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Chicago Tribune from Chicago, Illinois • 85

Publication:
Chicago Tribunei
Location:
Chicago, Illinois
Issue Date:
Page:
85
Extracted Article Text (OCR)

Chicago lnbune. I ncffiy. Match A 1983 Scclion A 9 New Technology Cable, recession dimming the picture of the pay TV industry aw rhrlo! rhpd in their markets. "Thp nnpratinp posts for a tvniral atinu in Ihp Chirapn suburbs Charles Storch ched in their markets. "The operating costs for a typical ating in the Chicaeo suburbs and By 1 Homo video markets Feb.

1, Pet. 1983 change penetration Jan. 1, Segment eventually will be built in the- city, Wyant said there may be more than 500,000 TV households here that my not be wired for cable or that may decide not to subscribe. He denied rumors that Home Entertainment Network is considering selling its Chicago operation, whose subscriber base has held at about 60,000 for the last four or five months and which hasn't shown a net profit since it began in late 1981. "Our attitude is to keep slugging it out.

in Chicago," he said. The largest STV operation here, is Oak Industries ON-TV, whose subscriptions are believed to have been holding steady at about 125,000. Efforts to reach Oak officials for comment were unsuccessful. AT SPORTSVISION, the STV service that began broadcasting here last May and that is owned by the Chicago White Sox, Bulls, Black Hawks and Sting, the future seems to be more in cable than in STV. SportsVision's STV subscriber base has continued to grow, reaching about 25,000 now.

But that is about half the number SportsVision officials previously have said it needs to break even. Cole-Ford estimated SportsVision lost about $5 million last year. Since last fall, SportsVision began offering its service to suburban Chicago cable systems and now has about 4,000 cable subscribers, said Laureen Ong Fadil, vice president for programming. SportsVision has talked about joining a regional, perhaps even a national, sports pay TV service, and such a service primarily would rely on cable delivery, she said. "Cable is where we see our growth, but we have no plans to drop out of STV," Fadil said.

"As long as some people can't get SportsVision over cable and have to get it oyer STV, there's no reason to pull the STV plug." But in St. Louis, where cable is in the suburbs but not the city, Cox found its STV subscription growth rate was so slow that its Preview system wasn't likely sign up the 50,000 to 60,000 subscribers it needed within 18 months to break even. "Coming up just short is a terrible position in STV," said Michael Kieveman, Cox executive vice president for television. "You don't want to get to the point where you're big enough and it becomes really painful and expensive to get out." Despite a large investment in STV, which Kieveman declined to disclose, Cox decided to shut down the service after signing up only 10,000 subscribers. Cox owns the UHF station that had transmitted the STV signal and is operating it as a full-time commercial station.

ANALYST ALAN Cole-Ford of Paul Kagan Associates Inc. believes the STV industry has fallen on hard times, but "it's too early to pronounce the patient terminal." But his research firm has lowered its prediction of STV growth. In 1981, Paul Kagan Associates estimated that by year-end 1986 there would be about 4.9 million STV subscribers and 41 STV systems operating. But with about 1.33 million subscribers and 26 systems operating in 20 markets at year-end 1982, the forecast was changed to 3 million subscribers by the end of 1987. Knowledge Industry Publications another communications industry research firm, estimates that the number of STV subscribers nationwide dropped from 1.36 million to 1.3 million, or by 4 percent, in the first month of 1983.

It calculates that STV is in only 1.6 percent of TV households, compared with cable's "penetration" of 33 percent. Cole-Ford said growing operating costs for STV may hurt it more than cable competition. STV system have increased 50 percent since late 1980. The typical operator's costs are about $9 million a year," he said. "And as costs go up, the hypothetical subscriber break-even is pushed higher.

It's now around 65,000 subscribers against about 47,000 subscribers in 1980." THOSE OPERATING costs include operating or leasing broadcast time on a UHF television station which broadcasts the scrambled STV signal to homes; acquiring programs; decoders; billing; marketing; fighting "pirates" who gain unauthorized access to STV signals; and disconnecting lapsed subscribers and connecting new ones. The cost of handling has become a big problem as more subscribers drop STV service. Jack Wyant, chairman of Subscription Television Association, an industry trade group, says the national average "disconnect rate" or percentage of the total subscriber base that drops STV during a month grew from 2.5 percent in 1981 to 7.5 percent in 1982. Wyant thinks the higher disconnect rate is less attributable to cable competition than to the recession, which has made subscribers reconsider paying more than $20 a month for a single pay TV channel. But Wyant, who also is president of Home Entertainment Network, the STV subsidiary of United Cable TV Corp.

that offers Spectrum in Chicago and three other cities, doesn't take cable's power for granted. "I DON'T think STV can compete with cable. Nor do I think it should try to compete," Wyant said. He believes STV can grow in existing and new markets in pockets that won't be reached by cable franchises. Although cable systems are oper THE SIGNAL from subscription television is getting increasingly weak and, in several cities, is fading out entirely.

This pay television service, broadcast over-the-air to home TV sets equipped with special signal decoders, was once considered a fast-growing, promising business. But as subscription TV or STV, as it is known marks its sixth anniversary this month, there is little cause for celebration and fewer STV operations to be invited to any party. Consider: On Feb. 28, Cox Communications pulled the plug on its St. Louis STV system after only nine months on the air.

Also last month, Satellite Television Associated Resources said it was shutting down its Boston STV service and was negotiating the sale of its San Francisco system. In 1982, Time Preview STV unit pulled out of the competitive Dallas market, allowing its channel to be taken over by Golden West. Golden West, in turn, announced the closing of its STV operation in Oklahoma City. The growth rate of STV subscribers nationwide went flat in the third quarter of last year and then began declining. Even in Los Angeles, STV's biggest and until recently its most solid market, subscriptions reportedly have been falling.

The Chicago area, where ON-TV, Spectrum and SportsVision compete, still is considered a bright spot for STV, if only because subscription growth here is believed to be flat and not in decline. But that perception may change when cable TV, already in the suburbs, begins operating in the city. The turnaround in the STV business has led to delays or cancellations in proposed systems in other cities, and the industry seems resigned to the sale, consolidation or fol- Homes passed by cable 53.5 million 54.2 million 1.3 64.8 subscribers 27.2 million 27.6 million 1.3 33.0 Pay cable subscribers 20.6 million 21.0 million 1.9, 19.8 Subscription I TV subscribers 1.36 million 1.30 million 1.6 'Based on 83.7 million TV homes Chicago Tribune Graphic; Sourot! Knowladg Induttry Publication Inc. ding of some existing operations. STV EXECUTIVES and Industry analysts say the pay service has been hurt in the last year by the recession, competition from cable and prohibitively high operating costs.

Some firms that went into STV apparently saw it as a quick and easy way to get into pay TV by providing a single-channel service that would be easy to install, quickly profitable and easy to shut down if cable TV, with a potential of more than 100 channels, became entren Ma Bell, you've come a long, long way, baby -i Wh.iiimil. i 1.4. MR- 9 fs. II Way AVtt4? '1 cV- fi-v- -t. 3: TnhnDA nhotoa bv Ernie Cox Jr.

At the Brickyard Shopping Center, Danita and Gary telephones. Salesperson Anibal Rivera is explaining the use Heinemann are shown one of the many available styles of of a portable cordless model. Briefs Beaming in on silicon chips ELECTRON-BEAM SYSTEMS have been designed to make the creation of circuitry on silicon chips far more precise. These machines use focused beams of electrons to produce a smaller, cleaner image. Electron beam systems are expected to carve the circuitry directly onto the chip, introducing the long-awaited era of "dry processing," superseding the present methods, which use acid and solvent etching.

At the atomic level of "circuit sculpture," electronic-beam technology, too, begins to show its limitations. Electrons are light and tend to scatter, according to Dr. William Thompson of Barian a maker of electronic equipment. Thus, he says, although electron beams can cut lines onto a chip less than a micron wide, the walls of the cut are hollowed out rather than vertical, compromising circuit performance. The focused ion beam overcomes this problem, its proponents say, by using a focused beam of "heavy" ions such as phosphorus, antimony and boron.

They say early experiments indicate the technique may achieve circuit-line widths as small as one-tenth of a micron. Associated Press' Polaroid to market 2 cameras TWO INSTANT CAMERAS priced from $24.95 to1 $39.95 and using Polaroid 600 high-speed color film will be on the market this month, Polaroid Corp. said. The Sun 600 LMS for light management system listed at the top price, will have a built-in electronic flash and what the firm calls "light management" electronics. The cheaper model, the OneStep 600, uses a 10-shot flash array and an electronic "light anticipation" network.

Both cameras have infrared light sensing for evenly exposed flash pictures under a wide variety of photographic situations, the company said. Associated Press: Orbital planner on a desktop A DESKTOP INDICATOR for planning the orbital missions of satellites that use solar power was patented by Rockwell International Downey, Calif. The device is operated on the ground for calculating the angles of the sun so that solar rays may be used to best advantage for power. A proper attitude for the satellites to take is indicated. The patent comments that widespread use of satellites for communications, mapping, natural-resources management and Earth surveillance has created a need for such an easily understood, reasonably priced indicator.

The aerospace company has built and used some of the indicators and foresees their application in various space operations. The Air Force is said to have employed the invention as a planning tool. New York Times Warning: Air collision likely A SYSTEM FOR delivering voice warnings to the pilots of aircraft that may collide has been invented at the computer division of Sperry Corp. in St. Paul.

The system is to be used by a ground controller who has computer-based radar equipment. If the computer discloses the likely crash of two aircraft, the controller can select a message for the pilots. The computer sends numbers to a receiver on each aircraft. The numbers release from a memory and send to the earphone of each pilot a specific message warning of the situation. Without the system, the controller must deliver several warnings by radio to the endangered aircraft.

New York Timet IBM processor for Chinese INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS Machines Corp. has developed a system for the recognition of a large vocabulary of Chinese characters and entering them into text processing and data processing equipment. It also recognizes Kanji words, the Japanese equivalent of the Chinese symbols. The vocabulary is expandable. The system identifies 72 selected symbol elements as an operator draws the complete symbols on an electronic tablet.

The purpose is not to translate into English but to provide a method of entering Chinese or Japanese text into a computer or communications system in coded form. This will permit transmission by cleclronic means or the operation of a suitable printing device. The Inventors have tested this system, but the company has not yrt put it to By Christine Winter IT WASN'T THAT long ago that telephones were rather basic pieces of equipment, from the viewpoint of the average user. They were black and ugly and squatted on the desk, and you could make and receive calls on them. That was about it.

In those days, most of us had not yet been exposed to the wonders of technology long enough to realize the potential of that plain little instrument, which had seemed pretty wonderful in itself when it first came along. Since those simpler days, telephones have developed three important qualities: They became stylish, and even fun, some with Mickey Mouse ears, and others hanging off the sides of giant Coors beer cans; they gave up their status as a dumb machine and learned how to memorize numbers and automatically redial; and they freed themselves of cumbersome cords and became portable. Today, the telephone is as trendy and technologically amazing as any product at the semiannual Consumer Electronics Shows. According to Alfred E. Franks, vice presidentnational of sales for American Bell, industry experts estimate total revenue from leasing and retail sales of telephone equipment will hit $1 billion in 1983, with more than $10 million of that coming from new units.

THE CURRENT year will see 30 million phones leased or sold, and almost 2 million will be cordless phones, which are so popular that interference is becoming a problem. By the end of 1983, friends and business associates of one million new owners of telephone answering equipment will be greeted land most likely irritated by recorded messages. Today's telephone is not only an entree into the world of modern telecommunications and computer technology for the average consumer. It's big business. As for cosmetic changes, the day the Princess phone was a startling innovation is long gone.

Mod telephones perch atop gumball machines, hide inside Pac Man facades, fit into sleek consoles and fold into pocket-sized models. They are snuggled inside sea shells, hooked onto bulletin boards and tucked inside boxes made of everything from walnut for the executive boardroom to lacquerware from Japan. The most startling innovation by far has been the growing intelligence of the average telephone. True, a standard telephone will just sit there and ring when it has to, but the increasing number of units that fall into the functional category can provide more services than a 411 operator and certainly with more eagerness to please. THEY CAN MEMORIZE numbers for one touch dialing, redial busy numbers automatically and ring you when they get through and even tell you how long you ve been talking.

A popular new feature is on-hook dialing, which gives you a free hand when you need it, and group listening speakers that allow the whole family to hear the conversation with grandma. Some models allow you to turn off the ring; they flash a light when a call is coming through. Many new phones are compatible with either rotary home systems or touch tone systems and can accommodate alternate long distance systems like MCI or Sprint that require tone mode dialing. One of the most exciting of the new breed will be coming from American Boll. Called the Genesis Telesystem, it proves Ma Bell has not neglected to teach hor offspring the fine art of making a buck, since many of the dazzling extra features are provided through additional modules and cartridges that must be purchased separately.

The Genesis offers these "space age" features: IT CAN HE programmed to memorlio 10 numbers for unc touch dialing, 3 of 4 ii i tmmZn in ill com communications between the two. The handsets are usually small enough to be stuck into a pocket, so they can be carried around the house. A popular- advertising scenario shows a man outside watering the front lawn, chatting away on his cordless phone, without neglecting a single blade of grass. INSIDE THE house, the portable phones usually have a range of 100 feet from the base; outside, an antennfi can provide ranges anywhere from 700 to 1,000 feet from the base unit. Many also offer memory and auto redial features.

Prices range from $90 to $300. Since the cordless phones are essentially radio transmitters, there is a problem with interference because so are in use and there are only five channels allocated for telephone use by the Federal Communications Commission. Some firms, such as Webcor Electronics and E.R.S. are building in security codes to prevent such mixups. The user Simply Keys the same code number for the: base and portable handset from a choice of 500 possibilities.

Another big area is the answering machine, which has been a many-featured wonder for some time. New models allow messages of varying length, as well as an automatic switchover to a second, tape when the first is filled, and many have been systemized la favorite word among electronics buffs into a single console with the telephone, such as Code-A-Phone and Panasonic's new Easaphonc rriodels. Ever since the telephone equipment field has opened up to non Bell products, the problem of providing service has. been a major concern. At a conference, sponsored by the Electronics Industry Association in Las Vegas, companies like GTE and International Telephone, and Telegraph went out of their way to impress retailors with plans for toll free service numbers as well as nationwide repair centers.

The average consumer is used. to a certain standard of quality when it 'comes to telephone equipment, they pointed out. If he can't rely on the equipment other manufacturers offer for sale, he won't lie inclined to switch from what he already has. "All the fancy features in the' world aren't going to matter if the phone doesn't work for (ho consumer when he needs it," one Nrw York retailor warned. which are keyed to illuminated emergency buttons.

It has a display screen, which snows the number just dialed, and when it isn't occupied doing that, provides the time, day, month and date and gives step-by-step instructions for using the system should it "outsmart" you. It has a built-in timer for timing long distance calls. It will save the most recent call and redial at the touch of a button, let you put callers on hold, allows for group listening and has a built-in clock, calendar and alarm. You can also initiate a call without picking up the handset. For this basic system, the price tag will run about $350.

For $250 more, you can add the universal module, which memorizes your personal phone directory in alphabetical order. You can store as many as 75 names and numbers in it. It also includes a hands-free speaker phone, as well as a privacy button to prevent conversations going on in the room from being overheard. Other features come in the form of snap-on cartridges, which will sell for $30 each, including a Custom Calling cartridge that adds call waiting, call forwarding and three-way calling functions. IT AI-SO ADDS five more one-touch calling numbers.

The Deluxe Auto Dialer cartridge makes it possible to redial busy or unanswered numbers repeatedly and automatically. It also adds nine more one-touch numbers. The Electronic Padlock, which will be popular with parents of teenagers, can prevent all dialed calls, or only unauthorized long distance or operator-assisted calls. A timer tone will remind you how long you've been talking. The Dalcbook cartridge will remember and remind the user of appointments, dates, birthdays and other messages on the display screen.

Each cartridge simply plugs into the side of Hie Genesis basic unit and comes with a new face for the front of the phone to provide the necessary information blanks for whatever sys- tern is being used. Many of the functions are available alone or in combination with one or two others from other telephone manufacturersthe phone that can't memorize and automatically dial at least three numbers those days seems dumb. In its own splashy way, the Ih'll system Is the first The ever popular Mickey Mouse has joined the parade to make a phone something other than a squat, black totally utilitarian instrument. to offer this stale-of the-art model that includes virtually every electronic feature currently possible in one expandable unit. THOUGH AHOUT A year old, one of the most sophisticated entries in this field comes from Northern Telecom.

The Dis-playphone is designed for the businessman and has been nicknamed the executive workstation. Everything is housed in one unit terminal, telephone and keyboard, which slides underneath for compact packaging, taking up only a square foot of space. The terminal does not have its own brain, but it can be hooked up, via the telephone, to data base services or a central office computer. It has a second line so that the user can talk on it while searching through his electronic files. 11 also offers many of the fancy phone features we will soon come to expect: on-hook dialing, a 90 number auto dial repertory and a call timer.

It can also be hooked up to a printer. It sells for $1,995. The remote, or cordless, phones are catching on big with the public. They consist of two pieces a home base ami a cordless handset and some allow inter commercial use. New York Times.

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Pages Available:
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Years Available:
1849-2024