Sony Internet TV Announced

On Tuesday, October 12 Sony officially launched four Internet HDTV offerings that are based on the Google TV operating system. The company's Google TV products are called Sony Internet TV (SIT) and allow viewers to browse the Web, watch cable and satellite TV and run applications on their HDTV. The four products are: a 46-inch at $1399, a 40-inch at $999, a 32-inch at $799 and a 24-inch at $599. Each unit is a1080p LCD display and has four USB and four HDMI input connections.

The Google TV operating system runs on an Intel Atom® processor and uses the Chrome Web browser with Flash 10.1. The sets come bundled with a number of Google TV apps including CNBC, Napster, NBA, Netflix, Pandora, Twitter and YouTube as well as Sony's video-on-demand service called Qriocity. Sony says the OS will be updated in early 2011 to include more apps that can be downloaded from the Android Market.

The SIT gets video and audio from cable/satellite boxes via HDMI connections. However the Google TV device still needs to send infrared (IR) commands to control external devices. So the SIT products require the use of IR blasters to change channels or schedule DVR recordings.

Using the Google TV OS, users can search for programs/content and the SIT will display a list and allow users to view that content whether it's on TV or available on the Web (Sony recommends at least a 2.5 Mbps broadband connection or 10 Mbps to view HD content). While the Sony SITs do include ATSC and NTSC over-the-air tuners, it does not appear that the OTA content is included in the Google TV search results. Nevertheless, the SIT can display TV and at the same time allow Google searches and Web browsing through a feature called dual view which displays the video in a picture-in-picture (PIP) box on the corner of the screen.

The four HDTVs all include a remote control that features a thumb-sized QWERTY keyboard. Sony states that the remote borrowed some design elements from the PS3 game system controller such as trigger buttons on top and two directional pads on the front. Eventually, the Sony Google TV products will also be controllable via an iPhone or Android smartphone using an app.

Sony press release announcing the product launch is here.

The spec sheet for the 40-inch SIT is here.

Plan to Attend
The IEEE Broadcast Technology Society
60th Annual IEEE Broadcast Symposium
October 20-22, 2010
The Westin Alexandria Alexandria, Va.

Keynote speakers for this year's symposium include James Martin, Director, ISR Programs for the U.S. Department of Defense and James O'Neal, Technology Editor, TV Technology, USA. Additional details on the technical program and how to register are availale on the IEEE Broadcast Technology Symposium website. The advance registration deadline is October 1!

ATSC Digital Television Transmission System Seminar
The Future of Terrestrial & Mobile Television
KNME-DT, Albuquerque, N.M.
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

An updated one-day seminar will be presented on the ATSC's digital television vestigial sideband (VSB) transmission system. The seminar will cover the fundamentals of the new mobile DTV transmission standard and its relationship to the legacy 8-VSB system. It will also cover practical broadcaster recommendations for improved DTV service and viewer education as learned from last year's post June 12 field tests. The seminar is conducted by Gary Sgrignoli, DTV transmission engineer with Meintel, Sgrignoli & Wallace. This seminar is for broadcasters, broadcast consultants, equipment manufacturers, translator/LPTV operators and cable operators. For more information at KNME-DT contact Jim Gale at 505 277 2049 or Dan Zillich at 505 277 1251. You may also contact the instructor Gary Sgrignoli at 847 259-3352.

One Week Left to Submit Proposals for the
2011 NAB Broadcast Engineering Conference
Las Vegas Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada
Conferences April 9-14, 2011/Exhibits April 11-14, 2011

Deadline for submissions is October 22, 2010.

There is only one week left to submit your proposal for the 65th NAB Broadcast Engineering Conference. This world-class conference addresses the most recent developments in broadcast technology and focuses on the opportunities and challenges that face broadcast engineering professionals.

The topics of particular interested selected by the NAB Broadcast Engineering Conference Committee are listed on the Call for Proposal webpage. In order to be considered, proposals must explain what attendees can expect to learn from the paper, must not be a sales pitch and should be no more than 200 words in length.

Papers accepted for presentation at the 2011 NAB Broadcast Engineering Conference will be eligible for the NAB Best Paper Award. Established in 2010, the Best Paper Award honors the author(s) of a paper of exceptional merit published in the NAB Broadcast Engineering Conference Proceedings. The yearly proceedings, published as both a book and a CD-ROM is a compendium of these technical papers, and an important archive of the leading edge of broadcast engineering issues.

Technical paper proposals submitted for the 65th annual Broadcast Engineering Conference will be accepted until the October 22 deadline. If you have any questions, contact John Marino, VP NAB Science and Technology at (202) 429-5346.