KNME-TV
goes digital with past bond boost
By Misty
Salaz
With help
from a $7.2 million bond, KNME-TV was the first station in New
Mexico to turn-on a digital signal.
KNME-DT,
channel 35, began broadcasting last fall thanks to the passage
of a November 2000 General Obligation Bond.
KNME-DT
is currently in a low-power test phase along with two other
public television stations in New Mexico. The Federal Communications
Commission requires all public television stations to convert
from analog to digital programming by May 2003.
Although
KNME is one year ahead of the deadline, Ted Garcia, KNME General
Manager and CEO, said it is in the middle of a multi-year federal
grant.
The
$7.2 million from the General Obligation Bond is being used
as a match for a multi-year grant of about $8.2 million, which
will come from the U.S. Department of Commerce, Garcia
said.
There
will be a requirement of about $30 million for all three public
television stations in New Mexico to accomplish all the goals
that digital is capable of.
Garcia
said analog and digital signals are very different types of
programming.
Its
like apples and oranges, Garcia said. Analog is
one thing at a time and digital is many things at a time.
In digital
television, images and sound are captured using the same digital
code found in computers.
Garcia
said High Definition Television, multicasting and datacasting
are among the advantages of a digital signal.
High Definition
Television has much higher resolution and clarity than standard
analog television. HDTV is displayed in a wide screen format,
which is 16 inches wide and nine inches high.
Even at
low power, digital television has already brightened the future
of KNME, with a promise of high power to come.
KNME
will be vastly different from the KNME of the past, he
said. It is a totally new way of addressing broadcasting,
public and otherwise.