Thursday, November 01, 2007

HD - Is it the right time?

The website is only going to be up for two weeks, but that’s long enough for Akamai’s HDWEB to make a simple point.  The web can deliver HD content.  It’s still expensive and it still requires some powerful hardware, but HD over IP will be coming a lot sooner than many people in the industry expected.

The technology is finally just about right.  NBC Sports head David Neal, predicts NBC’s 2008 Summer Olympics HD broadcast “will be a signature moment for the adoption of high-definition as a mainstream delivery medium for consumers” (source: Broadcasting & Cable).  He goes on to predict that over 50% of U.S. households will have an HDTV set in 2008.  Even if this is wishful thinking, HD TV is clearly on the verge of a tipping point.  The technology is moving rapidly from luxury item, to cool toy, to “the only way to watch sports at home.”