ATP FOCUSED PROGRAM:

                 Digital Video in Information Networks

                     FY 1995 Funding: $15 million
              Estimated FY 1995-2000 Funding: $120 million

Potential for U.S. Economic Benefit.

    From the early days of noisy teletype interfaces to Rolling Stones'
    concerts "broadcast" live on the Internet, digitized graphics have
    become an ever-more-sophisticated element of information networks.
    They are an increasingly important component as well. In business
    communications, scientific visualization, and user interfaces -- to
    mention only a few areas -- graphics have become an effective method
    of organizing and presenting information on complex concepts and
    relationships.

    Moving pictures -- known as digital video in this context -- are the
    most exciting and demanding of these graphic formats. As computers
    become multimedia workstations, as television moves to
    high-definition digital formats, and as telephony takes on elements
    of both, information technologies are merging together in
    unprecedented ways. The industries that are creating information
    networks fully expect digital video to be an essential element of
    this convergence. And they anticipate huge annual markets for
    digital video -- in the range of hundreds of billions of dollars --
    for phone, pay-per-view movies, home shopping, financial,
    educational, and other services that will include a video component.

    The commercial stakes could hardly be larger. The overwhelming
    economic benefits from genuinely interoperable digital video
    technology stem from expanded and more attractive capabilities and
    services on the user end of the information framework. The broad
    user categories of entertainment, manufacturing, education and
    training, and health services alone account for several trillion
    dollars of commerce. Another set of industries that distribute
    information and make, sell, and integrate network equipment accounts
    for another few hundred billion dollars of economic activity.

Technology Challenge.

    Crucial technology decision points regarding convergence and digital
    video are arriving with disconcerting rapidity. One of these that
    industry has identified centers on precisely how video-based
    information will be digitally packaged and distributed in an
    information network in which the producers of the video products,
    the distributors of the information, and its users all employ a
    diversity of processing, transmission, and receiving components. The
    ideal is that any video-based information product -- whether it be
    motion pictures, television programs, computer games, or
    home-shopping systems -- can travel via wire, optical fiber,
    satellite, or broadcast seamlessly into regular TVs; high-definition
    TVs; computer monitors; and other information appliances at homes,
    factories, hospitals, and schools.

    The three major industry groups of the emerging and relentlessly
    growing information network -- the creators of information products
    such as movie houses, the distributors of the information such as
    cable companies, and those who make appliances such as TVs with
    which users access the information -- recognize that they are at a
    particular decision point whose outcome will take them down very
    different paths. On the one hand, they can work cooperatively toward
    building a seamless information framework based on the
    "interoperability" of the framework's many components, a decision
    that raises the water level for everyone since it will enable a more
    attractive and versatile portfolio of services that will make the
    difference in the marketplace. On the other hand, they could allow
    the swift momentum of information technology to sweep them forward
    (or away) individually without full regard for the rest of the
    framework. In that scenario not only would the potential versatility
    of the emerging framework be clipped severely, but industry fears it
    would be virtually impossible to reverse.

    To develop truly interoperable digital video capability across
    future information networks means creating R&D structures under
    which distinctly different industries with different histories,
    technology bases, and approaches to standards development can work
    together toward the goal of interoperability between and among
    network components. Individual companies already have begun facing
    challenges such as finding means of greatly compressing the enormous
    amount of data that video information requires while maintaining
    data quality and remaining cost-effective. Under the ATP focused
    program, many companies will be able to coordinate their efforts so
    that the collective outcome will be far more valuable for everyone
    on all sides of the information network.

Industry Commitment.

    Industry recognizes that the information networks that are evolving
    will be characterized by a convergence of different media such as
    telephony and video through the same diverse set of information
    network components. At a workshop in August 1994, 430 participants
    representing TV networks, telecommunications industries, and
    information technology companies convened to clarify the technology
    needs to be addressed if they are to build maximum value into the
    information networks. As a result of this workshop and a series of
    other industry-led gatherings, NIST received over 40 white papers
    from industry directly related to digital video. All participants
    identified the need for a long-term program involving both industry
    and government to facilitate development of interface standards,
    address intellectual property rights, support R&D in interoperable
    systems, and establish pilot programs to apply advanced video
    technology. This ATP focused program will fill a critical gap in the
    R&D part of this agenda.

Significance of ATP Funds.

    This is a now-or-never opportunity to include interoperability in
    the information network; once individual players establish
    themselves with their own protocols, others will have to either
    conform, bail out, or in the worst case, make way to foreign
    providers of more interoperable services. The ATP focused program in
    digital video in information networks provides a rare patch of
    common ground -- a patch that relevant industry groups have
    indicated is badly needed -- on which many companies devoted to
    different components of the emerging information network can gather,
    develop teams as needed, and plan interoperability of digital video
    into the ever evolving and converging network. The cost-shared
    program also can help accelerate development of relevant
    technologies or open doors to higher risk projects that would remain
    on companies' wish lists, particularly those of the smaller
    entrepreneurial variety where some of the more powerful ideas arise.

For information about eligibility, how to apply, and cost-sharing
requirements, contact the Advanced Technology Program:

        (800)-ATP-FUND [(800)-287-3863]
        email: atp@micf.nist.gov
        fax: (301) 926-9524

        A430 Administration Building
        National Institute of Standards and Technology
        Gaithersburg, MD 20899-0001

For technical information, contact:

        Hanafy Meleis, Program Manager
        (301) 975-5497
        e-mail: meleis@micf.nist.gov
        fax: (301) 926-9524

December 1994