Coming Attraction: HDTV

Year 2005 was declared as "The Year of HDTV" around
the world, however, its proliferation picked up only by mid-2006 in the US,
Europe, Japan and Asia-Pacific region (APAC). High Definition Television or HDTV
is touted as the new avatar of broadcasting as it delivers a

quality that is far superior compared to existing broadcast standards. HDTV lets
viewers watch motion pictures the way they were intended to be seen-on a wide
16/9 screen, one-third wider than today's 4/3 screens, digital broadcast with
higher resolution than traditional formats (NTSC, SECAM, PAL).

It is estimated that by 2010, 87 mn households worldwide will be
capable of watching HDTV programming (IMS research). In the APAC region alone,
the HDTV service subscribers are expected to reach 39 mn in 2011, expanding from
about 8 mn in mid-2006, according to In-Stat Research. While first HDTV service
in Europe was launched in 2003, India may have to wait till 2010 for HDTV
service to arrive on Indian TV sets.

Challenges abound, but Indian broadcasters and product companies
based in India have begun evaluating success stories of HDTV elsewhere and are
closely looking at how these can be replicated in India. An increasing portion
of flat-panel TV sets hitting the market are HDTV-capable and becoming more
affordable. The DTH service has taken off in India, which will prepare the
ground for HDTV programming.

Coupled with this is the emergence of several India-based
companies that are studying HDTV and making products for existing markets in the
US, APAC and Europe. Some leading examples are Wipro, Texas Instruments (TI),
Ittiam, and Tata Elxsi.

India on the Horizon

Researchers suggest that India will represent the major increasing uptake in
absolute quantity for HDTV displays in the mid- to long-term, from 2008-2011.
Although as of now HDTV in India may be a distant reality, early signs have been
encouraging.

"India is HDTV-ready from multiple aspects except for the
content provider," says Ravishankar Ganesan, VP and head of Ittiam's SOC
Business. "From the market perspective, it is well known that India is one
of the prime markets for HDTV given the traction in entertainment industry and
sports," he adds optimistically.

Sporting events have usually been the driving forces for pushing
technology. Last year it was the FIFA World Cup 2006 that became the first
mega-sporting event to be entirely produced in HDTV. Taking a cue from this, the
forthcoming Commonwealth Games 2010 to be held in India has set the deadline for
public broadcaster Prasar Bharti to be HDTV-ready. According to the contract
requirements, Prasar Bharati has to produce the entire television and radio
content in the digital format; otherwise it will lose the contract.

"For HDTV to really reach the masses, two things need to
happen synergistically-more HD content providers for the Indian masses, and
lower price points of end equipments and services," says Praveen Ganapathy,
director, Business Development, Consumer and Automotive, TI India. HDTV is
a subset of a larger industry and therefore contends with the same policy issues
relating to digital transmission. "India is still in the process of
drafting clear-cut mandates on these regulatory and policy matters," he
says.

DTH: An Enabler

The DTH (Direct to Home) expansion in the country bodes very well for the
emergence of HDTV. It is being seen as the next logical step for broadcasting.
One of the requirements for HDTV to happen is digitization of broadcasting,
which is already happening. Together with CAS (Conditional Access Systems), DTH
can pave the way for HDTV.

"The explosion of DTH is expected to be an inflection point
for the arrival of HDTV in India," says Narayan Shenoy, general manager,
Consumer Electronics Business, Wipro Technologies. The uptake of HDTV sets in
India has only just begun, thanks to DTH transmission largely. Still this is
restricted to the urban sector.

While European broadcasters have accepted HDTV, unfortunately,
not all broadcasters back home share this enthusiasm for HDTV. Indeed, some
broadcasters have no plans at all to embrace HD, hoping that audiences will
stick with conventional broadcasting. Viren Popli, sr vice president,
Interactive Services of Star India says that the time is not ripe for HDTV to
happen in India, as CAS and DTH are yet to stabilize. "For broadcasting to
happen, major investment will go into overhauling equipment, including buying
new HD cameras, transforming production capability and, most importantly, we
face the challenge to increase satellite capacity. These are currently
deterrents for us to look at HDTV," he explains. "However, when CAS
and DTH stabilize, with encouraging market for High Definition TV sets and
enough delivery pipes available in the next 18-20 months, broadcasters can
expect to move towards HDTV," Popli adds.

HDTV
Scenario in India

Absence of HDTV
broadcasting as of now

Prasar Bharti to be
HDTV-ready for Commonwealth Games in 2010

High-cost of HD-compliant
TV sets

Several vendors are
launching HDTV sets in India

Too expensive to change
infrastructure to support HDTV broadcasting

Digitization of channels
has begun; DTH and CAS can fuel growth of HDTV

Lack of sufficient
bandwidth and satellite capacity to support HD transmission

IP revolution can drive
HDTV in India

No manufacturing of HDTV
sets in India, as a result cost of end equipment remains high on account
of high import duties

India can be a good
breeding ground for HDTV ecosystem as several India-based technology
companies are involved in R&D

Ganesan also points out the bandwidth issue, saying,
"Currently, the lack of bandwidth for the HDTV and the associated cost is
not convincing the operators to move to the High Definition transmission."
It is expected that the bandwidth problem, due to which cable and satellite
platform allows limited channels, will be solved with DTH. With players like
Star, Tata and Sun entering the field, there would be more aggression, resulting
in substantial action in the DTH arena. There would be more competition and more
choices for the consumer.

HD-compliant TVs Arrive

There are a handful of TV manufacturers like Philips, Samsung and Panasonic
who have launched HD-compliant TV sets in India. At the same time new players
like BenQ are exploring the Indian market. They see a huge potential in India
for uptake of HDTV sets. "Market has a huge potential. As of now LCD TVs
are not even contributing 2% in CTV sales, but in the coming years the
opportunity will be big, and people are more inclined towards HDTV's,"
says Max Hsu, business head, CE Division, BenQ India.

However, there is low awareness amidst the target audience.
"People still cannot differentiate between a plasma and LCD TV, forget
about knowing what HDTV means and stands for," laments Sandeep C. Yederi,
business head, Enterprise Network Solutions, Panasonic Asia Pacific (India
Office). Panasonic has launched at least five HD-compliant Plasma TV models in
India that are state-of-the-art when it comes to technology and features.

Currently the high prices of HD-compliant TV sets seem to be
prohibitive. "Vendors should be able to justify the high price tags that
they command and this is where product positioning requires greater attention
and detail. Customer will pay for it provided they are convinced of the value in
return," advises Yederi. Industry feels that as volume increases the cost
of such TV sets will decline.

Subrata Saha, general manager of R&D services in MindTree
Consulting opines, "Most of the HDTVs in India are either totally imported
or have maximum imported components." He suggests that the government can
encourage manufacturing these TV sets in India. "Alternatively government
can provide some sort of tax relief to promote HDTV development/manufacturing in
India so that the companies can come forward and start manufacturing though
initially the sale is not very high," he adds.

"More HD content providers and lower price points of end equipments and services will drive the HDTV market for the masses" -Praveen Ganapathy, director, Business Development, Consumer and Automotive, TI India

'Made in India'

Despite the absence of euphoria over HDTV in India, quite a handful of
product engineering companies from India are dedicatedly working on HDTV in
their engineering labs. It could well be that several HDTV components sold in
the US and Europe bear the "Made in India" tag.

For instance, Bangalore-based DSP systems focused company;
Ittiam has developed a key differentiated Intellectual property (IP) called
Multi-format High Definition Video Decoder. The IP is primarily going to be used
by TV Chips to enable the display of video signal obtained in multiple
compressed formats (like H.264, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, VC1 etc). This IP makes the TV
integrate many functions that are performed by the Set-Top Box (STB) and the DVD
players today.

Another Bangalore-based IT and R&D service company, MindTree
Consulting, is working for several HDTV SoC (system on chip) and system
manufacturers. In the SoC development area, MindTree is working for enhancing
the display quality of the HDTV. MindTree is working on products like STB,
Personal Video Recorder (PVR) and Digital Video Recorder (DVR) with HDMI (HD
Media Interface). The product development includes both hardware (board) as well
as software development. The software development includes various middleware
and application development.

India's embedded-system-design leader, Wipro Technologies, has
been long pursuing HDTV and is engaged with OEM/ODMs in architecture consulting,
design and development of consumer electronics devices including HDTV, PVR,
close caption, OSD, tele text and CAS related components. It has produced an
HDTV receiver board for digital TV and rear-projection TV. Wipro has also
undertaken end-to-end solutions for HDTV digital card for a US-based Plasma
display vendor. Wipro has already indigenously developed its own stacks for
digital broadcast standards, viz. ATSC, DVB, ARIB and OpenCable.

Innovation leader, Tata Elxsi has also built vast expertise in
Digital technology and with its "Inside the BoxT" service
architecture, is helping HDTV manufacturers to get their products to market
faster. The company is primarily focused on algorithm development porting and
optimization of DSP encoder and decoder, firmware and driver development and
value engineering, and test and QA for HDTV reference design.

The presence of global chip manufacturers like Marvell and Texas
Instruments in India, also add to the ecosystem necessary for indigenous HDTV
manufacturing. TI is committed to drive cost reduction of end components in
HDTV. TI's portfolio for HDTV consists of TVP700x video converters, and
TVP9000, an integrated HDTV processor including MPEG2 HD decode. Its digital TV
'system on chip' TVP9XXX enables reduction in the number of components in
the end equipment. "Apart from this, for HD Display we have an entire slew
of DLP based optical semiconductor products. DLP technology is a revolutionary
display solution that uses an optical semiconductor to manipulate light
digitally," adds Ganapathy.

Consumer is the King

2010 will truly be a remarkable year for HDTV uptake across the world. It
may be possible for the world to tune into space exploration on HDTV owing to
NASA and HDNet have joined together to provide HDTV coverage of space shuttle
launches through 2010.

In India the market is largely going to be driven by consumers
as they increasingly become aware of the importance of watching a cricket match
in High Definition or watching a movie over satellite with better picture and
sound quality.

Subrata Saha is confident that HDTV service in India will
capture the minds of consumers like the cell phone revolution in India.
"With the access to various technologies and the liberalization in trade as
well as broadcasting policies, India is not going to be left behind for long.
Following the footsteps of the HD successes already seen in Japan and the US,
perhaps 2007 may well be the year HDTV is discovered by India, inching closer to
the 2010 deadline.

Malovika Rao

malovikar@cybermedia.co.in