Will broadcasting be supplanted by the Internet? ... Will “convergence” lead to a single delivery system for multimedia services? ... Which broadcast delivery systems (terrestrial, satellite or cable) will become dominant for digital TV? ... Will the reduction in costs of computer hardware affect broadcasting? ... Will computers merge with TV sets?

This article attempts to answer such questions, both by looking “sideways” at the world of computers and the Internet, and by analyzing some technological trends.

The reception of a COFDM signal is analyzed here for the case where phase noise has been added to the signal, e.g. by a receiver local oscillator. Two effects are distinguished: common phase error (a rotation of the signal constellation) and inter-carrier interference (similar to additive Gaussian noise).

It is shown that the amounts of these effects can be deduced from the spectrum of the phase noise using a pair of weighting functions. Use of these weighting functions simplifies the process of computation; it also makes it easier to visualize the consequences of any modifications to the phase-noise spectrum.

Some illustrations are given of the two phase-noise effects on the constellation of a DVB-T digital television signal, along with some practical observations on receiver implementation.

This article investigates the use of MPEG-2 4:2:2 technology for both contribution/collection and primary distribution networks – as a means of reducing the level of complexity created by the imminent migration into the digital world.

Extensive testing, organized by the CBC with the assistance of the EBU and NDS, has shown very clearly that the performance of the 4:2:2 Profile – at bit-rates between 15 and 4 Mbit/s – remains superior to the 4:2:0 Profile (MP@ML).

The results of this investigation had an immediate impact on two major broadcasting organizations; the EBU has decided to implement digital video compression technology based only on the MPEG-2 4:2:2 Profile for contribution at both 8 and 20 Mbit/s. The CBC has also decided to utilize the MPEG-2 4:2:2 Profile in its television networks at 8-10 Mbit/s for primary distribution and 18-20 Mbit/s for contribution/collection.

The future of digital radio by satellite (DRS) is exciting but uncertain, with a number of current and proposed systems all hoping for success.

In this article, the Author discusses the shortcomings of the current radio-by-satellite systems (DSR and ADR) – mainly their inability to provide for the mobile listener – and looks ahead to the difficulties that will be encountered if and when the rival WorldSpace and MediaStar systems take to the skies. The solution to this situation, he argues, is to work towards a minimum number of standards for DRS and to maximize the number of common elements between them.

A tapeless news-processing facility is currently in the process of pilot operation with Bulgarian National Television. Based on the most powerful multi-initiator high bit-rate network technology, and incorporating the hardware and software resources provided by inexpensive and widely-used computer systems, it offers several advantages over traditional tapeless systems that are based on computer technology using real video servers.

By extending this subsytem to include other similar subsystems for TV production, post-production, scheduling and archiving, the Authors outline their proposals for a fully-integrated tapeless TV production facility.