Tuesday, April 7, 1998 | 10:04 a.m.
The trade show at the National Association of Broadcasters this week feels like Comdex all over again.
Many of the 1,300 NAB exhibitors also had booths at the city's two largest computer shows, Comdex and the Winter Consumer Electronics Show.
The reason: Many of the products offered in personal computers have applications in the world of television broadcast.
While "digital" seems to be the buzzword of this year's NAB convention again, "convergence" isn't far behind. Convergence is the catch-all word that says television is a part of the computer industry's domain and vice versa. The theme for the NAB show this year, in fact, is "the convergence marketplace."
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who kicked off a session on digital television in a keynote speech Sunday, alluded to the blurring lines between computers and broadcast when talking about the need for standards. McCain said there will come a day when viewers won't see much difference between content and quality from a computer screen or a television.
Another indication that the broadcast emphasis is shifting toward the bits-and-bytes universe is that the keynote speaker for the show on Monday wasn't even a member of the broadcast fraternity. The podium usually has been reserved for a network executive. This year, Steve Jobs, co-founder and interim chief executive officer for Apple Computer Inc., addressed broadcasters instead.
Jobs, who appeared in his trademark blue jeans and black shirt, worked with a team of Apple technicians to give a demonstration of QuickTime 3 at the opening of the convention. QuickTime is a software system that will make it easier for editors to process video and put it into a variety of formats.
Because digital images are being produced "in a zillion standards," including digital TV, digital video discs, audio CDs, camcorders and the Internet, Jobs said QuickTime will give producers the ability to create one file for multiple applications.
That's good news for broadcasters who have World Wide Web pages with video clips or for those with plans for digital TV.
Jobs, who also is chairman and chief executive officer of Pixar, a computer animation studio, said he was anxious to meet with broadcast executives about the potential of pushing the computer industry further into entertainment.
"The computer industry really knows little about entertainment and you do," said Jobs. "We have all this cool stuff that we want to show you."
The convergence of television and computers is visible in Las Vegas, where all four major networks have Web sites and where the dominant cable television system is rapidly upgrading to give customers greater access to entertainment options and the Internet.
As digital technology unfolds, local television stations will have even more options for providing information to viewers when they want it, not on a program schedule.
That also will be true on Prime Cable, which is in the midst of a three-year $85 million upgrade from a coaxial cable network to a fiber-optic transmission system.
The Greenspun family, owner of the Las Vegas SUN, is a partner in the Prime Cable operation in Las Vegas. Prime is talking to major national cable companies about investing in the Las Vegas system, which observers say may be worth more than $1 billion.
Harris Bass, vice president and general manager of Prime Cable, said the upgrade is about 35 percent complete. Coupled with new digital compression technology that will squeeze even more information through the wires, Bass said customers will have the benefit of increased capacity and better reliability.
On the entertainment front, that means programming on demand; on the computer side, it's a means to access the Internet at speeds 20 times faster than the standard 28.8 kilobits-per-second telephone modem.
For example, a 10-megabyte file that would take 46 minutes to download through a 28.8 kbps telephone modem would take just over 2 1/2 minutes on a standard residential cable modem.
"When it's completed, the system will allow the viewer to watch whatever he wants to watch whenever he wants," said Bass.
That's because digital archives will be established offering viewers the option of ordering programming. If you missed an episode of "Seinfeld" from two years ago, you'd be able to access and view it.
Prime's Internet access, called ExpressNet, will cost users about $40 a month.
In addition to providing viewers with new entertainment and Internet possibilities, Bass said the digital revolution will allow advertisers to pinpoint demographics with their messages. For example, Bass said American Express could hypothetically market to its green card customers with one ad in one location and to its gold card customers with a different ad in a different location at the same time.
The cable box accompanying the system is what Prime's John Fountain called "a sophisticated navigational guide" that will give viewers more channel options. When the next-generation box appears in late 1999, it will incorporate the Internet access component.
Bass emphasized the immediate concern of the company is installing the fiber-optic cable across the valley -- the "big pipe" going into the house. More information can flow faster through a big pipe than a small hose offered coaxial cable or copper phone wires.
Bass also said Prime isn't immediately concerning itself with e-commerce -- the computer-to-computer transfer of funds when purchasing goods and services. He said there's already plenty of e-commerce available and emerging on the Internet. Adding new fast access to the Internet is more critical for Prime at present, he said.
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