Federal Communications Commission chairman William Kennard underlined the importance of education as key to broadcasters in their transition from analog to digital television (DTV) over the coming five years, at the National Association of Broadcasters convention. He joined representatives of Harris Corp and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) for the launch of the HARRIS/PBS DTV Express’ vehicle, which over the next 15 months will take its education road show to 40 US cities. The bus offers a series of training seminars for local broadcasters designed to cover the technical, economic, legal and regulatory aspects of the DTV conversion process. Visitors to the truck are transported into three different environments: a living room of tomorrow, a classroom of the future and a DTV station. They interact with presenters in each area of the vehicle as new services made available by DTV are demonstrated, along with the equipment needed to make the transition to digital. Under the timetable adopted by the FCC last April, major network affiliates in the ten largest markets must have a digital signal on the air by May 1, 1999, and those in media markets 11 to 30 must be up and running digitally by November 1, 1999. Commercial stations in all remaining markets have been given a May 1, 2002 deadline for conversion, while public television stations must begin digital TV broadcasting no later than May 1, 2003.
