THE WAVE OF THE NEXT GENERATION

The boundaries between the entertainment media and communication enterprises are fast breaking down and future shifts in frequency reuse are already on the anvil. The task today is one of the how to move away from “one-to-many” broadcasting to accommodate narrow casting and interactivity for individual households. In this process the core of convergence of communications technologies is ease and extent of reach and access, range and reliability of value added services and of course speed and reduced tariffs of communication flows. Ultimately however, the relevance is in the contents and not in the means of delivery. On these aspects depend both scope and significance of convergence. 

Once barriers for channeling broadcasting and telecommunication on a single network are removed, convergence becomes commercially viable. That, direc TV in USA now hopes to increase its subscriber base ten fold by year 2000 aligning with AT&T, is a good example. As if realising all this, the Telecom Commission in India has been of late exploring the possibility of interaction between telephone and cable TV. MTNL is even working out a proposal for use of cable networks to carry voice and data services. Rightly, the Commission is expected to come up with plans to facilitate such a process. 

First private “radio” on Internet in India was announced last week. Video-on-demand through Internet too could be expected any time. Real-time audio and video reception from Internet is possible using modems due to a combination of technologies such as buffering, compression and decompression. Infact, some 40 firms in US have recently joined together for developing standard for delivering video and audio instantaneously over the Internet. Think of the implications. At this rate computers with voice commands may not be far away. 

No wonder then that most cities in India have been witnessing Cable TV wars recently. There is one or other multinational or a big business house behind these wars trying to capture cable TV “business” as an entry into emerging vast market, once the convergence between broadcasting and telecom catches on. Facilitative for such convergence, there has been a mushroom growth of “multimedia training” shops in urban India and new frontiers in software. Consequently, we also hear of “mergers”, “alliances” and “acquisitions” of all kinds and between corporations of hither to distinctly different streams. 

Convergence for Much Needed Interactiveness

Today technology is the dictating force of events, developments, and the way modern organisations operate. Convergence of technologies relating to communication at all levels is the most vivid and dramatic development of recent years. Convergence of communication technologies is bound to change the face of business, functioning of basic institutions, including education, and speed up the process of change, development, diffusion of technologies and their adoption. 

Both telecom and television are changing the life styles of people in so many ways apart from knitting them closer. The way the telecom and television networks are being expanded and availed world over and value added services are realised, the convergence between telecom, television and computer Via fibre optic cable is bound to significantly influence the ways, means, scope and the very character of human communication. Many newer ways of feeling, realising, reacting, sensing and the very communication process could speed up the trend towards “virtual reality”. 

As a result of all these, new interactive media, more personalised and with potential to reach simultaneously to as many as the conventional mass media and at a much lower cost, would be unfolding as we enter into the 21st century with a lot more implications to countries like media. 

Developments are of course continuous The developments on technology front are varied and simultaneous. The rapid technological developments over the past decade in the areas of computer, signal processing, compression devices, miniaturisation, switching, optic fibre, satellite technologies have opened up the doors for unification of different communication services. 

The traditional telecoms are being transformed into an electronic transportation system for information i.e. voice, text, images and data. Telephones are getting smarter, increasingly equipped with memory functions, card readers and even screens. As a result, the convergence is taking place at different levels i.e. at software and hardware level, at transmission media level, at network level, at regulatory and service providers level and at the level of user-end as well. Because of the merger of data and voice, user needs, demands and expectations are bound to rise exponentially. 

While 90’s was the age of laser which has made possible wide band digital communication, advancements on sensors technology in the coming years is bound to further trigger the process of unification of communication technologies. The digitization of signals (be it voice, audio, video, data, fax, image), availability of powerful compression algorithms along with ever increasing computing and processing capabilities of the personal computer. VLSIs are enabling different services to be looked at in an integrated manner. 

Developments on the digital electronics front have already brought visible and viable changes all over. Digital technology offers multiple new opportunities for radio and TV. State-of-art digital technology infact is redefining how we live and communicate. Think of the age of special effects now possible with new-sophisticated computers comprising scanner, film recorder, workstation and video recorder with immense image-altering capabilities. 

The switching components of the network to facilitate the convergence of the services at different bit rates of transmission are already getting implemented. The capabilities of different media of transmission (copper, fibre, wireless and satellites) are being fully exploited to introduce integrated services. 

As optic fibre cable has extensive bandwidth, many more services (including interactive services) can be supported. Since both cable TV and telephones are catching up to become universal, so that the services become cheaper to the user, the desirability of adopting hybrid system of fibre cable upto the node and then distribute the signals on coaxial cables. Optical fibre cable is immune from interference and hence high quality telephone, MMDS, FAX or data services-are possible, thanks to digitisation of signals. 

The peripheral equipment such as scanners, cameras, modems, etc are also playing an important part in this integration. With multimedia approach, which combines different modes of presentation of information (audio, video, picture, text, etc) into a composite format, further convergence of services is taking place. 

Profit power of software and entertainment companies is such that they are likely to give a push to proliferation of satellite based media earlier than expected, viability is compelling entrepreneurs to expedite the process of convergence so that ‘mass markets’ to convergence based services become a reality. 

Multimedia services, tele-education, on-line information services, video-on demand interactive-TV, tele shopping, etc. are some of the emerging new applications based on the convergence. 

gence-lead Services for Mass Markets and Mergers

The convergence between telecommunications, broadcasting and computer technologies has made simultaneous exchange of voice, visual images and data a reality. This has brought together entertainment, mass media, software, telecommunication, information and educational services and even narrowing the distinctions between homes, offices, schools and market places. 

The speed with which PCs, cable TV and, of course television sets are being added all over is making convergence of technologies a techno-economic reality. The speed with which PC population is getting multiplied would set the phase for further stimulus to R&D efforts for convergence. By then rentals, call and user charges are bound to decline, and by then some of the notions like charging by time, distances and volumes would cease. 

Applications software and the ease with which it could be availed and again at nominal additional costs (with emerging “mass markets”) is bound to compress the process of diffusion of convergence-lead information revolution, When different even with in a likely to have access and uses. 

In some telephone and cable TV are already being offered on a common access networks based on the convergence of telecom, broadcasting and computer technologies. Last month’s landmark legislation in USA towards abolishing barriers between telephony and cable services, is bound to lead many other countries moving in similar direction of a combined carriage for interactive services. Intact the trend is towards providing all information services competitively on a single network. But the omnibus US legislation now facilitates mergers and collaborations between telephone, wireless, cable, Internet and a host of related services. 

Today Internet epitomises multimedia revolution. Certain contradictions implied are that while telecom revolution is all about control and power, broadcasting is about diffusion and decentralisation. However, broadcasting often also is propaganda and sensationalisation. Newer technologies are simply tools and whether they help or harm society depends on the wisdom of those who use them. Hence the need for active-user involvement. 

dian Scene

India is not far behind. Consider some examples. MTNL’s capacity in Bombay, for example, may even be loaned soon to cable networks so that telephone and value added services could be expanded substantially and faster. Bangalore may be the next in line. Private operators are also gearing up for this potential. ISDN, bringing data, voice and video conferencing on a single network is already in an experimental stage for some months now. Computer telephony integration (CTI) is likely to catch on in a big way soon in India. 

Infact two decades ago in 1975 India experimented broadcasting using satellite and in a simultaneous multi-language mode (SITE). 

All India Management Association and Indira Gandhi National Open University in collaboration with ISRO’s transportable uplink had already conducted interactive experiments Via satellite to reach out to various open university study centres, students & academic counselors across the country in an interactive mode - one way video and two way audio. Also, ISRO has developed a 2.5 m diameter lightweight foldable umbrella antenna for satellite communications and broadcast applications in C band. This should give further fillip. ISRO’s light weight foldable umbrella antenna for satellite communication and broadcast applications would go a long way in reaching the unreached and at times of emergencies. 

Multimedia is already the fastest growing business in India. In my recent book, I estimated that it would grow from Jess than Rs. 50 crores today to Rs 5000 crores by 2015. Some 50 to 75 million households are expected to acquire access to multimedia in India by 2020. In view of the nature of business and volumes involved, I predict that software and telecom corporations would take over or dominate broadcasting enterprises. 

The growth in spending for information technologies is projected to reach 2 percent of India’s GDP by 2002 from the 0.7 percent in 1995, by which time the hardware and software together would form a $ 18 billion industry. 

Multimedia brings down barriers of physical boundaries and distances and of language and lifestyles. Multimedia enables better use of flexibility of the telephone with’ the carrying capacity of television. With multimedia mode it is going to be cheaper, quicker, more reliable and far more interactive and “on line” has already become the buzz word and “net working” a reality. Only then it would all be relevant in India. 

Ideally, Telecom Regulatory Authority being constituted for level playing should have been named Communication Regulatory Authority and also entrusted with broadcasting, including Cable TV, frequency allocation responsibilities, instead of a separate Authority for broadcasting. India should formalise the arrangement for telecom networks carrying broadcasting and vice verse should formalise the ^arrangement for telecom networks carrying broadcasting and vice verse without delay. A large number of TV transmitter towers, particularly in hilly areas like Himachal, should be available for telephony. Similarly, the Power Grid Corporation, the Indian Railways, Gas Authority of India and State Electricity Boards should be allowed as network providers in a competitive mode. 

The over riding objective of convergence to India should be rapid expansion, extension and up gradation of telecom and information networks so that a larger number of people will have access to the network and also can afford to use them. Convergence of technologies should help India reduce demand-supply gap/ information-imbalances and access-equity among its people. 

Benefits of convergence of technologies cannot be expected to flow fast enough to acquire mass market and thereby viability, unless hurdles in the process are removed and deliberate efforts are made towards that end by the government, by professionals, by R&D groups, by user end groups and of course by the corporations. User-end orientation as well as protection need to be ensured. Convergence infact requires to get away from provider-driven view. So also organisational linkages and convergence at various levels. Leading corporations from different streams have just started to come; together with pacts to explore new opportunities and be catalysts in the processes, procedures and technologies is as important as low- \ cost access to these services.

Source: http://cablequest.org/articles/broadcast-technology/item/1304-the-wave-of-the-next-generation.htmlSource: http://cablequest.org/articles/broadcast-technology/item/1304-the-wave-of-the-next-generation.html