[opendtv] Re: Public Safety Implications During Analog Shutdown
- From: Craig Birkmaier <craig@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 10 Oct 2005 13:56:14 -0400
At 9:49 AM -0400 10/10/05, Stephen W. Long wrote:
>Craig,
>
>I am troubled by your comments about he poor described below, but I am not
>going to debate that issue on this forum.
Please keep in mind, that it is not 'broadcasting that may go away,
just NTSC broadcasts. And as we all know too well, TV is pretty much
useless after the power goes off. Radio is the most reliable
emergency broadcast network, it is ubiquitous., and cheap battery
powered receivers are widely available.
We could also debate the disservice provided by broadcasters
(virtually all mass media for that matter) in the lead up to and
aftermath of Katrina and Rita. One can easily build the case that the
media greatly distorted the reality of what was happening, even to
the extent that emergency aid workers were not sent into New Orleans
because of (what turned out to be) unfounded rumors about their
safety.
I can't find it anywhere in the Constitution that Free TV is is a
right to be guaranteed to all citizens. Where are the free daily
newspapers?
You may not like what I said, but it does not diminish the reality
that we keep paying more and more for Free TV, and that the media
conglomerates want us to pay even more. OTA DTV broadcasts are not
some fundamental right, for the people , or the companies occupying
the spectrum. It has become little more than the lever that these
companies are using to force everyone to pay for stuff that they may
not want or use.
And please remember, that I have been consistent about advocating
that the broadcast spectrum should be used to provide - in the free
and clear - an advertiser supported multi-channel TV service. IF that
were to happen there would be strong demand for OTA receivers.
Unfortunately, that is NOT what is happening.
What is happening is the strangulation of the free-to-air broadcast
business so that the conglomerates can eliminate the need for local
broadcasters - or to be more precise, so that the conglomerates can
totally control the free-to-air broadcast business and all profits
associated with it.
>
>A point that is lost in almost all of these discussions is the role over
>the air television plays in broadcasting public safety information during
>times of crisis. When the cable goes out (every rain storm in my
>neighborhood) and the DirecTV goes out (during heavy snow or
>thunderstorms), with OTA analog broadcasting I can still get a picture to
>see the local weather and similar information. If 50 million Americans do
>not have working OTA TV reception because of lack of receivers, that is a
>security problem, not just a matter of someone not willing or able to pay a
>cable bill.
We disagree. If broadcasting goes away, the Weather channel and the
24/7 news channels will still be there. You are wrong about the
reliability of cable and DBS. They are 100% reliable prior to a
disaster, which is the time when emergency preparations are critical
- the time that was wasted in new Orleans. DBS was 100% reliable
during BOTH hurricanes that came through Gainesville last year - at
least until the power went out. There was a huge surge in DBS
subscriptions after those storms because cable was NOT reliable.
I am not saying that OTA TV is worthless. What I am saying is that it
does not matter much because few people depend upon it. Those who
choose to keep depending upon it will have the option to buy an OTA
receiver. In my option most of those people will choose another
option; quite possibly a FREE option from a multichannel service
provider (as is happening in Europe today).
>
>To misquote a FCC staffer, when I asked these same questions back in ~1998
>(99?) when 8VSB reception was observed to be so problematic, the staffer
>said - let them eat cake - radio would be used during emergencies. Radio
>does not show me where the tornados are on a map so I can relate the threat
>to where my family is.
Get real Steve. You don't need a map to tell someone where something
is. And those maps are not much help with tornados, since the actual
path can be quite erratic. If you live in a tornado area you get
warnings from TV, Radio and loud sirens. Run for cover!
>Other than in my car, I do not listen to radio
>anymore - there is little on the music radio channels that appeals to me
>anymore, so I do not have a "relationship" with any radio broadcaster, such
>that I immediately think of listening to station Z to get my news and
>information. I now listen to XM radio in my car, since there is 24 hour
>news and traffic and music I want to listen to.
And you can probably get good weather info from XM. You are just
proving my point. People choose the ways in which they want to
receive their media content. There are MANY options and they should
be managed as competitive services in a FREE marketplace, not a
highly regulated marketplace where competition is managed by the
politicians.
Broadcasters love to fall back on "public service" when they are
threatened. But the reality is that this represent only a tiny
fraction of what they do. Sorry, but the public service they provide
is NOT worth the spectrum that they have been given. The reality is
that they jump on emergencies because the rating go UP UP UP. They
would do this anyway, even if they had to pay for the spectrum they
use.
>
>We are essentially guaranteeing a public safety melt down if people can not
>receive OTA television broadcasts. I hope someone has a plan for the
>months following shutdown - remind me to be way far away from urban centers
>when the transmitters all shut down. The "bring back my TV" protest
>marches alone will tie up traffic for days.
This is absurd. We HAD a public safety meltdown in New Orleans.
That meltdown had nothing to do with the lack of information from TV,
Radio, newspapers, the Internet, or telephones. The evacuation plan
for New Orleans calls for loudspeaker trucks to go through the
neighborhoods telling people to leave, on the busses that the City
and Parrishes left sitting to be consumed by the floods. And TV
helped to inflame the situation, arguably making the disaster even
worse.
>
>I am going to try to buy a DTV receiver today. I have little faith it will
>work at my house (no 8VSB receiver to date has been shown to work for even
>50% of the stations I should be able to receive), but I will at least have
>a more current receiver with "miracle" chips - maybe it will work. Note
>that I recently installed an older DirecTV/8VSB receiver (my brother no
>longer needed the receiver once he got an HDTV Tivo). During setup, I
>watched the signal meter on each 8VSB channel. Signal strength changed
>from 60% to zero almost constantly, on most all channels, which is further
>evidence known for some time now that there is some sort of wicked
>multipath going on in my neighborhood.
And then there is the "minor" problem, that the chosen DTV system
does not even work reliably as an emergency broadcast system...
I stand behind what I said.
Regards
Craig
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