TECHNOLOGY & TELECOMMUNICATIONS

Panel Urges Cooperation in HDTV Effort: The government’s panel on the television of the future urged three industry groups to stop competing and unite to set a new standard for high-definition TV pictures and sound. The system that is adopted by the United States is expected to drive future television technology around the world. Two of the three industry groups--General Instrument-Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Zenith-AT&T--have; already agreed to work together. But if the consortium of NBC, Thomson, Philips and the David Sarnoff Research Center does not join them, the advisory committee will take the competing systems separately for further tests.