[opendtv] Re: News: Signal Trouble at Freedom Tower

At 3:27 PM -0400 4/10/09, Manfredi, Albert E wrote:

So, here's the summary, Craig. The new site was too expensive. The
existing antenna sites are plenty good enough for DTT, even if they are
not ideal for the soon-to-be-eliminated analog TV.
The article was written by a local hack who did not dig very deep when writing the story. There has been significant information published about the alternatives that NY broadcasters have been evaluating. None of this was mentioned in the story.
"Good enough for DTT is misleading at best. Broadcasters lost significant coverage for both analog and DTT when the World Trade Center site was lost. This site was ABOVE much of the NY infrastructure providing both wider coverage AND more areas that got line of site to the transmitters without significant multipath impairment.
Your "good enough" assessment is also based in your belief that new DTT receivers are now able to deal with the nasty multipath environment in NYC. For many "homes" this is true; for some it is still a problem.
In short, an antenna atop the freedom tower is a superior solution to the two sites that are now available to broadcasters. The author of the article obviously talked to the owners of the two alternative sites, who (equally obviously) noted that these sites were "good enough." Yet Shapiro has not ruled out the Freedom Tower site - this sounds like a financial power play, trying to get the port authority to pick up more of the cost of putting the antenna on the Freedom Tower.
NONE of this is relevant if we start to consider the potential market for mobile DTT in NYC. The three sites discussed in the article all would have significant problems with the new mobile service base on the reality that in MANY locations in the city at street level there will be little more than a jumble of reflected signals...
and then there are all the shielded sites where it would be desirable to deliver mobile DTV like the subways.
The NY broadcasters have already determined that they can deploy a distributed transmission infrastructure for less than it would cost to build out the Freedom Tower. But this is only one benefit. The real benefit is that coverage and reliable reception for both fixed and mobile receivers would be significantly greater with a distributed transmission infrastructure. 



And finally, the benefits of SFNs continue to be overhyped, and the
disadvantages continue to be ignored, by the mainstream press.
You are the only person I know that continues to tell us that the advantages of a distributed transmission infrastructure are over hyped. The rest of the world is moving to a low power distributed infrastructure because the advantage and improved spectral efficiency are so significant. Broadcasters will be the last to get on the bandwagon because it will cost them some money in the short term, Most are unwilling to do this for two reasons:
1. It would take widespread cooperation between markets, as it would be very difficult to gain the full benefits of a distributed transmission network if broadcasters in one market continued to radiate strong signals into adjacent markets. In some rural areas big sticks will still make sense, but in congested areas like NYC, cooperation would be required by broadcasters from Boston to Washington D.C.
2. There is a very real concern that broadcasting as we know it may not survive for more than another decade. Many companies are simply in cash out mode - keep milking what's left while they can, then retire. The alternative is to invest in a new infrastructure that will compete with several other infrastructures that may provides services that consumers will find preferable.
Bottom line, does it make sense to invest in an appropriate transmission infrastructure for the ATSC Mobile/Handheld service, when well financed competitors are preparing to spend additional billions (on top of what they just spent for spectrum) to deploy 4G TWO-WAY networks.
Based on this I suspect that the New York broadcasters are going to do nothing, and live with the limitations of the two existing sites. Not because they are "good enough," but rather, because they are the cheapest way out... 

After all, most of their viewers use cable and DBS.

Regards
Craig


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