3D TV Adoption By Public, Education and Government Programmers Seen Unlikely

3D is “cool technology” and offers promise for local TV programmers down the road, but it’s not ready for prime-time for cost-conscious Public, Education and Government (PEG) operators, said Matt DeHaven, principal engineer for Columbia Telecommunications, during a technology briefing Monday sponsored by the National Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors. Instead, PEG operators should focus on Internet TV as the cutting-edge technology for the near future, DeHaven said in the webcast.

"The real format of the future” for PEG operators is online multimedia content, whether SD, HD, 3D, or social media, DeHaven said. PEG operators have to think more about interactive media “as a way to reach folks out there” and less about the type of video format they're using to reach people, DeHaven said. Quality is important because cable companies will show “an increasing desire” to carry PEG channels in an HD format, he said. “They're not going to want to have anything on their system that doesn’t look good,” he said. HD will offer PEG operators better resolution for computer-generated text and graphics used in government and education programming, DeHaven said, as HD becomes “the baseline for the public."

DeHaven cited industry data forecasting that 50 percent of TVs will be Web-enabled by 2015. Most support content services such as Netflix, YouTube and Roku, other user-generated options are well-suited to PEG operators, he said. Free developer kits enable “anyone to develop an HD channel for free,” and cost-efficient Web streaming and on-demand client platforms are available, too, he said. He also cited “YouTube clones” that allow operators to make local versions of “YouTube-like forums” tailored to a community’s interests.

"3D is starting to feel pretty inevitable,” DeHaven said, though “a year ago I might not have felt the same way.” But 3D is “still immature” as it relates to the markets and scale of operation of most PEG operators and requires “significant investment” in technology, skill sets and staffing, he said.

While HD standards are entrenched, DeHaven said standards for 3D are “very uncertain.” A lot of work is being done to bring consistency to tech approaches but “there’s a lot that needs to be addressed,” he said. He said bandwidth requirements for 3D can be double that of HD for a stereoscopic image, at the same compression. He also cited the need for glasses in 3D viewing and the variation in types required to display the image -- with no clear winning technology to date. “What we do to minimize the complexity on the transmission side requires quite a bit more sophistication and complexity on the viewers’ side.” Another issue with 3D -- unlike digital TV which was simulcast with analog signals prior to the analog shut-off -- is that consumers can’t watch a 3D program in 2D, without special glasses.

The bottom line “is there’s no clear technology choice for new TV purchases,” which will slow adoption, DeHaven said. As standards develop and hardware is built to those standards, adoption of 3D will increase “fairly quickly,” he said. “We're many years away before we have widespread adoption on the level that reaches the kinds of markets at the penetration level we want for the functions PEG serves in the community,” he said.

On the programming side, only certain types of content are appropriate for 3D, DeHaven said. “I'm not sure it would necessarily add a lot” to have 3D images of a government council meeting, he said. “It could be a neat gimmick, if nothing else.” Text-based and computer graphics-driven information isn’t geared toward 3D, he said. “It’s a technology that’s not going to offer a lot for the type of content you're providing,” he said. In the long run, though, he said, “I think there’s going to be quite a bit of adoption” and PEG operators should monitor the progress of 3D.

That includes the standards that need to be implemented including an agnostic mastering technology that’s compatible with all glasses and displays, 3D support for subtitles and closed-captioning, and support for 3D on-screen menus -- along with backward compatibility with 2D content. “We're seeing some good work in standardization building on existing HD signal formats both in the studio with HD-SDI and in the home with HDMI 1.4,” he said. For PEG operators, 3D is going to be “too costly to be practical,” due to the “substantial” upgrade in equipment, staffing and skill set required, including special 3D image processors and cameras. He suggested PEG operators who are buying new equipment should keep a mind open to upgradeable equipment including image processors and camera rigs that could be transitioned to 3D in the future.