DTV hangover

The impact of the DTV transition on planning and purchasing is clear in the shopping lists of the country's station-groups interviewed for this special report.

The groups—Ackerley, Capitol, Cox, Emmis, E.W. Scripps, Granite and Meredith—are well along in getting DTV on air. And those furthest along seem to have a similar hangover as residents of Salt Lake City. They spent years building and planning to hit a deadline that the entire industry is focused on. Now that they've met their deadline, they head to this year's NAB conference, April 6-11 in Las Vegas, wondering what's next.

Those groups still involved in the final push to get stations on-air find that other station projects are feeling the DTV pinch. Most seem optimistic that they will hit the deadline, though. Even if they don't, their stations will be on-air within the extension period.

There are some unifying areas of interest for all the groups. Like their network bretheren, they are giving asset management a close look and investigating centralcasting. DVD also is attracting interest an archiving tool. And disk-based cameras are on the list as well.

This year's NAB will still reflect the effects of the DTV-transmission transition. Next year already promises to harbinger the spread of digital technologies throughout the rest of the broadcast facility.