Getting Harvard Wired for Cable TV

Fall 1986: 10:00 a.m. You roll over drowsily to check the clock. Looks like you're late again for Moral Reasoning 22. You splash cold water on your face and sprint to Sanders Theater.

Fall 1987: 10:00 a.m. You roll over, reach for the remote controls, turn on the TV, and there's Michael J. Sandel talking about Kant in your living room.

After 10 years of seemingly endless planning and debate, cable TV is finally coming to Cambridge. With a final license signed by the city and the cable franchise last December, the first underground cable lines were laid in North Cambridge in late January. By April some of the city's residents will be watching.

The big question remaining, however, is to what extent cable television will come to Harvard. City and university officials have been meeting since September to figure out the precise how's and why's of cable's arrival on campus and around town.

So far, Harvard has been told it will receive 10 free cable installations, which will be distributed across the Cambridge campus, linking various facilities together for educational purposes. Potential locations currently mentioned include the Science Center, Sanders Theater, the Kennedy School, and other central classroom buildings.

The Cable Television Committee (CATV)--a group of 13 representatives from the College, the graduate schools, and Massachusetts Hall--has met twice in the past month to determine strategies for maximizing cable TV's potential at Harvard.

"Universities are likely to be using media more and more in education in the future, and we want to figure out how," says Stephen Hall, director of Harvard's Office of Technology (OIT).

Alfred A. Pandiscio, associate director of the OIT, says the committee was considering programs such as campus-wide broadcasting of lectures and special performances, improved data-transmitting equipment so research data could be sent around campus, and possibly, the formation of a Harvard-operated cable television station.

The University has operated an internal cable system for about 18 years which is used occasionally for Medical School teaching and recording special events, says Pandiscio, such as Bishop Desmond Tutu's Kennedy School speech in January. But Harvard's old system--like MIT's cable network--is technologically obsolete, and does not allow for communication beyond certain campus buildings.

Other Harvard officials see cable being used to broadcast popular university-wide lectures around the Boston area. "We see great opportunities in Harvard's being plugged into local cable networks," says Charles Trueheart, associate director of the Institute of Politics. "This way, we can share what we do in the [ARCO] Forum with a larger audience than we can squeeze into the K-School."

Although the university says it wants to overhaul its entire computer and telephone network with the help of cable lines, professors in the applied science department say they have their doubts about the usefulness of cable communication for data-transmission.

"We have networks capable of low-speed data-transmission, and we're getting higher-speed equipment by the end of the year," says Peter S. McKinney, associate dean of applied sciences. "[The plans of the] CATV won't have any particular impact on computer work within the university."

"I guess there is some possible use for it beyond the local environment," McKinney says, explaining that Harvard computer needs are satisfied by a supercomputer system based in Princeton, N.J.

The committee is "still raising lots of questions and we haven't had time to find many answers yet," Pandiscio says.

By early next fall, students may be watching movies, economics lectures, and MTV from a comfortable seat in their living rooms, if the investigation of wiring dormitories now underway goes well, according to Henrietta Gates of American Cablesystems. American is the cable franchise selected by the City of Cambridge last March to complete the estimated $225 million wiring of this metropolis of 95,000 residents.

American Cablesystems already has begun studying Harvard dorms--Thayer, an old building, Currier House, a new one, and Lowell House, something in between--to determine how difficult cable installation would be. American, the 12th largest cable company in the nation, has never wired a major university before.

In a preliminary report, cable engineers determined that it will be impossible to wire Thayer for cable because of problems with the physical structure of the building. Currier and Lowell will be investigated in the next two weeks.

Both Harvard and American Cablesystems representatives say they are primarily concerned about the installation costs and student demand for cable TV. Individual rooms cannot be wired by themselves, and the demand in a particular house must reach a certain size in order for the university to be eligible for bulk rates.

If Harvard and the cable company do not reach an agreement on a special rate, students will have to pay standard residential rates for cable TV.

The current services are available in three different packages: for $3.95 a month, the Neighborhood Network package, which includes approximately 12 basic off-air channels, for $6.95 a month; the New England Folk, which includes about 30 channels; or for $10.95 a month, Consumers' Choice, including all of the possible 70 channels. Services such as The Movie Channel, HBO, and similar extra channels will cost an additional $9.95 a month.

Harvard's chief cable liaison, Pandiscio, says he doubts there will be great demand in the houses for individual cable service, but students say they disagree.

"I'd be really psyched for cable," says Wayne P. Hurley '87 of Kirkland House, who estimates he watches 14 hours of TV a week. "Everyone I know has a TV and they all wonder why we can't get cable."

"It's hard at Harvard to watch as much TV as most people want," says Richard Polin '87 of Leverett House. "Cable would make it easier. MTV's perfect for studying because you don't really have to think."

American official Henrietta Gates says that at least the senior and junior common rooms of each house could get cable within one year.

Town Meets Gown on TV

Harvard plans to use cable TV to further communications with the city of Cambridge, says Jacqueline A. O'Neill, the university's associate vice president for state and community relations. "Campus events of interest to the Cambridge community could be broadcast citywide," she says.

A private group of 13 city officials, the Cambridge Public Access Corporation (CPAC), has been formed to explore the potential of a television station which would broadcast programming produced by the community and potentially students.

Like other Massachusetts communities with cable, Cambridge's public access channel would be used for broadcasting such municipal events as city council and school board meetings, and providing general information about city departments, says Edward T. Casey '76, director of the Cambridge cable commission.

Suggestions have been made for creating a Harvard television station, or setting up a regular spot for Harvard partcipation in community events through public access TV, O'Neill says.

CPAC will meet in the next two weeks to consider some central questions about public access TV, deciding on a location, and "how to strike a balance between professional production and interesting things to say," says Casey.

Potential Problems

Cable services could spread information and entertainment throughout the city and the university. However, important considerations of cost and demand "may prevent many of the committees' dreams from coming true," says Pandiscio.

Costs of installing cable in many of the older campus buildings could be outrageously expensive, and "collecting costs from individual students could be more complicated that the investment warrants," says Gates.

The cable company does not know yet how many students would be willing to pay for individual cable services, and cannot begin to estimate costs until a study of demand has been taken, Gates says.

By late spring cable TV will arrive in North Cambridge homes, then move on to East Cambridge by early summer, and across the city through Mid-Cambridge and Harvard Square "in time for hourlies in the fall," says Casey.

Instead of trying to find a location in already-overcrowded Cambridge for a satellite dish, the cable service will draw its signals from the satellite which American Cablesystems currently operates in neighboring Arlington.

After laying initial cable lines in late December, American Cablesystems has temporarily stopped underground work and will resume construction in early March. At the same time, the company is working on aerial wiring of telephone poles along the city's 140 miles of streets.

Advantages of Cable at Harvard:

1. Campuswide broadcasting of lectures and special performances.

2. Improved data-transmitting equipment so research data could be sent around campus.

3. Cable TV can be used to further communications between Harvard and Cambridge.

4. A public information service, Express, which can be hooked up to personal computers, could provide the university with access to international news services, weather reports, and stock market information.

5. "Students could watch MTV, movies and sports twenty-four hours a day," says a self-proclaimed TV addict who declined to reveal his identity.

Problems Involved with Cable at Harvard:

1. Costs of installing cable in many of the older campus buildings could be outrageously expensive.

2. Collecting costs from individual students could be more complicated that the investment warrants.

3. Amount of student demand is difficult to estimate, and must be understood before cable can come to the houses.

4. Physical disruption in Harvard properties and potential damage to university buildings more than 200 years old.

5. The cable franchise has never wired a major university before. American Cablesystem of Cambridge will provide three levels of basic cable television service and a variety of video, audio and data offerings.

Neighborhood Net $3.95/mo.

American Channel Guide

Neighborhood Network (Local Origination)

Access: Primary, Secondary, Higher Education (CPAC)

C-SPAN

Access: Government (CPAC)

Access: High School Educational Radio/School

Bulletin Board (CPAC)

The Learning Channel

Cable News Network Headline News

Access: Public (CPAC)

Black Entertainment Television

Access: Ecumenical (CPAC)

Spanish International Network (SIN)

The Cultural Channel (Local origination)

4 Channels, Access: Reserved (CPAC)

1 Channel, Access: Reserved Leased (CPAC)

1 Channel, Access: Reserved Leased (CPAC)

1 Channel, Reserved for future use

*Plus Access to all data communications services

SPECIAL INTRODUCTORY OFFERINGS

1) FREE Basic for first month during initial 60 days of service availability.

2) DISCOUNT PACKAGES of Premium Services up to 25 percent from a la carte prices.

3) All regular INSTALLATIONS FREE during initial 60 days of service availability.

New England Focus $6.95/mo.

.All of Neighborhood Net plus:

WGBH (2) Boston

WBZ (4) Boston

WCVB (5) Boston

WLNE (6) New Bedford

WNEV (7) Boston

WOR (9) New Bedford

WENH (11) New Hampshire

WTBS (17) Atlanta

WXNE (25) Boston

WSMW (27) Worcester

WSBK (38) Boston

WGBX (44) Boston

WLVI (56) Cambridge

WQTV (68) Boston

CKSH (24) Sherbrooke, Canada

ITFS--Catholic Family Programming

1 Channel, reserved for future use

*Plus access to all data communications services

**Plus access to all premium services

Premium services (optional), each at $9.95/mo

Showtime

HBO--Home Box Office

Bravo--American Movie Classics

Cinemax

Sportschannel

Disney

Galavision

TMC--The Movie Channel

NESN--New England Sports Network and:

HTN--Home Theatre Network--$6.95/mo.

PEN--Professional Education Network--$25.00/mo.

Consumer's Choice $10.95/mo.

.All of New England Focus Plus:

Arts & Entertainment Network

SPN--Satellite program Network

Dow Jones News

Lifetime

USA Network

The Weather Channel

The Nashville Network

MSN--Modern Satellite Network

FNN--Financial News Network

MTV--Music Television

CNN--Cable News Network

ESPN--Enterntainment and Sports

Programming Network

Educational/Entertainment Pay-Per-View

CBN Cable Network

National Ecumenical Programming

The Silent Network

MTV II

Cable Shop

Nickelodeon

Genesis

Country Music Television

College Sports Network

Movietime (as available)

6 channels, reserved for future use

Data Communications Services (optional):

Keyfax--Teletext information servide--$19.95/mo.

Dow Jones News Retrieval Service--Basic $22.00/mo.

SOURCE: American Cablesystems of Cambridge