The speaker works in the field, managing installation of broadcast television studios. The following is my paraphrase of the speaker unless otherwise noted.

Why is this delayed? No project management. Fighting between agencies, no one in charge, etc.

Q: Whose project is this? A: Nobodies. Nobody is in charge of it. Stakeholders: NAB, the public, FCC, NTIA, consumer electronics companies, broadcast equipment companies, system integrators, cable companies, satellite providers.

Why was it delayed? The NAB went to the incoming Obama administration warning that some people weren't ready for the transition, in total about 1% of all Americans.

The history of analog TV. Some tech terms. Ampex developed the first commercial video tape recorder. ATSC is the name of the technical standard for digital TV in the US and the committee that came up with the standard. It used to be called the Grand Alliance, although that term is out of use. Europe has a different standard. DTV is not the same as high definition. ASTC is a set of different standards, some of which are hi-def and some of which are not. Up to five standard-def streams fit in one former analog channel. The major US networks have chosen different ways to divide up their channels; only two are actually using the full resolution, 1920 by 1080.

HD dates back to before 1980. Broadcasters wanted to switch to HD to gain a competitive advantage over VCRs and other new competition. "Now they're getting their wish but it's almost too late, right? ... Broadcasters are almost playing catchup at this point."

1600 local stations already broadcast in DTV in parallel with their analog. Total spending for equipment, government coupons, etc, is roughly five billion dollars. The government plans to auction freed up spectrum for 20 billion dollars (after apportioning some of it to fire departments and other emergency responders). The current transation plan, such as it is, dates back to 1996. There was a previous deadline in 2003 that passed without consequence.

The use of television as an emergency communication system. On 9/11, many internet sites were not updated in a timely fashion, and only TV had fresh data. That's changed somewhat since 2001.

HD is a wider aspect ratio than SD, and there was discussion of selling the bars on the side as advertising. When I was doing the KCAL transition, Neilsen didn't have high-definition boxes.

Q: What about the adoption of HD/digital in less developed countries? A: The prices for HD are dropping because of investment here. At the same time, all of the existing SD equipment in the US is obsolete and will be sold cheaply.

Q: What would you do as president in 2001 to make this run better? A: Appoint a project manager ... this was run by politicians and their interests ... do traditional project management, get the stakeholders, get a plan .... Q: So you are saying we can use this as an example of what happens without project management? A: yes, it's a trainwreck.

This presentation was a bit disappointing. I've been following the DTV switch for years, through my own reading and, of course, from Harry Shearer's ongoing "Digital Wonderland" updates on Le Show. I though this event might feature some insights, stories from the trenches, etc, but it was relatively shallow.