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Montreux, Switzerland--Another Montreux forum has come and gone and once again, Americans are scratching their heads over Europeans' attitude towards HDTV.

As one of the first sites that introduced high definition television technology to the industry in the early 80's, Montreux has always provided a place for broadcasters on both sides of the Atlantic to debate the pros and cons of the format. Europe's early experiences in HD resulted in "HD-MAC," an analog high definition standard that failed to catch on – or as one DVB official at last week's forum referred to it – "that HD-MAC debacle."

As the United States rushes headlong into HDTV, Europeans are watching and waiting to see what transpires. Whether HDTV is a "success" in the US yet, depends on whom you ask and early numbers from the first two years are open to interpretation. One thing has become clear though – if they want to stay competitive in the US TV market, the European production community will have to develop programming in HD.

"Europeans will adopt HD," said Bob Hopkins, sr. vp of Sony Pictures. "If the industry does not recognize the value of the format, they will be passed by." Randall Dark, president of HD Vision (Dallas) one of the leading proponents of HDTV production in the US added, "it's a huge mistake for Europeans not to get involved in HDTV," he said. "HD is evolutionary."

One British producer recounted his experiences with the BBC's attitude toward HDTV. "The BBC were very nervous about HD," said Nigel Shepherd, managing director with Playback, a post production house in London who has been working in HD production for 10 years. Shepherd was eventually able to hook up with a BBC official who saw the value of high definition in the arts and the worldwide marketing potential of the programming.

DVB and HDTV
Europe's standard body, the DVB, has never been very enthusiastic about HDTV, however recent proposals such as "hierarchical modulation" to allow HDTV services in a 6 MHz channel, promoted by Sinclair Broadcasting Group (Baltimore) at NAB2000, have shown that the organization believes that HDTV will be a force to deal with in the worldwide DTV environment. Hierarchical modulation allows a 720p HDTV standard bitstream to be sent over a 6 MHz pipe at just over 13 MB/s with the possibility of using on-channel (in-home) repeaters to enhance reception, according to Peter MacAvock a director with the DVB Project.

"HDTV is not the sole answer to the success of DTV worldwide, but neither is multichannel SDTV," MacAvock says. "The key is the mixing of both SDTV and HDTV with the addition of value-added data services and interactivity."

Is the DVB's new "enthusiasm" for HDTV a change of heart or is there more to it? Perhaps, but one could also speculate that with the organization's continued campaign to amend the US ATSC standard, DVB is feeling more confident about eventually revising or even overtaking the standard and making a case for HDTV in the DVB environment certainly can't hurt its cause.

Catching Up With the Technology
Hans Heber, head of planning with Germany's ZDF network stressed that earlier experiments with HDTV in Europe were a perfect example of a technology ahead of its time. "We started pretty early on HDTV," Heber says. "I think the positive aspect of it is that we know exactly what we did wrong and we would like to make it right. There was no acceptance of it because there was no technology. The technology was not ready for deployment. The good news is that we now have better technology and I think we can develop value-added services and I think we can gain acceptance from the viewer and new revenues from the services.

"I think the development in the states is grounds for good expectations that there will be a change from quantity to quality," Heber added. "Currently, what counts at least on the continent is quantity and I hope that it turns around [to quality]." But Heber added that HDTV must be affordable both at the production and the consumer end to succeed. "Introducing and investing in such a system means you must have a mature technology at an affordable price."

Still, no European-based entity announced any substantive HDTV initiatives at the World Television Forum in Montreux and some speculate that the continent will wait and see if HDTV takes off in the US before it considers adopting the format.

David Youlton, president of Snell & Wilcox, and one of Europe's leading proponents of HD, laments that he feels like the "lone voice in the wilderness" in his entreaties to the industry to move toward high definition. But he feels confident that HDTV will eventually come to the continent, albeit in a somewhat different mode. "HDTV will come to Europe sooner than anyone would like to think," Youlton said.

By Tom Butts