[opendtv] Who is Al Boliska?
- From: Craig Birkmaier <craig@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: OpenDTV Mail List <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 5 Sep 2006 11:22:46 -0400
I once wrote a commentary for Television Broadcast magazine (4/93)
discussing the hypnotic effect of sitting in a darkened room
illuminated by a candle, and a single - but relatively expensive -
light bulb, otherwise known as a TV.
In that commentary I asked: "Who is Al Boliska?" His words echo
through my consciousness: "Do you realize if it weren't for Edison
we'd be watching TV by candlelight?"
Thirteen years later, the desire of television broadcasters to hold
onto a bunch of technical overhead, needed to display pictures on
fancy light bulbs, seems rather ironic. The venerable CRT had to get
of the way to bring HDTV to life as a commercial product. Now it
looks like the venerable incandescent light bulb is facing a similar
fate, as LEDs are replacing the tungsten filaments and glass bulbs
that put so many candle makers out of work...
The following article about a new Royal Philips Electronics LED
manufacturing facility contains many gems, as did that 1993
commentary about the mess that became ATSC DTV...
Both follow.
Regards
Craig
========================================
Technology
Philips Plans LED Plant In Singapore
Robyn Meredith, 09.04.06, 11:00 AM ET
Singapore -
Royal Philips Electronics announced today that it will open a LED
factory in Singapore, hiring 1,000 workers, in an attempt to keep up
with lightning-fast growth in that new, high-tech segment of the
lighting business. Philips will sink about $80 million into the LED
production facility, sources close to Philips said.
The investment "further strengthens Philips' leadership position in
the global lighting market by investing in the high-growth and
huge-potential LED market," said Philips Chief Executive Gerard
Kleisterlee, as he announced the move in Singapore. "This will be a
world-class, high-luminence, high-power LED production facility that
will serve our customer needs in the areas of city beautification,
LCD displays, automotive backlighting, as well as various other
professional applications."
LEDs, or light-emitting diodes, are essentially semiconductor chips
that emit light when they come in contact with electricity. Materials
at the base of the chip determine the color of the light. Several of
the chip-based lights could fit on the face of a watch. Compared with
traditional lights, LEDs are more energy efficient, less fragile and
have far longer lifespans; they last about a decade.
LEDs are most commonly used as backlighting for cellphone screens
and keyboards, but are increasingly finding other uses. They are used
to light up car dashboards and taillights, are made into flashlights
and traffic signals. Boeing (nyse: BA - news - people ) plans to
use LEDs in the interior of its 787 Dreamliner. Vast numbers of LEDs
can be assembled into scoreboards and giant billboards and programmed
to give sports scores or to show advertisements.
The modern LED market is relatively new--scientists only discovered
how to create the full color spectrum on LEDs in 1993. It is growing
fast: the high-brightness LED market was $3.7 billion worldwide in
2004, Kleisterlee said, and is growing at 25% a year. The industry is
expected to have sales this year between $4-$5 billion, and to grow
to $10 billion by the end of 2010. The total lighting industry today
is around $26 billion a year.
Philips made a big bet on the LED business last year, when it spent
$950 million to buy out Agilent Technologies (nyse: A - news -
people )' share of Lumileds Lighting Int. B.V. In the fiscal year
ending July 2005, Lumileds sales jumped 28% to $324 million, and
operating profit reached $83 million. Lumileds forecast it would have
operating margins of 25% in the coming years.
Like Philips, other big lighting manufacturers are rushing to
produce LEDs. General Electric (nyse: GE - news - people ) and
Osram GmbH are placing big bets on LEDs. Smaller manufacturers like
Cree in Durham, N.C., and Japan's Nichia Chemical sell LEDs to other
companies that make the finished lights. Canada's Carmanah
Technologies makes LED-based outdoor lighting, such as airplane
runway lights. Scoreboard makers Lighthouse Technologies and
Daktronics (nasdaq: DAKT - news - people ) of South Dakota are
building ever-bigger LED-based boards.
Philips, the huge Dutch conglomerate, got its start by selling light
bulbs in Europe. Kleisterlee, the CEO, said the increased investment
in LEDs is part of the company's ongoing attempt to transform itself
into a health care and lifestyle company rather than a sprawling
conglomerate that makes everything from semiconductors to televisions
to electric toothbrushes.
=========================================================================
Television Broadcast April 1993
Commentary
Craig Birkmaier
Building a Brighter Future
After all the build up, the tournament ended in a four way tie. We're
headed to the play-offs. Perhaps it's time to relax and explore the
emerging digital world. We need the right environment--a quiet,
darkened room, illuminated only by the slowly undulating glow of
candlelight and a television.
Ready? First let's contemplate what being digital means in light of
remarkable advances in the delivery of digital media since the
beginning of this decade. Now let's invoke the mantra and focus on
the role that video will play in this digital world.
Interoperability...extensibility...scalability...
My thoughts begin to focus. -Who is Al Boliska? His words echo
through my consciousness: "Do you realize if it weren't for Edison
we'd be watching TV by candlelight?"
Interoperability...extensibility...scalability...
Arthur Miller walks onto the stage of my virtual reality: "An era can
be said to end when its basic illusions are exhausted."
Interoperability...extensibility...scala...Suddenly the vision is
obliterated as someone turns on the lights.
Boliska got it backwards. Yes, Edison may be responsible for putting
thousands of candlemakers out of work. But he made a far more
significant discovery that spawned a century of incredible advances
in communications and the modern consumer electronics market--the
Edison Effect. This discovery led to the development of vacuum tubes,
the cathode ray tube (CRT), and television. Vacuum tubes have been
replaced with more sophisticated silicon, but the CRT is still with
us, demanding more of our attention than any other invention of the
past century. Unfortunately, CRT's can't get much bigger (they won't
fit through the door) or much brighter. The same can be said of the
current prospects for many of the institutions which brought us the
first fifty years of television broadcasting.
It 's ironic that those of us who have been working to assure a
brighter future for television have been labeled Utopians on the eve
of the non-decision about an Advanced Television system for North
America. In his commentary, ATV Under Attack By Utopians,Television
Broadcast February 1993, Glen Pensinger claimed that: "The Advanced
Television selection process is suffering from an infestation of
techno-idealists." We are called dreamers because of our desire to
establish a set of global rules for digital imagery--"open system"
standards that will allow television to play a major role in this new
digital world by making it scalable, extensible, and interoperable
with new infrastructures that will deliver digital media in the
future.
Does Pensinger speak for himself or those who would benefit from the
selection of these systems as they currently exist? Certainly the
latter, just as I have presented the Utopian point of view. They
claim "the Utopian Blueprint is not quite ready for prime time,"
However, it is their basic illusions that have been exhausted. HDTV
has been an "achievable commercial reality" for more than a
decade--to date it's "commercial viability" has not been
demonstrated. The real dreamers are people who believe that HDTV can
be the salvation of broadcasting.
At the international level, major efforts to commercialize HDTV have
failed. The European Commission has ceased funding of the HD-MAC
system and indicated that they will take a close look at the U.S.
Digital Advanced Television (DATV) systems to see if this technology
is appropriate for Europe. Japanese consumers failed to support the
MUSE HDTV system--now Japan is trying to attract international
participation in a consortium to develop a digital Ultra Definition
Television (UDTV) system.
In the March issue of Television Broadcast, John Abel, Executive Vice
President/Operations for the National Association of Broadcasters,
commented on the changing attitudes of his constituency.
"Broadcasters cannot afford to let other industries obtain a
technological advantage at our expense...We must strive for the best
system for BROADCASTING. That is what this process is all about, and
that is the only way to assure that the public has long-term access
to free over-the-air television."
The convergence of the communications, information, and entertainment
industries, around the use of digital representations for all types
of media,
is the essential precursor to the "commercial viability" of
information age technologies. The time has come to resolve our
differences and get on with the process of building the digital
communications infrastructure.
Pensinger suggests: "A great deal of techno-political negotiation
with great diplomacy will be required, and we have no evidence that a
diplomat with Middle East caliber negotiation skills exists in these
industries." I suggest that it is not the lack of a negotiator, but
the willingness to negotiate that has been lacking. Fortunately this
picture is changing.
International standards organizations such as the CCIR and SMPTE have
been working on the harmonization of advanced television standards
since the beginning of this decade. The SMPTE Working Group on
Digital Image Architecture provides an excellent "due process" forum
to discuss the remaining issues and the provide a home for the
required standards--the first draft of a proposed open system
standard was recently introduced to this group for consideration.
Perhaps the most encouraging signs of cooperation are taking place
inside the U.S. DATV process. As this is written at the end of March,
a group that represents a broad cross section of affected industries,
is collaborating on the development of new imagery and procedures for
the re-testing of the four remaining ATV systems. Working with
Planning Subcommittee Working Party 2 of the Advisory Committee on
Advanced Television Services, this group includes representation from
each of the proponents, video equipment manufacturers, program
producers, television broadcasters, the computer industry, the
telecommunications industry, government and academia. The goal is to
provide new tests for image quality and interoperability with
computer systems and wired networks.
Let's forget about 59.94 and interlace versus the mantra for a
moment. The conditions that have virtually every participant ready to
negotiate are rooted in economics and politics, not technical issues.
Digital data transmission erases the boundaries between industries
that were formerly insulated by technology and regulation. Digital
makes it "technically possible" for a radio station to broadcast
pictures and a cable company to get in the phone business. Digital
compression, especially of audio and video, either devalues or
enhances the book value of existing infrastructures based on existing
regulations.
Competition for the delivery of data will ultimately boil down to the
cost per bit--cost reductions of several orders of magnitude are
projected as we make the transition to broadband digital networks.
The continued existence and/or future profitability of virtually
every common carrier of information is challenged by this digital
steamroller. As Martin Polon indicated in his column: Techno-Anarchy:
Does Big Trouble Loom?, Television Broadcast February 1993, it is the
consumer that is likely to get run over if the government fails to
modernize the regulatory landscape to reflect the new digital
realities. Fortunately, there are strong signs that the new
administration is willing to address these issues. The challenge is
to develop a cooperative relationship between industries and
government rather than the adversarial relationship characterized by
regulation.
Discovery of the Edison effect marked the beginning of a new era--a
multitude of illusions to invent and commercialize. Today we are at a
similar threshold. We need new illusions, such as interactivity,
programming on demand, virtual reality, and the ability to
collaborate with anyone, anywhere, anytime to energize the Thomas
Edison's and Arthur Miller's of a new era. Let's turn this collective
energy loose to build the infrastructure and to develop the content
that will be carried by these digital highways. This is not a Utopian
dream...it's a question of economic survival.
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