Audio Video News

Last week, JVC Americas announced that it has consolidated its projector operations&mdash;both JVC-branded projection systems and Hughes-JVC-branded systems&mdash;into <A HREF="http://www.jvc.com/pro">JVC Professional Products Company</A>, and will develop and market all future projection systems under the JVC brand. The company says that this consolidation will result in the creation of a new Visual Systems Division, effective next month. JVC says it hopes that the reorganized company will grow its projection-display business by more than 15% in the year 2000.

How much responsibility should broadcasters be required to take in serving the public interest? On December 16, the <A HREF="http://www.fcc.gov/">Federal Communications Commission</A> launched an inquiry into the subject with a call for comments from the very people who will be served best, or worst, by the dawning age of digital television&mdash;the viewing public.

It's the ultimate chicken-or-egg television question: Which will come first, Internet over TV or TV over the Internet? Last week, <A HREF="http://www.broadwing.com">Broadwing</A> gave a nod to the latter when it announced that its subsidiary ZoomTown.com has unveiled <A HREF="http://www.intertainer.com">Intertainer</A>, which the company describes as "a new video-on-demand service" for customers with high-speed, high-bandwidth ADSL online connections. Broadwing says that ZoomTown customers will be among the first in the nation able to receive the service in early 2000. Subscribers will pay the normal monthly fee for DSL service, and will then be charged for their video selections on a pay-per-view basis.

A plan by <A HREF="http://www.blockbuster.com/">Blockbuster Inc.</A>, the world's #1 video chain, to turn its major rival's stores into Blockbuster franchises, has been blocked by the <A HREF="http://www.ftc.gov/">Federal Trade Commission</A>, the <A HREF="http://www.wsj.com/"><I>Wall Street Journal</I></A> reported December 10. Blockbuster had planned to put its name on Hollywood Video's approximately 1500 stores.

Last week, <A HREF="http://www.thomson-multimedia.com">Thomson multimedia</A> announced a major investment and development partnership with <A HREF="http://www.geocast.com">Geocast Network Systems</A>, in an alliance that the company claims is intended to deploy a comprehensive terrestrial broadcast-based digital television datacasting system and service to millions of homes from coast to coast. Thomson says it is making a $15 million investment in Geocast Network Systems, and that "the result will be seamless, high-quality playback of rich-media content at a moment's notice from home entertainment and information devices."

The video-display war got a lot hotter on December 3. That day, <A HREF="http://www.sharp-usa.com/">Sharp Electronics</A> debuted its SharpVision LC-R60HDU CG-Silicon rear projector, the first such display to incorporate the company's revolutionary continuous-grain silicon (CG-Silicon) LCD technology. The 60"-diagonal display has more than 3.93 million pixels, and is said to offer unprecedented brightness, clarity, and color accuracy from any viewing angle. Perfection doesn't come cheap, however. The new projector costs a cool $50k.