By Walter S. Ciciora, American Televsion & Communications Corporation
Standards committee progress is often painfully slow. To a newcomer, especially someone accustomed to the "fast lane," this activity can be quite frustrating. There are several points to be made about this. Firstly, if cable interface and decoder interface standards were easy to achieve, they'd have been agreed to a long time ago. Secondly, the issues being settled are delicate points involving trade-offs which impact the economics and performance of two industries. These two industries have a history short on cooperation and long on animosity. Fortunately, the trend toward cooperation is on the up swing.
At first blush, it would seem difficult to find two industries with more reason to cooperate than the Cable Television Industry and the Consumer Electronics Industry. Better pictures should enhance satisfaction in cable service and better choice should increase the desire for quality images. I believe that most of the difficulties are due to a lack of information and misunderstanding. Open, honest, and frank contacts should be helpful to all. That is the purpose of this discussion.