Last week, in Part I of this edited interview with TVNEWSDAY, NAB chief technologist Lynn Claudy revealed the trade group's plans to promote technologies that could improve broadcasting or lead to new services and business.

Today, in Part II, Claudy talks about what NAB is doing to insure a smooth transition from analog to digital TV, digital opportunities for broadcasters, the latest on the Sprint-Nextel ENG program, sharing broadcast spectrum with unlicensed devices and the upcoming NAB convention. Are you ready for Ultra-HDTV?

As you know, all TV stations are expected to make the final switch from analog to digital at midnight on Feb. 17, 2009. What's your role in that process? 

We can't be complacent. I'll start with that. DTV is a success story these days, at least in our eyes, and it has been in the decade since the technology was standardized.

Most of the technical people are now trying to look at what's next. There is a lot of opportunity in the flexibility of the digital TV standard, opportunity for new businesses, for new services. It's largely untapped because you have all these chicken-and-egg problems, which are the hallmark of change in the broadcast service paradigm.

Are there still technical issues to work through?     

There are issues and then there are opportunities. I could talk about either, but I think the opportunities are more interesting. For example, the recent demonstrations and the technical work that's been going on for over a year now in mobile broadcasting.

The whole idea of using DTV to deliver broadcast content to things like cell phones or iPods or laptop computers or PDAs—anything that people carry with them that's electronic in nature. Someone carrying such a device may want news or entertainment or information, especially if it's locally based.

Local broadcasters have that kind of content, but they generally don't have a way of getting it to those kinds of devices.

The DTV mobile system that has gotten all the attention so far is Samsung's A-VSB. Are you hip to the alternative system that Harris is developing?  

We're aware that there is an alternative system. There hasn't been public disclosure on that. It will be a matter of either months or perhaps weeks before that has a coming out party.       

Do you know anything about it? I mean how it works or any of that?   

I don't have enough specifics and I think Harris and its partners want to reveal it in their own time, but I certainly know that they believe they are competitive and, in some ways, superior to A-VSB.

These things are not necessarily mutually exclusive. I mean you could have two different DTV mobile standards, correct?      

You could. When enhanced VSB was developed, there also was a structure put in place so that you could have more than one enhanced transmission mode and have a way to discriminate between them. It may not be the best roll-out scenario to have competing standards. Witness Blue Ray and HD-DVD. But it is certainly possible that they are not mutually exclusive.               

You and MSTV have been involved in developing the low-cost converters that will allow consumers with analog sets to receive digital signals after the DTV conversion. How is that going?

We're pretty much at the end of that project and the prototypes that we contracted for from LG/Zenith and with Thomson Electronics really exceeded our hopes in how well they performed and that performance is documented.

We have passed some milestones in terms of having a product that an average person can buy and install with an average TV and an average understanding of how to do so. That person is very, very likely to have a good experience.                            

But with what kind of antenna? Do I need a rooftop antenna or one of these smart antennas or can I use my old rabbit ears I have in the attic?        

That's pretty much determined by how far away you are from transmitters and whether you're in the basement or on the third floor. But under the right circumstances an indoor antenna will work very well with the converter box designs that are available now.

I became a great believer in the smart antenna technology because it just takes the human factor out of the equation, of aiming an antenna in a metropolitan area where the stations might be in different directions. The smart antenna automates that process by electronically orienting itself. It works exceptionally well at doing that and could be a mass market item.

So you have these two prototype converter boxes. When are they going to be ready for market?     

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