RF Shorts – Nov. 17, 2011

By Doug Lung
published


Boxee Live TV Arrives
Boxee has officially announced the addition of a TV tuner to its popular Internet TV set-top box. Wired.com has good coverage of the announced in the article Cord Cutters, Rejoice! Boxee Dongle Delivers Live HDTV, Sans Subscription. Christina Bonnington writes, "I abandoned cable TV years ago. I couldn't afford to spend hours in front of the boob tube, absorbing Jersey Shore-isms and Two and a Half Manliness. But there are definitely times when I miss being able to watch TV, live and in HD. Luckily, Boxee, maker of the Boxee set-top box, has come up with a solution that provides access to basic live TV, in HD, without the need for a cable subscription."

The USB tuner for Boxee is a $50 add-on, but if it's successful, Boxee will probably make it available as an option in the box. Boxee's CEO Avner Ronen told Wired he believes there are three important consumer classes on the rise: "cord-never getters" (young people who have never signed up for cable TV before), "cord-cutters" (those who have cable but realize other services can satisfy their needs), and "cord-shavers" (people whose viewing habits have changed, but have just switched to a lower-end subscription package)."

"Our assumption is that our users will watch most of their favorite shows from services such as Netflix, Vudu, Hulu, etc. and will tune in to live TV to watch live events such as sports, news, and award shows," Ronen said.

See Christina Bonnington's article for a Twitter survey she did to see how her readers watch TV.

Solar Cycle 24 Sunspots Set Record
The K7RA Solar Update reported that on Wed., Nov. 9, the daily sunspot number reached 220, the highest it has been in more than eight years. Ted Cook writes, "The last time the sunspot number was higher than 220 was Nov. 1, 2003 when the number was 277. The next day--Nov. 10--the daily sunspot number dropped back to 164. Two days before it reached 277 in 2003, the sunspot number was 330, a harder record to beat."

He also provided links to a National Geographic article on sunspot group 1339 and a Sky and Telescope gallery of photos of the sunspot group.

Doug Lung
Doug Lung

Doug Lung is one of America's foremost authorities on broadcast RF technology. As vice president of Broadcast Technology for NBCUniversal Local, H. Douglas Lung leads NBC and Telemundo-owned stations’ RF and transmission affairs, including microwave, radars, satellite uplinks, and FCC technical filings. Beginning his career in 1976 at KSCI in Los Angeles, Lung has nearly 50 years of experience in broadcast television engineering. Beginning in 1985, he led the engineering department for what was to become the Telemundo network and station group, assisting in the design, construction and installation of the company’s broadcast and cable facilities. Other projects include work on the launch of Hawaii’s first UHF TV station, the rollout and testing of the ATSC mobile-handheld standard, and software development related to the incentive auction TV spectrum repack.
A longtime columnist for TV Technology, Doug is also a regular contributor to IEEE Broadcast Technology. He is the recipient of the 2023 NAB Television Engineering Award. He also received a Tech Leadership Award from TV Tech publisher Future plc in 2021 and is a member of the IEEE Broadcast Technology Society and the Society of Broadcast Engineers.