IP: First Nationwide HDTV Telecast Covers Shuttle Launch

[Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

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The first live nationwide digital HDTV broadcast took place earlier today,
as viewers in 21 cities watched Senator John Glenn lift off into space,
some 36 years after Glenn's first launch was aired in black and white.
The largest scheduled viewing site was the Smithsonian Institution's
National Air And Space Museum in Washington, D.C., where thousands of
viewers watched the broadcast.

Two analysts from The Basex Group, Basilio Alferow and Jonathan Spira,
attended the broadcast at the CBS Broadcast Center in New York.

The Harris Corporation, a  leader in advanced transmitter equipment and
systems for digital television broadcast, included a 80-minute telecast
transmitted live from Kennedy Space Center with assistance from WRAL-HD in
Raleigh, North Carolina, and the participation of the NHK Japan
Broadcasting Corporation. The broadcast also included live launch coverage
and a network news-style program featuring high definition interviews by
WRAL with Sen. Glenn and former CBS anchorman Walter Cronkite, who covered
Glenn's first launch into space. Converted historical footage of the space
program, and other live and recorded segments were also broadcast. Mary
Alice Williams, formerly of CNN and NBC, and Pete Conrad, an Apollo
astronaut who walked on the moon in 1969,  co-anchored the program.

To complete the "TV" experience, viewers watched Procter & Gamble
commercials representing several of their product lines, including Tide,
Scope, Pampers, Head & Shoulders, and Bounty.

The live HDTV launch broadcast set the stage for the beginning of the
rollout of digital television in the U.S., which is to get underway
November 1, when ca. 40 stations will begin to broadcast digital signals in
markets across the country. Many of those stations have moved their on-air
dates ahead of schedule in order to show today's Shuttle broadcast.

"At the very moment that Sen. Glenn soars toward space aboard the space
shuttle Discovery, history will have been made not only for the space
industry, but for the broadcast television industry," Phillip W. Farmer,
chairman and chief executive officer of Harris Corporation told
virtual.basex before the broadcast. "The live nationwide HDTV broadcast of
this historic launch marks a new era in television -- just as Sen. Glenn's
launch into space 36 years ago marked a new era in space exploration."

Written by Jonathan B. Spira, Analyst.
Copyright 1998 The Basex Group, Inc.  All rights reserved.
All data, opinions, and projections are based on Basex' judgment at the
time of publication and are subject to change.