fairness, Sony has been developing its own

compression algorithm called SPEG.

  Sony's contention is that it will not build a disk-based

system until the compression software is good enough to support

the quality standards we expect.

  Now back to BTS. Let's give credit where credit is due.

 BTS was the only major videotape machine manufacturer that had

a working hard disk-based file server at this year's NAB.

 The introduction of this new system puts BTS way ahead of its

rivals in the videotape machine business.

 I was pleasantly surprised to see that they had the foresight

and the nerve to make this announcement.

 But while they stand to come up short financially on videotape

equipment, my guess is that their taking the lead in disk-based

systems has put them on the high road of the information

superhighway.

 And with all the nontraditional video server manufacturers now

entered into the marketplace, a warning bell should be ringing

at the headquarters of the major manufacturers.

 As the famous baseball hall of fame pitcher Satchel Paige once

said, ``Don't look back, someone may be gaining on you.''