Craig wrote: > I experienced this at the Grass Valley Group when I helped to lead > the team that built the Model 100. The hardest task was to overcome > all of the things that various people around the project said could > not be done. Craig, For convincing GVG to produce the 100 series systems you deserve high praise. These products were well designed; they filled a real customer need and were therefore hugely successful. That effort however, is not analogous to our current discussion. GVG is a very typical relatively unregulated high tech. manufacturer who must produce a product attractive to potential customers and must then make a profit from that product; not an easy task but certainly not akin to your proposal that a national and heavily regulated industry reinvent itself. For the past 73 years the broadcast industry has existed in a system of dynamic, sometimes chaotic, government regulation and mandates*. That regulatory system is partly responsible for what the industry has become, a very profitable enterprise and coveted by many. A most recent mandate is the digital television conversion that has so far cost the industry more than 1 billion dollars - and counting. In the midst of this conversion you now suggest that the industry totally dismantle its self and fund it's own resurrection. Craig, your a few years too late; they've already spent that money on the current new system. I would not necessarily be opposed to your proposal that a well designed and more efficient shared carrier system be constructed. However, the cost of such a reinvented system must be born by those to whom it provides advantage, i.e.: use the auction revenues. My point is: in your zeal to reign in what you consider to be a spectrum wasting, overly profitable and undeserving industry, you attempt to make your case by comparing Apples to Elephants. Dale * Yes, the industry itself had a hand forming these regulations, though that was most often done to gain an advantage over others inside the industry. The CE companies have also had their fingers in that pie; the current DTV conversion is a prime example of something that has been to it's great benefit. > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- You can UNSUBSCRIBE from the OpenDTV list in two ways: - Using the UNSUBSCRIBE command in your user configuration settings at FreeLists.org - By sending a message to: opendtv-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word unsubscribe in the subject line.