th on a facility. Usually that facility is one-way, except for some type of monitoring or verifi- cation that the content reached the desired destination. Beyond this basic, there's consideration of the necessary support functions in the catch-all voice, data, and video, whereby people and computers talk and control what goes on. Essentially, the process is in a few parts. First, define or receive from management a set of strategic actions or directions to consider over some period. Second, estimate the cost and return over the life of each strategy, and finally compare and prioritize the alternatives to reach a point where the most desirable and affordable strategies are adopted and included in the overall capital plan. Alternative Strategies and Directions When considering alternative strategies, there may be situations whereby capital investment and projects are mandated by regulatory forces. For example, the Federal Communications Commission says the station must put a digital channel on the air by a certain date or risk losing its analog license and business franchise by another date. PRACTICAL IP AND TELECOM FOR BROADCAST ENGINEERING AND OPERATIONS So-called mandated investments come first. Second highest priorities are survival investments. For example, all the other stations in town have converted from using tape and linear editing in news to non- linear editing and file servers. Breaking news stories are consistently running 30 to 45 minutes behind the competition, reducing audience size and ratings while advertisers desert the station. Last are cost reduction and expansion projects, usually nice to do because the funds may be required to pay down debt, or acquire another station or group of stations. The best of all possible worlds is a situation where the business is highly successful and money is available to consider technological- based change over a reasonable period. Depending on the size, geo- graphic, and market coverage, there can be good logical, sound reasons to consider emerging standards, t