Shown with Michael Kelemen are Rotarians Glen Clark (left) and Anita Capodonna, members of the Suddenlink management team.

As the digital revolution continues, a spokesman for Suddenlink Communications told Putnam Rotarians today about the changes in view for their 180,000 West Virginia customers.

Michael Kelemen, a 26-year veteran of the cable industry, announced a $36 million upgrade over the next two years at Suddenlink.

Kelemen, regional director of government relations for the system, said that service throughout the state will "upgrade to a higher bandwidth spectrum.

"We're going all-digital," he announced. "In Putnam County, the date for final implementation is November 30th.

"Some of the transmissions in Suddenlink's system are analog," Kelemen explained. "I can put eight digital signals into the same spectrum that I can use for one analog signal," he told the group.

What does this mean for customers? "If we have 70 channels of analog service," he said, "we are talking about 500 to 600 channel systems (in digital format).

"We will be adding, as of today, 37 high-definition channels to the system, which will give us a total of 64."

Older analog television sets will not be compatible with the digital signals. "We are providing customers with digital tuners," said Kelemen. "They have a remote. They have an on-screen interactive guide. We are providing them at no charge. We are installing them at no charge, and there will be no monthly fee."

Sixty thousand of the digital tuners have already been installed.

Among new channels to be available is the "red zone" for sports fans. This channel will show on Sundays during the football season. "Whenever a team gets within the red zone -- the twenty-yard line -- the channel will pick up that game. There will be a $50 one-time fee to subscribe."

Kelemen says that people more and more are comparing the internet to the television experience. "At some point," he predicted, "you won't really know whether you are pulling a program from the internet or from the video side of the system.

"At some point, it will all be streaming, and television viewing will become like an internet browsing session."