Irish television is entering a new era, with digital signals broadcasting crystal-clear images and extra features to our sets, writes Haydn Shaughnessy
When Dublin and Laois take the field at Croke Park tomorrow they will also be running into a small piece of broadcast history. The Leinster football final marks the beginning of a small, discreet trial to establish a new kind of Irish television.
At some point in the future, yet to be decided, digital terrestrial television, or DTT, will bring an expansion in the number and quality of TV channels we receive through a roof top aerial.
DTT also brings with it the ability to deliver high-definition television (HDTV) images, with a greatly increased resolution, to our screens, and Croke Park hosts the first trial terrestrial HDTV transmission in Ireland. Sunday sees also the launch of HD Ireland, a new channel that will test HD technology by transmitting it to an audience of about 1,000 homes around the country over the next 12 months (to avail of HDTV, viewers must have an expensive HD-ready television set). In addition, the trial marks the arrival of greater interactivity through the TV set. Here is the bright new future of television.
DTT in Ireland has been a long time coming. There are already several functioning DTT systems in Europe, most notably the Freeview system in Britain and an interactive service in Italy, while Sky has been offering high-definition broadcasts to its subscribers in this country since May 2006.
The tests beginning at Croke Park tomorrow, however, mark the beginning of native DTT, and bring together a consortium that includes the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, RTÉ, TG4, TV3 and technology provider BT. Collectively, they will decide what kind of DTT system to deploy in Ireland.
For the test viewers it will mark the start of more interactive television as well as better opportunities for broadcasters to compete more vigorously with online services.
The competitive landscape, however, is broad. In future the bells may ring for HDTV but they are already pealing for much cheaper programming, for drawing viewers more into content production and for producing content for a variety of terminals (mobile phones, PCs, and personal media players).
On the subject of cheaper programming, imagine if, instead of just watching television, you also got to watch television being made. And not just being made. What if the decisions that go into television programme-making were exposed to public view?
Here's a preview of the soap of the future. You have access to a Fair City channel on the web where you can log on and watch rehearsals for the show and view a discussion between the director and a producer who demands a re-shoot of key scenes in the early evening and you see the results on your TV screen. This is just one example of the future of television.
"There's no reason why we shouldn't be exposing the editorial process to viewers," says John Nolan, head of N.one Television, an independent programme-maker in the UK. Nolan has set up what might be the first all-digital television production outfit that is also permanently plugged into the internet. Nolan envisions the possibility, sometime soon, of TV shows being edited live online, spinning much more "content" from the same raw material.
Broadcasters such as RTÉ, TG4 and TV3 must compete both in this international arena, where ultra-cheap programming is a priority, and in high-end systems such as high definition, while responding to changes wrought by personal media technologies.
"You're constantly thinking when you're commissioning programmes," says Clare Duignan, director of programmes at RTÉ. "How will this work out in a non-traditional manner? Our bottom line is we want to be platform neutral."
Being platform neutral is a big step for a broadcaster. It means a form of content that would be as appealing to an audience on any branch of the hallowed tech-trinity: TV, PC and mobile device.
But this is only one in a range of new futures. There is the "rocking chair" model, with users "sitting forward" to use applications such as messaging or web-browsing on their TVs as they would sit forward to use a PC, then leaning back to watch programming. And there is the most radical model to take into account: viewers become producers, taking TV and web content and creating their own versions, as many users do on the web.
At the heart of it all is the possibility of a tipping point, a transition from the historical model of communication to a convergence of new ones that might leave broadcasters bereft of the audiences that make their costs justifiable.
"No one has a crystal ball, but it will happen in the next two years," says Erik Lumer, until recently chief executive at Dublin-based internet TV service Babelgum. "I don't think it will mean that TV will disappear, but it will settle into a different audience and revenue, providing live events and premium content, especially around the introduction of high-definition television. But we will also see the growth of new platforms and a variety of programming you don't find on television. When will this reach critical mass? In the next 24 months."
The challenge for many European broadcasters is to fight the omnipresence of highly branded global programmes and the dynamism and low cost of the web with more local content.
"RTÉ has always competed against the BBC, UTV and then Channel 4," says Larry Bass, a leading Irish independent producer. "The key is finding programmes that have merit for the audience and whet the appetite for Irish programmes, for standout indigenous programmes. The strongest performers in Ireland are home-produced. That's the key to protecting the RTÉ brand."
It is fitting, then, that the new age of high definition and multichannel terrestrial TV is launched at Croke Park. Come kick-off, a new age of broadcasting begins.
Regardless of who wins tomorrow's game, Irish television will never be the same again.
High-definition television: Zapping the jargon
What's changing?
Digital terrestrial television (DTT) and high-definition television (HDTV) is on the way and it will involve a huge cost in transitioning networks and people to digital TV.
The process will allow a far greater array of terrestrial channels capable of transmitting images in high definition. RTÉ's DTT/high-definition trials will begin tomorrow.
Cross-platform and short-form content
Along with other broadcasters, RTÉ is experimenting with short-form content such as the comedy Dan and Becs, the episodes of which are short enough to run on both television and on web channels such as Bebo or YouTube. Some analysts believe short content on mobile devices will be the dominant audiovisual entertainment format in the future.
Home and extended home networks
Home networks can link PCs to TV sets and even lighting systems. Microsoft and Apple already supply software to enhance the connection between the PC and the TV. Technology from Sling media also allows you to connect your TV to your laptop wherever you have a broadband internet connection.
New internet TV services
Services such as Joost and Babelgum deliver TV-quality programming through the internet. Sky TV, which, along with the social networking site MySpace, is owned by News Corporation, is reported to be launching an internet TV service before the end of 2007. IPTV (standing for "internet protocol television") is television delivered only to the PC screen. There are hundreds of IPTV channels available on the web.
Personal media players
Video content can be bought from the US version of Apple's online iTunes store, and then played on an iPod video. They have already been on the market for two years and are the most popular of a number of personal media players. Portable games consoles such as the PlayStation Portable (PSP) can also play video content.
Simultaneous movie releases
One of the strengths of terrestrial TV has been the release of blockbuster movies to television. The era of a broadcast stranglehold on new movies could be coming to an end. Already internet entrepreneurs, such as broadcast.com's Mark Cuban, are buying into film production and releasing movies simultaneously in cinemas, on DVD and on cable TV.