HDTV and it's impact on Life

(This is a term paper I did for my "Perspectives" class, which was called "Technology and it's impact on Humans", or something like that..sometime in the late, late 90's...I just edited it a bit to get rid of the graphics I can't link to anymore, etc....... I think I got an A- on it...Enjoy.)

Ever since the earliest times of human existence, man has been enamored with sounds and images that entertain our thoughts.  Beginning with simple cave paintings, to Egyptian hieroglyphs, Greek Tragedies, Shakespearean Theatre,  Mozart’s Opera,  The earliest Edisonian images, Talkies in the twenties, Orwellian Radio Drama’s, Technicolor Television, and now Digital (DTV) and High Definition Television (HDTV), human kind have sought to experience the ultimate in sensory manipulation. Can the fictional Halo-Deck of Star Trek, The Next Generation be far behind?

            Probably not.   

            It took almost forty years for television in the United States to reach maturation in its standard form, known as NTSC(National Television Systems committee) analog broadcasting.  That was the standard adopted early on, and has been ever since the early nineteen fifties.  The next step, already in the early stages of adoption is referred to as the ATSC(Advanced Television Systems Committee) standard, which in reality is a plethora of eighteen possible variations of Digital Broadcast and High Definition Television. Since the early 1960’s the dreams of a higher quality television broadcast system has been chased by the Japanese, European, and Americans.

            The Japanese wasted no time in adopting and implementing an analog HDTV system, which has been in place for almost twenty years.  The Europeans and Americans, however, have been less than efficient in their efforts, almost to an advantage. The time spent haggling over standards and technology, in effect, will deliver a better product to more people with less cost to the consumer. In the short term this would seem like a problem, but in the long term, consumers didn’t miss out on what they never had, taking current technology to the fullest extent, and will benefit from the advantages of the new standards, leaving Japanese customers waiting in the wings.

            The rapid development of the digital age in the past fifteen years, culminating in Compact Discs, Home computers, and Digital Video Discs, has set the stage for what will come to be known as the greatest thing to happen to home entertainment since the advent of Technicolor. All  of these basic technologies, plus new technologies in media production and delivery will provide home users with an Information and Entertainment Mecca, right in your living room, for, feasibly, not much more than what you would pay for existing products and services.

            For me, this means that having had to watch television on an old TV in my living room at the whims of broadcast executives, keep and store bulky VHS video tapes in order to watch the movies I want, keep and store music CD’s in another rack and then have the space for a stereo system to play them on, then move to another room and an expensive home computer to get information and data online, dragging my CD’s with me and then confusing them with my CD-ROMs, will rapidly become a thing of the past.  The time is near when all these separate functions will be available in one, networked information/entertainment center, featuring a  flat-screened, High Definition Television, Digital Dolby 5.1 Surround Sound, a Central Processing Unit Server to store Digital video and sound files, run software applications, and connect to the information superhighway, from remote, wireless workstations featuring digital monitors/televisions and interactive voice and thought input devices, and even possibly your own personal Virtual Reality Halo-Deck. The home will become a nexus of interactive information and entertainment on demand, and hopefully within my small budget.

            Quite possibly, my clutter strewn, messy house will become my spiritual, intellectual, and emotional Nirvana.

Statement of the Problem.

            In the late 1970’s and early 80’s, the rush was on to develop a standard for the home video market. In the end, the superior Betamax was beaten out by the bulkier, lower quality VHS system, largely due to a better marketing campaign and quick response by consumers. This left many companies and consumers left behind, stuck with higher quality, more expensive equipment and no cohesive infrastructure or industry support. The same scenario could play out in the race to HDTV, but not as likely due to extensive government involvement.  Early on in the debate, the FCC(Federal Communications Commission ) and the ATSC played a hand in coercing companies to band together to form what has become knows as the “Grand Alliance.” This alliance, along with keen eyes from the American Government should provide an atmosphere of healthy competition while delivering a product with transparent differences to the consumers.

            For the buying public the question turns to when and if they should jump on the bandwagon.  Until now all the debate has been going on behind the scenes, haggling over technical and logistical questions.  Supposedly any DTV product offered to the public will support whichever format any particular provider chooses. The consumer needs to decide whether it is worth investing early and reaping the benefits of higher quality television, or wait until prices come down or until they are forced to invest when the current system ceases to exist, supposedly in the year 2006. In order for consumers to make that decision they will need to know at least a little bit about the new DTV and HDTV systems.

            Currently the best way to do this is to find the information out online, or trust that the sixteen year old kid selling televisions at your local mall, knows what is going on. The mainstream press hasn’t really been involved as yet in reporting what is going on.  Most of the information has come via jargon-heavy trade journals and government documents.  The internet, however is chock full of personal web pages of interested parties and word of mouth reports, Online Periodicals with expanded coverage, suppliers trying to sell their products,  and FAQ’s published by a variety of associations and educational institutions.  I suppose once HDTV products are more readily available, the information will become more accessible to the public. The media will have their field day.

Historical Development of Television and HDTV.

            If asked, many people would point to the early 1930’s as the birthdate for the television medium.  Not quite, it actually has its roots in the late nineteenth century. In 1884, Paul Nipkow invented the Scanning Disc for mechanical television. Thirteen years later, German Scientist, Karl Ferdinand Braun invented the Cathode Ray Tube scanning device, pre-cursor to today’s  picture tube. In a true, historical sense, television is actually already over one hundred years old.

            It took almost forty years for the infrastructure of modern television to be developed and implemented. In 1923, Dr. Vladimir K. Zworykin demonstrated the complete television system, including a Kinescope(picture tube) and iconoscope(TV camera tube. In 1939 television was brought before the public at the New York World’s Fair. By 1948 sales of televisions soared more than five hundred percent, the boom was on.

            In 1953, NTSC- compatible color television becomes a reality when it was demonstrated to the FCC, the following year it was licensed for broadcast to the public. For the next forty years television would basically remain the same, save for small improvements in set size and production improvements. The next big wave started in 1964, when Dr.Takashi Fujio of Japanese broadcaster NHK decided that work on developing a High Definition Television system must be undertaken. It would not come to fruition until the nineteen eighties, and then, only in Japan .

            In those years Japan was well on its way to dominating the world market for electronics, and HDTV was supposed to be a big part of it.  The rest of the world realized that and began to develop their own systems in an attempt to keep the Japanese from taking over television markets.  The Europeans came up with their own scheme, while the United States sat on the sidelines and talked the talk, but didn’t walk the walk.  In the long run this would be a fortunate fateful step by the Americans.

            Japan instituted a satellite based analog system well suited for the island nation.  Satellites were placed in orbit that could constantly send signals to the relatively small part of the world Japan inhabited.  The NHK system worked well for them, but could not easily be exported to the rest of the world.  The Europeans, meanwhile, developed a similar system, varying only in screen resolution and bandwidth.  But it was still an analog, satellite based system, completely leaving out all terrestrial based broadcasters.  This was the fatal flaw in the system, before it was ever instituted on a large scale, political pressure and public outcry doomed it to the world of the Betamax.

            The Americans, well aware of the controversy and technical obstacles, formed the ATSC, featuring members of all types of manufacturing sectors.  The FCC also got involved by manipulating available bandwidth for use in developing HDTV transmission.  They mandated that HDTV had to be implemented by terrestrial based broadcasters in the top ten markets by 1999 using existing 6Mhz bandwidth.  The challenge was put on the ATSC and a consortium of interested companies, known as the “Grand Alliance” to figure out the best ways to do it.

            Within the last four years the Grand Alliance and the ATSC have adopted a standard that includes eighteen different methods of production and broadcast of completely digital television, all with a 16/9 aspect ratio, compared to today’s 4/3 .  Digital, that is the key word here. By waiting out the melee between Japanese and European Analog systems, the Americans were in a position to develop a completely new digital system, opening up a multitude of consumer applications. Within the 6Mhz broadcast spectrum a single HDTV signal at 1080i (Interlaced) resolution, an HDTV signal at 720p (Progressive) as well as other digital data or another SDTV(Standard Definition Television) signal, or multiple SDTV signals can be transmitted, all of these with digital, CD quality, Dolby 5.1 Surround Sound included. The whole deal, broadcast via terrestrial or cable providers.  Now all that American consumers need to do is decide when it is right for them to make the leap to the new standards.  The rest of the world will follow.

S-Curve and Analysis of HDTV in Japan and the United States .

            In studying the implementation of High Definition Television in Japan , where it was first developed, and in the United States , where a wait and see attitude prevailed, it is necessary to take into account not how many people are actually using the technology, but how many people are within it’s grasp. The concrete numbers just aren’t available, therefore any analysis requires some assumption. As explained earlier, they are two very different systems, delivering two different products, in different stages of maturation. 

Japan

            The Japanese HDTV system was developed during the 1960’s and implemented on an experimental basis during the 1970’s.  Called NHK Hi-vision, the system utilized an analog, satellite transmitted signal, with a 1125 line, Interlaced resolution, and a 5/3 screen aspect ratio.  During commercial implementation during the 1980’s, the system changed a few times, resulting in the system in use today.  This system is different only in the fact that it now uses digital compression for transmission and now utilizes a 16/9 screen aspect ratio. The HDTV service in Japan can be compared to current US DSS satellite transmission service.  By no means does a majority of the Japanese population take advantage of this service.  As of 1995, approximately 30,000 new receivers and 100,000 set top converters have been sold to customers of this service.(Kuhn, 1995) This is out of a Japanese population of millions.

This HDTV technology has reached the third phase of maturation, either Japan must keep this system as a standard, with a majority of the population watching television on standard NTSC sets, or plan to use the ATSC system sometime in the future.  The Japanese have invested heavily in their HDTV system and will not give it up easily.  The rush for a system of their own may in fact have kept them from developing the best system, which leaves them out of the DTV world.

The United States

            By not jumping into the HDTV fracas early on, the United States seems to have developed a superior system without really having to have missed out on anything. What the people don’t have, they won’t miss.  By smart planning by the FCC and co-operation by the Grand Alliance, the rollout for DTV and HDTV seems to be set, and more importantly, adhered to. The timetable calls for all current analog broadcasts to cease in 2006. Scott Sassa of NBC to Congress in 1998, “We wrote into law a requirement that broadcasters give back their spectrum in the year 2006 provided that 85% of households in America have access to the digital signal, whether they  receive it through free over-the-air transmissions or via cable.” So far they seem to be on track. Sassa continues, “In its Fifth Report and Order on Advanced Television, the FCC promulgated a very ambitious schedule for commencing digital broadcast transmissions in 3 phases; stations affiliated with the four major networks in the top ten markets by May 1, 1999 ; network-affiliated stations in markets 11-30 by November 1,1999 ; and remaining commercial stations by May 1, 2002 . [We] are moving aggressively to meet these objectives. That is generally true for the broadcast industry.” 

Human Impacts of High Definition Television.

            The very nature of television is to impact mankind with images that both entertain and inform. We spend hours upon hours every week parked in front of the tube watching “Must See TV”, “Headline News”, and “Sportscenter.” We here in the United States aren’t the only ones. As of 1995 there were “approximately 600 Million television sets in the world and approximately 70% of them are color televisions.”(Kuhn, 1995, Pg. 1) No doubt that number has increased since then.

            The boom towards DTV and HDTV in the United States is on.  According to a recent article in Time Magazine, almost 50,000 households in the US own an HDTV.  The current rate of color televisions sold yearly has reached 22 million (Buechner, 1999, ppg110), if that holds true for HDTV’s, within a few years, half of the American population will have adopted the new standard. Suffice to say HDTV is coming on strong and chances are you or someone you know will be spending hard earned money  to keep up with the Jones’. This means that money earmarked for other things will inevitably be spent on buying a new television set, or even better for electronics companies, a complete home theater system. This of course would include a new digital sound receiver and speaker system, DVD player, digital camera and video camera, personal TV receiver/video recorder, and of course the latest and greatest video game machine, currently the Sega Dreamcast, which comes complete with 128 bit graphics and a 56K modem to hook up to the internet.  Of course this means that you will need to buy a new entertainment center for all of your new stuff and new furniture to round out your home theater experience.

            This sets the stage for not only a large personal investment on an individual basis and an influx of cash into the electronics industry, but for a shift in the current home entertainment field, not only in products, but in new and different jobs within the industry.

Personal Investment.

What people need to realize is that the transition to DTV an d HDTV will happen, and probably well before the 2006 deadline. That means that you have only a few years to plan ahead and future proof your home viewing experience.  If you are in the market for a television now, you must take into account what is going to come about in a relatively short time. Up until recently, nay-sayers were telling consumers that the HDTV fad was just a bluff and wouldn’t really be worth the investment.

In an article published in December of 1998, Mark Fleishman had this to say.  “This is the winter of our discontentment. November 1 marked the start of digital television broadcasting in all too few places. Washington cracked the whip on broadcasters, who made promises they couldn’t keep, and cable and satellite viewers will get even less. Forget about expanded channels and other frills, at least for now. High Definition sets cost a lot. Interfaces obey virtually no established standards. And the beat goes on.” Within the same article, though, the future seems optimistic. “Technology and its discontents will always revolve in an uneasy waltz. [ ] If you don’t mind spending thousands to accept the risks of becoming an early adopter – or already own a multi-scan video projector with high bandwidth – go for it, dude. Of course the purchase or upgrade makes sense only if you also are lucky enough to live in one of the places where digital broadcasting is becoming active. Just don’t expect more than five hours a week of broadcast HDTV – that’s all the networks are promising at this point – and as explained in a previous column, don’t expect DVD or any other prerecorded software format to go high-definition anytime soon. The rest of us needn’t feel cheated. After all, even those of us who can’t see shard digital pix right away are still about to be treated to the greatest show on earth. I’m talking about the growth of digital television and all the blood that will be shed along the way as TV and PC makers, antenna/cable/satellite broadcasters, congressthings, government regulators, and other parties fight for slices of the digital pie. And fight they will – for if analog television is already the most powerful medium on earth, imagine how much higher the stakes will rise for the enhanced picture, sound, and multimedia capabilities of digital television. Out of this puny acorn will grow a mighty tree.”

            Imagine indeed.

            As yet, HDTV hasn’t outgrown the price constraints for those unwilling to become early adopters. According to Buechner in Time Magazine this will change in the year 2000. “HDTV, a digital format so luscious it can make an enthusiast weep, was the years biggest tease, delayed by technical complications and industry infighting. Yet some experts are optimistic, saying it will really show its colors in 2000- at least in major markets- and those who buy wide-screen, HDTV-capable sets will have “Future Proofed” their living rooms.”

Industry Ramifications.

            Along with the individual impacts of weighing the options of buying into HDTV are the various impacts on the industry that builds, services, and provides content to the new sets. In a way, the digital age puts up a wall between the technically inept buyers and the technologically savvy sellers. Buying into the new standard can be a confusing experience.

            Buechner in Time Magazine reports, “ No other product category is so sweetly seductive and yet so baffling as home theater. Not too long ago, all you had to do was buy the largest TV you could afford, connect stereo speakers, plug in a VCR and viola’ – you had bragging rights to state-of-the-art home entertainment. Now there is DVD, Dolby Digital, High Definition TV, Personal TV, Rewritable CD – all dazzling technologies to be sure, but disorienting too.” They recommend that you seek help in purchasing and setting up all of this magnificent equipment. “Consider hiring an installer to get everything working together properly. Most charge by the hour.”

            This sets up an interesting new market for television service types across the country.  No more will you have to wait for the cable guy to show up days after he was supposed to.  Soon you will have a whole new market for independent consultants to come set up your home theater.  Hopefully being more directly accountable to the consumers, they will be on time.

            Entering into the fray of home entertainment will also be the already red hot commodity of the internet. Suddenly along with millions of already web savvy computer users, web content will also be available to the average home television viewer, often at the same time that they are watching TV.  Cable television is set at the forefront of this mind boggling conjunction of television and the internet. Leo J. Hindrey, Jr. President of TCI Inc. reported to Congress in 1998, “In addition, our network upgrade allows TCI to deliver @Home, a high-speed internet access service.” “@Home is an amazing service. It connects personal computer users to the internet using a cable modem that is literally hundreds of times faster than a typical telephone connection. Relatively speaking, a two megabyte file takes more than nine minutes to download over the average 28.8 speed telephone modem.  The @Home service takes less than ten seconds to download the same file.”

Scott Sassa, President of NBC Television Stations also testified, “NBC will be a leader in providing consumers with enhanced digital broadcasting services, including the soon-to-be-unveiled Microsoft WebTV for Windows entertainment programming, as well as innovative offering through its relationships with Wink Communications and Intel’s Intercast. All of these data broadcasting projects are designed to be compatible with both digital and analog broadcast and cable signals.”

Chase Carey, Chairman and CEO of Fox Television backs that up with, “The progressive format provides a better path towards convergence between the television and the PC as progressive scanning now dominates the computer arena. We want to make certain not to raise any technological hurdles that could stifle this logical and consumer driven convergence.”

By all accounts the new standard will bring together the home computer and the home theater.  Will it also bring together the web based content providers of today with the programmers in television and cable industries. We have already seen the beginning of this convergence with cable news channels like MSNBC and CNN. Will the new standard wreak havoc over the traditional form of broadcast television?  How far away is the day when you can produce your own TV program, choosing cameral angles and background information the way you want it, then transmit your options to other viewers over the internet. “Live from New York , Its Saturday Night!!!!! Tonight’s guest produced episode, simulcast at http://www.spasticnation.com, coming to you from the one and only Jeffrey S. Wettig.”

Lorne Micheals eat you heart out.

Pro Choice.

I suppose the biggest human impact of the new standard in television is a continuation of humanities greatest accomplishment over the course of the last Millennium.  The prospect of personal choice of how to live one’s life. Whether you realize it or not, we humans haven’t always had this luxury.  In the beginning you were either a hunter or a collector.  Not much in the way of choice.  You lived where it was warm or you had sufficient shelter and where the food and water was.  Soon you could  move to different parts of the world but were roped into believing one religion or another and usually at the whim of whatever King or Lord was your master. It wasn’t until relatively recently where the average human was intelligent enough or even allowed to think on his own, expressing his thoughts and beliefs without threats of punishment.  Even today, parts of the world do not allow you the choice of furthering your education or entertaining yourself as you see fit.

The coming implementation of the new television standard, in a way, is an extension of Gutenberg’s printing press. You will no longer be held to the whims of network programming executives or even to the limitations of film makers and television producers. The day will come when you will program  your own viewing experience.  With that luxury will come with responsibility to keep an eye on what  your kids will see and hear.  The government will no longer be able to control what is broadcast, the same as they cannot regulate what is on the internet.  They will try, of course, all good politicians think they have the responsibility to tell you what to and not to do.  I don’t believe that they will succeed.  Therefore there will also be a renewed emphasis on V Chip technology and content restrictive software. Along with protected free speech will come unrestricted broadcast of whatever sells the most, and we all know what sells the most. Will we all turn into a nation of perverts?  Possibly sports freaks?

Along with the expanded access to information will come a humanistic responsibility to try to do something worthwhile with our time.  The draw back to unlimited and enthralling entertainment possibilities will be the possibility of the “Couch Potato Syndrome.”  How many hours per week do we watch television? How many more will we watch when it feels like you are living real life, right there in your living room?  It is already happening in the world of the internet.

            How many kids think that they are learning something just because they saw it on the internet?  Sure it expands your mind and learning potential, but think about Robin Williams’ (Sean) speech to Matt Damon (Will) in “Good Will Hunting.” Will has the uncanny knack for memorizing text books and learning history through reading.  He is a troubled youth, wrought with being a South Boston Punk, not realizing his potential because he can learn all he needs to know on his own. Sean, his appointed counselor is trying to get through to him and runs into the wall Will has built around his inner self.  Sean goes into a monologue about how Will can never really know anything until he experiences it himself.

“So if I asked you about art, you’d probably give me the skinny on every art book ever written. Michelanglo. You know a lot about him. Life’s work, political aspirations, him and the Pope, sexual orientation, the whole works right? But I bet you can’t tell me what it smells like in the Sistine Chapel. You’ve never actually stood there and looked up at that beautiful ceiling.”(Good Will Hunting, 1996)

This scene hits home with me and what the future may hold.  Will the bulk of human experience come from watching television in your own living room? Will interpersonal relationships go by the wayside.?

Proof that the American Way works.

If anything can be proved with the advent of the new standard in television, it will be that the American Way really does work.  The free enterprise system with government support and regulation has developed and started to implement what may become known as the greatest infotainment medium ever seen. By watching and waiting early on, The United States has developed an open standard for television that will take full advantage of the latest in digital technology. If we were living in a true Lassaize fair economy we would have been watching Japanese based HDTV. If we were living in a more socialized, government intensive, European style economy, we would be watching the European rip off of the Japanese system. But we are living in our mixed economy, the best solution so far seen by humankind, and it worked. We avoided the famed Betamax/VHS war of standards that is so detrimental to consumer confidence and we came up with a far superior system.

Joseph P. Collins, Chairman and CEO of Time Warner Cable stated to Congress in 1998, “The transition from analog to digital also presents challenges for the government. In particular, government faces the question of what role it should play. Time Warner believes that, up to this point, government has gotten it just right. Under your leadership, Mr. Chairmen, and the leadership of Representative Markey and other members of the subcommittee, government has played a critical role in the development of advanced television by exhorting and encouraging the parties to move forward, but without engaging in micro-management or seeking to mandate the outcome of the process. Had you not had the foresight  to defer to the marketplace, we might not be here today discussing the benefits of digital television. Instead, we might be here discussing the limitations of a mandated, and inferior, analog high definition standard.”

The Future of DTV and HDTV.

There is a lyric floating around in rock & roll history that says, “The future is so bright, I gotta wear shades.” I believe it was a band called Timbuk Three from the mid to late eighties, but that isn’t the point.  The point is that those words embody the future of DTV and HDTV in not only this country, but the world. If all goes as planned, and I believe that I have demonstrated here that all experts believe it has and will continue to do so, we will all have access to a high quality television experience by the year 2007.  We may not all opt to invest in the whole system, but it will be there for us to take advantage of if we see fit.

The future of these new television systems seems to reach out beyond just delivering higher quality pictures and sound to our living rooms.  Is HDTV just an end, or a means to and end? It seems like this technology, just like many others, is just another path on the journey to discover new and exciting things.

Where will we take this technology in say 25 years?  Could the Halo-deck of Star Trek fame be too far in coming into reality.  Will the next step in home entertainment be 3D-HDTV?  Maybe Virtual Reality TV.  Maybe a complete interactive experience like the ones in movies such as “Total Recall” and “The Thirteenth Floor”  It seems that anything may be possible.  One thing is for sure, we as humans will keep on trying to improve the interactive experience that home entertainment promises to have.  As long as people are willing to spend the time and money in the name of escaping real life for a bit.

Personal Thoughts.

Given the chance, I love to espouse wisdom onto the masses.  So here it is.  I believe that DTV and HDTV will give us a great improvement over existing television.  Almost anything is better that watching TV on my vintage 1984 JC Penny special 19 inch antique of a set. But what am I willing to pay for the new and improved model? Not much, as it turns out.  I will be one of the ones that suffers through existing pictures and sound, at least until my credit rating improves enough to max out another credit card.  Then and only then will I spend the money I don’t have on a new home theater system, but when I do, watch out, because I am going all the way. I’ll have more stuff going on in my living room than I know what to do with.  I probably won’t even have time to watch it, since I will be working overtime to pay for it.  I think that is why HDTV will take off.  Everyone will want one, if only to keep up with the people at work or next door. It is, in effect, human nature.

That is my one moral concern about the whole thing.  We as humans, seem to have been born to explore the limits of our world. In doing so, however, it seems to me that we just find better and better ways of distracting ourselves from doing anything of real importance.  It gets harder and harder to keep in shape, sharpen our mind instead of deaden it.  “Kill Your Television” isn’t just a harmless saying, it is a gut reaction to what some people have deemed a real threat to our way of life, or at least the way we used to live. It isn’t outside the realm of possibility that when we buy into these technologies a bit too much that we are actually killing certain parts of our psyche.

We become brain dead morons that watch a little too much WWF or believe that Dana Scully of the X-Files really exists.  We are weak willed creatures when we relax in front of the tube, easily manipulated by the moving pictures and sound.  Ever seen a Burger King Commercial and then suddenly have the urge to go out and get a burger? How much worse will it be when the pictures come alive with clarity and sonic majesty?

Whomever controls these images will wield great power, even if we think we are in control.  Ever hear about  the book 1984? In a way this all scares me to death, because I have lived it and experienced the weakness my mind in the wake of watching too much television.  I have spent more Sunday nights in bed, shivering with fear, after crashing on the couch for what was supposed to be a relaxing night of watching TV.  It gets to you and will so even more in the future. Could it be that this will spawn a medium even more powerful, so much so that the fine line between television and real life is erased?  I sincerely hope not, real life has a way of creeping up on us no matter what escapes we conjure up. In the end we are all still alive and kicking.