Digital Technology

Just as consumers now pay for HBO, they may one day be charged for a digital music service as part of their monthly Internet bill. After resisting subscription services out of fear they would weaken CD sales, music companies are considering the idea in an attempt to reverse plummeting sales and unabated illegal downloading of music from the Internet.

Douglas Merrill remembers driving past the Capitol Records Tower at Hollywood and Vine and wishing he could stop in and look around. Now he's getting an office there, in the West Coast headquarters of EMI Music. On April 28, Merrill will start his new job as president of digital business at the label that's home to artists such as Coldplay and Norah Jones. His hire, announced last week, surprised many in the technology and music industries.

A key committee of the Los Angeles City Council moved ahead Tuesday with a plan to place a digital billboard on land owned by a labor union along the 110 Freeway with some of the proceeds going to nearby schools. Councilman Ed Reyes, chairman of the council's Planning and Land Use Management Committee, called for a portion of the new sign's revenue to go to the Miguel Contreras Learning Complex, a nearby high school, and possibly other community programs.

The Olympics made a quantum leap in 1960 when CBS crews flew tapes of the Rome Games back to New York to be broadcast. The network coverage included only a few hours from each day's competitions, yet dramatically changed the way Americans interacted with the Olympics. That's pretty much the way things remained, with network executives deciding what viewers would see. But NBC hopes that is about to change.

The future of broadcast television is set to premiere in this quaint seaside city next week. And the federal government is working hard -- too hard, some say -- to make sure it's a hit here. At noon on Monday, Wilmington's five commercial broadcast stations are scheduled to become the nation's first to permanently switch to all-digital signals, serving as a test of the government-mandated transition that other stations across the country will make in February.

More than 50,000 square feet of billboards and flashing electronic signs -- nearly the size of a football field -- would be hung from the city-owned Los Angeles Convention Center under a proposal being pushed by the developer of Staples Center and LA Live. The three dozen signs would include digital advertising beaming out to freeway drivers and two mammoth signs covering portions of the center's iconic glass towers.

Digital cinema took a major leap forward as five Hollywood studios pledged their support -- and their cash -- to a $1-billion plan to convert old-fashioned 35-mm film projectors to more modern technology in thousands of theaters throughout North America. A consortium of major theater chains announced the deal Wednesday, signaling an end to the protracted squabbling over who would pay to convert 20,000 screens to digital projection.

Responding to anger over a new digital billboard in his district, Los Angeles City Council President Eric Garcetti called Wednesday for new rules limiting outdoor signs from displaying electronic messages in residential neighborhoods. Garcetti proposed the new rules after the advertising company Clear Channel Outdoor last month switched a billboard in the 1700 block of Silver Lake Boulevard to digital images, infuriating his constituents.

Sony Corp. signed agreements with 20th Century Fox and Paramount Pictures to promote the use of its digital-projection technology in movie theaters. The studios will provide operational and financial help to encourage theaters to use digital-cinema systems featuring Sony's technology, the company said.

Hawaii will switch to digital TV faster than the rest of the country to make way for an endangered, volcano-dwelling bird. Most of the state will switch to digital TV on Jan. 15, more than a month ahead of the Feb. 17 nationwide mandatory conversion deadline. Federal wildlife officials recommended hastening the transition so that the Hawaiian petrel's nesting season on the slopes of Maui's Haleakala volcano wouldn't be disrupted by the destruction of the old analog transmission towers nearby.