LAS VEGAS -- Most people who viewed 3D telecasts or highlight reels of Masters golf came away so impressed that they think the jump to 3D from HD will “be a bigger transition than it was from SD to HD,” said Dan Holden, chief scientist at the Comcast Media Center in Centennial, Colo. At the NAB Show’s Broadcast Engineering Conference on Saturday, he said Comcast plans to deliver 3D content in an “over-under” format at half the resolution per eye of full HD, which won’t require adding bandwidth. He thinks most other cable companies will do the same, he said.

An initiative to accelerate interoperability of the next release of WiMAX technology, WiMAX 2, is expected to deliver peak rates of more than 300 Mbps, comparable to LTE Advanced’s speeds, said Mohammad Shakouri, vice president of the WiMAX Forum. The effort, launched Sunday, is backed by WiMAX companies like Sprint Nextel, Clearwire, Motorola, Samsung, Intel and ZTE.

LAS VEGAS -- The FCC’s broadband plan would “yank away” more than one-third of the spectrum used by TV and radio stations and would represent a “great spectrum grab,” NAB President Gordon Smith said in his first speech at an NAB convention. “This plan appears to be an example of unnecessary government intervention when technology in the marketplace is already working through the issue,” he said. With the many advances coming soon to wireless communications, “you have to ask what makes this spectrum grab -- and the destruction and loss of innovation it would cause -- really necessary."

A draft FCC rulemaking notice about CableCARDs probably will be changed before a vote scheduled for April 21 to deal with large cable systems’ use of HD-only set-top boxes, commission officials said Monday. The draft Media Bureau notice that’s circulating proposes exempting systems with 552 MHz or less activated capacity from a requirement that boxes use separate security and navigation functions for devices that can handle HD but not more advanced functions (CD April 6 p2). The NCTA and large cable operators sought a wider HD box exemption in recent ex parte meetings, filings in docket 97-80 show.

Twenty-one economists, including academics from universities across the U.S., filed a paper Monday at the FCC concluding that the economic evidence doesn’t justify the net neutrality rules the commission is considering. The paper builds on qualms expressed by Commissioners Robert McDowell and Meredith Baker, the rule opponents on the FCC.

Motorola weighed in against a proposal in the National Broadband Plan to sell the 700 MHz D-block in an upcoming auction rather than reallocating the spectrum directly to public safety. The plan’s approach on a national interoperable network for public safety “falls short in several ways,” said Motorola, the latest party to express reservations about the plan.

A consumer showcase of mobile DTV in Washington will begin May 3, the Open Mobile Video Coalition said Monday. Stations in the market have been broadcasting for weeks, and relatives and friends of employees of group members have been testing devices, but OMVC will begin recruiting consumers next week, said Executive Director Anne Schelle. The showcase will feature a mix of broadcast and cable programming, said Brandon Burgess, Ion Media’s CEO and the coalition’s chairman. “We're going to get some sober feedback about what works and what doesn’t work."

Even though the FCC delayed until April 26 the deadline for filing reply comments on its net neutrality rules, dozens of commenters weighed in last week. The original comment round was one of the most active ever, with the FCC cataloging more than 100,000 comments (CD Jan 19 p1). The early replies were filed mostly by smaller players on both sides of the question of whether the FCC should codify its current rules and expand the rules to cover wireless. The FCC saw similar divisions among grassroots groups in its first comment round in January.

Verizon representatives opposed proposed changes to the FCC’s in-market roaming exclusion in a series of meetings at the FCC. AT&T has also asked the commission not to eliminate the exclusion, in a series of meetings with FCC officials. The FCC is expected to consider an order that would pull back the exclusion at its April 21 meeting.

Streamlining the process for access and use of infrastructure, also part of the recommendations in the National Broadband Plan, could be a key positive for Distributed Antenna System (DAS) operators, some of them large tower companies, company officials told us. But hurdles remain as operators gear up for 4G, they said.