U.S. Industry Seeks Major Role in New TV Technology
The U.S. electronics industry announced Tuesday that it will seek to re-enter the consumer business lost to Japan by playing a major role in the projected $40-billion world market for a new generation of televisions.
Calling the effort to catch up to Japan in advanced television research a “last window of opportunity,” the American Electronics Assn. said it is forming a task force to explore a possible alliance of industry, government and academia.
At a meeting Monday of more than 50 computer, semiconductor and telecommunications industry leaders, government officials and academic researchers, a consensus was reached in five areas:
- The U.S. electronics industry should be in the consumer business.
- Advanced television, which is expected to deliver stunningly realistic images and sound, means more to the electronics industry than just re-entering the consumer market.
- Advanced television will drive the leading edge technologies, such as advanced semiconductors.
- An open system of design should be used rather than one that locks in specific parameters and specific manufacturers.
- A broadcast standard should be adopted that is advantageous to U.S. manufacturers, broadcasters and consumers.
“We found that the implications for ATV (advanced television) for our industry and for the economic well-being of the country are pervasive,” said Pat Hill Hubbard, vice president of the 3,500-member AEA.
“One point stressed throughout the meeting,” he said, “was the non-participation in this market by the U.S. electronics industry will mean the loss of our leading edge research and, in turn, our ability to compete in the emerging global marketplace.”
‘Where We Want to Go’
Companies attending the electronics powwow included AT&T;, International Business Machines Corp., Hewlett-Packard Co., Motorola Corp., Apple Computer Co., National Semiconductor Corp., Advanced Micro Systems Inc. and Intel Corp.
Among the government officials was Al Sikes, assistant secretary of Commerce for communication and information policy.
“We hope this is a catalytic meeting for what is to be done,” said Ralph Thomson, senior vice president of the AEA, which hosted the meeting at its headquarters.
“We’re talking about how we got to where we aren’t,” he said wryly, “and finding out where we want to go.”
Where they aren’t, he said, is in consumer electronics, a multibillion-dollar industry pioneered by U.S. companies but now dominated by Japan.
“We’re looking at some very mordant lessons,” Thomson said. “Everybody had a chill go through them in the room today as one of the guys who was instrumental at Ampex in creating VCR technology in 1968 talked about how we farmed that out to Sony and Toshiba and as a result lost about 35 very important ancillary technologies.”
