Here in the United States we use a technology standard called ATSC (Advanced Television Systems Committee) for digital, over-the-air (free-to-air) television broadcasts. Sometime this year, hopefully, we'll migrate all TV signals off of the legacy analog system and on to ATSC. Once that happens, we'll certainly need to be planning for the "next big thing." From what we can tell the ATSC is already moving on defining what will come next in high definition.
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HDTV and Home Theater Podcast #351 - What's Next in High Definition?
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arad
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hharris4earthlink
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ATSC And The Next Big Thing
I have a fairly strong opinion of what the next big thing in television will be, and it won't be 3D or even higher resolution, although 3D will capture a small market.
The next big thing will be interactive television which is already on the ATSC list . The reason it will be a big thing is that it will consolidate three already burgeoning industries, namely (1) current HD television, (2) the creation and maintenance of synthetic worlds and (3) computer games.
Consider, for example, Sony's Playstation 3D virtual world they call Home. With the purchase of a PS3, you can interact with people using bluetooth audio and avatar presence. There's also "Second Life", a Linden Labs product that's more mature (in all senses of the word). Inside this computer-created universe, people do almost anything they can do in real life including having careers, creating virtual products, and finding friends and sexual partners. What started out as a science fiction idea is now very real and growing.
I believe this is a lot more than simply a passing fad and is symptomatic, in part, of a crowded, congested planet with vanishing opportunities that we used to take for granted.
Imagine, then, a future television set that incorporates interactive ATSC. Here we have a merging of concepts, the ability to view distant places real and imaginary. But now, instead of everyone having to buy an expensive game machine that connects to some company's mainframe using the Internet, your television provider will have the powerful mainframe (which may connect to private-industry proprietary mainframes) . It's really the same concept, except now virtual worlds will become a public utility like any other, but with possible orders-of-magnitude increase in capabilities than today. The synthetic worlds you see on your HD set will look very real.
The next big thing is a bit of a tragedy really since it's being driven by selfishness, bad planning and avarice. But then again, what's new? It's always been like that.
The next big thing will be interactive television which is already on the ATSC list . The reason it will be a big thing is that it will consolidate three already burgeoning industries, namely (1) current HD television, (2) the creation and maintenance of synthetic worlds and (3) computer games.
Consider, for example, Sony's Playstation 3D virtual world they call Home. With the purchase of a PS3, you can interact with people using bluetooth audio and avatar presence. There's also "Second Life", a Linden Labs product that's more mature (in all senses of the word). Inside this computer-created universe, people do almost anything they can do in real life including having careers, creating virtual products, and finding friends and sexual partners. What started out as a science fiction idea is now very real and growing.
I believe this is a lot more than simply a passing fad and is symptomatic, in part, of a crowded, congested planet with vanishing opportunities that we used to take for granted.
Imagine, then, a future television set that incorporates interactive ATSC. Here we have a merging of concepts, the ability to view distant places real and imaginary. But now, instead of everyone having to buy an expensive game machine that connects to some company's mainframe using the Internet, your television provider will have the powerful mainframe (which may connect to private-industry proprietary mainframes) . It's really the same concept, except now virtual worlds will become a public utility like any other, but with possible orders-of-magnitude increase in capabilities than today. The synthetic worlds you see on your HD set will look very real.
The next big thing is a bit of a tragedy really since it's being driven by selfishness, bad planning and avarice. But then again, what's new? It's always been like that.