Video teleconferencing and video telephony
If you are interested in making an effective audio-visual communication, this book is a comprehensive and up-to-date guide for you. The markets for video teleconferencing (VTC) and video telephony (VT) are growing rapidly, in particular with the advent of the Internet. Interactive multimedia conferencing today offers improved audio and video quality, drastically reduced cost and excellent service reliability. In a world where business travel is costly, time consuming, tiring and even dangerous, these video systems are becoming very attractive.
This book describes recent developments in the technologies and standards that relate to video tele-conferencing, video telephony and other multimedia communications (such as remote access to multimedia databases, distant learning, telemedicine, telecommuting and telemarketing). The prime focus of the book is person-to-person (and person-to-computer-database) interactive multimedia communications – using conven-tional telephone networks, the integrated services digital network (ISDN), local area networks (LANs) as well as the Internet. Many video and audio compression technologies are des-cribed in some detail, including the MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4 and MPEG-7 standards for audio and video.
A few years ago the video teleconferencing and video telephony market was almost frozen because different vendor's terminals could not talk to each other. They each used different proprietary coding algorithms. In the late 80s, the ITU started to develop standards to allow for interoperability and, in 1990, it finalized the basic H.320 recommendation which forms the cornerstone of all videoconferencing systems, both room-based and PC-based. The author of this book was actively involved in the standardization process within the ITU-T from the beginning. Arising from this work is the H.323 standard which covers multi-media communication over new packet-based networks as well as over legacy LAN networks such as Ethernet and Token Ring. Other ITU Recommendations from the H.xxx series cover videoconferencing systems and terminals for transmission via different networks. They are all thoroughly and systematically explained in this excellent book.
All the above standards are interactive and require two-way communication channels for operation. The ITU-T has also created the H.331 standard to provide for the broadcasting of multimedia services such as distance education and business television. These do not require a return channel for broadcast operation and may be of particular interest to broadcasters.
In summary, this book represents an excellent review of the state-of-the-art technologies for video teleconferencing and videophoning. It can be warmly recommended to those broadcasters who would like to improve the efficiency of their meetings and reduce their travel costs. However, it should be made clear that, generally, teleconferencing systems provide significantly lower quality services than modern digital TV and radio systems, such as DVB and DAB which are able to operate in an interactive mode as well. To this end, the VTC/VT systems that are described in this book are currently not appropriate for general broadcasting purposes. However, this may change in the near future as the borderline between true professional and semi-professional activities is becoming increasingly blurred.
Videoconferencing and Video-telephony:
Technology and
Standards
R. Schaphorst
Hardbound volume of 318 pages
Artech House Books, London, 1999
WWW: http://www.artech-house.com/
Ref: ISBN 0-89006-997-2. Price £60.00.
Franc Kozamernik
Fundamentals of wavelets
The theory of wavelets was born in the work of Morley and Grossmann in 1980. The first orthogonal wavelet bases were discovered in 1985 by Meyer, in France, in a manner that Meyer himself described as mysterious and accidental. Shortly thereafter, Mallat introduced multiresolutional analysis which explained some of the mysteries of Meyer's wavelet. Then in 1987, in Montreal, Daubechies found a wavelet with compact support.
Within a few years, a multitude of books and other publications on the theory of wavelets appeared, several conferences were held, and congresses were organized. During this same period, related subjects – such as multi-resolutional analysis, subdivision schemes and dilatation equations – were developed.
Over the past decade, wavelet theory has shifted from the realm of mathematics and physics to become the subject of intense research in many branches of engineering. As a result, there are applications in physics, signal processing, image analysis, data compression, statistics and computer science.
The reason for the popularity of wavelets is their effectiveness in the representation of nonstationary signals. Unlike Fourier-based analysis, which is based on global sine & cosine functions, wavelet analysis uses time and frequency to represent nonstationary signals more effectively. As a result, a wavelet representation is much more compact and easier to implement. Using the powerful multiresolutional analysis, one can represent a signal by a finite sum of components at different resolutions, so that each component can be processed adaptively according to the objectives of the application. The capability to represent signals compactly and in several levels of resolution is the major strength of wavelet analysis.
Fundamentals of Wavelets offers an introduction to wavelet theory from an engineering point of view. The book presents this very complex topic in a readable format, by introducing the reader to useful applications of wavelet theory, as well as by providing several algorithms and computer codes for basic hands-on practice.
In a clear, progressive format, the book is organized into four major parts:
Although of limited interest to most readers of the Technical Review, this book can be thoroughly recommended to those broadcast engineers who want to know more about wavelet theory, algorithms and applications.
Fundamentals of Wavelets: Theory, Algorithms,
& Applications
J.C. Goswami and A.K. Chan
Hardbound volume of 306 pages
John Wiley and Sons, UK, 1999
WWW: http://www.wiley.com/
Ref: ISBN 0-471-19748-3. Price £45.00
Mostapha Bibak
Internet Protocol Suite
This book (now in its second edition, the first being released in 1995) provides a wide background about the suite of transport and upper layer protocols that run over the Internet Protocol (IP). The author has more than 20 years' experience of training in computer communication protocols in the American computer industry. This immediately explains the wide scope of the book. The target audience are data communication students and professionals that want to know more about how the Internet and the TCP/IP protocol suite really work and what makes the Internet "tick".
The book can also be used as a reference to trace back the evolution of these protocols and their organizational handling and development within the Internet Society (ISOC) – the international body with responsibility for Internet standards. For example, one of the appendices explains in detail how the ISOC is organized and what its sub-structures are. Since the standards are all open, it is most interesting to see how they are referenced, developed and given a status and, finally, evaluated and maintained.
With more than 2000 reference documents in the public domain, this book points to those which are the fixed standards and those which are still drafts, proposed or experimental. The range of reference documents is thus extremely wide, so what the author does is to take the most essential ones and summarize their content. He says that, by doing this, he achieves a compression ratio of about 10 to 1 or probably more.
The book is up-to-date and organized with many illustrations and tables that are well-suited for training or to be used as a reference.
In the world of computer communications, the TCP/IP protocol suite is the most widely-used for wide- and local-area networks which carry internet/intranet traffic. Learning such protocols, the author states, is like learning a computer language. If the reader has already learnt one, the next one is a bit easier. With this in mind, the TCP/IP protocols described here are a bit like the grammar for one of the major languages used in telecommunications. To practise any new language of this kind, it is necessary to read a lot of additional literature – in this case, specifically the most important ISOC source documents that are referenced in the book. It would thus appear that the main purpose of this book is to facilitate easy access to the much more detailed ISOC material.
The book is extremely well edited. Divided into seven chapters, it starts with an overview of the Internet history and architecture. Chapters 2 - 6 correspond loosely to the OSI layers of the TCP/IP suite, and Chapter 7 gives a brief outlook into the future. Most chapters are preceded by good summaries to explain what they are all about.
There are four appendices: one of these provides a reference list of the official Internet standards and another one gives a list of some important assigned numbers for the protocol field in the IP header.
The book ends with a 45-page glossary of specific terms commonly used in the context of this book, followed by a well-designed index.
For those interested in this topic, the book can be highly recommended as a basic reference text.
A Guide to the TCP/IP Protocol Suite
(2nd Edition)
F. Wilder
Hardbound volume of 494 pages
Artech House Books, London, 1998
WWW: http://www.artech-house.com/
Ref: ISBN 0-89006-976-X. Price: £55.00.
Dietmar Kopitz
The Non-linear Video Buyers Guide: 5th edition
We have reviewed earlier editions of this guide before and, given its usefulness, will probably review it again in future years.
The advantages of non-linear systems, which in practice means disk-based systems, have been appreciated by those in post-production for some time. Now, however, these systems are moving into general television production, spurred by the general introduction of digital tape recorders and direct digital transfer between equipment, not to mention the ever-decreasing price of disk storage. Increasingly, these systems offer "on-line" picture quality, which further encourages the use of such systems throughout the production chain, as does the increasing availability of high-speed networks and multi-user access to common storage.
The guide claims to cover over 500 systems, including disk recorders and servers, as well as the now traditional non-linear editing systems. These include turnkey systems as well as PC cards and software packages. As well as existing systems, the compilers have tried to include future products, yet to be launched.
With so many systems available, it may seem impractical for anyone to review them all, let alone anticipate those not yet on the market. The stated intention of the guide, therefore, is to provide an overview of what is on the market and to assist with the preliminary selection of suitable products. It includes technical specifications, descriptions of how systems are operated, typical configurations and costs, and details on customer support and suppliers.
For software and "add-on" packages, the guide lists the hardware required to make complete systems, and shows what is provided as standard, is optionally available and what the user will have to supply.
Nowadays, users are increasingly interested in keeping material in the digital domain, so the guide gives details on digital interfacing, input and output formats and file import/export. Systems covered now include DV, MPEG as well as SDI and SDTI, Fibre Channel, SSA and IEEE-1394.
Last, but not least for non-technical buyers, the guide covers the user interfaces, the general processes a system can handle, as well as support for widescreen, high definition and a range of compression formats.
The Non-linear Video Buyers Guide (5th
edition)
Edited by Y. Hashmin
Bound volume of 104 pages
Sypha Publications, London, 1999
E-mail: sypha@compuserve.com
Ref: ISBN 1-901950-02-6. Price £22.50.
Richard Chalmers
Dictionaries of computing, multimedia, the Internet and telecommunications
In the fast-moving worlds of technology, new terms, abbreviations and acronyms are being introduced at an alarming rate. And with the telecommunications and IT worlds rapidly approaching our own broadcasting world, you need one or more good up-to-date technical dictionaries close at hand on your desk.
The Hutchinson Dictionary of Computing, Multimedia and the Internet – with over 1500 entries – reflects the latest developments in computing. Whether you want to know a little bit about Linux, VRML or RealAudio, or who Ted Hoff was, you'll find it here. It also contains entertaining and informative essays about the hottest topics and most current developments (e.g. the Millennium bug, Quality in a digital age, Digital future, Standards for the computer industry). There are short biographies of all the major players that have made computing, multimedia and the Internet what they are today. Many pages contain a short useful tip – giving fast access to useful ideas and solutions via a Web address. The dictionary finishes with an interesting Chronology of Computing, from 2500 BC up to 1998.
Another dictionary you will almost certainly need close at hand is one covering telecommunications jargon in some depth. The Newton Telecom Dictionary has been around for a long while and has now reached its "Updated 15th Expanded Edition". Harry Newton is adding about 100 new definitions each week to his magnum opus and this edition runs to over 900 pages! (Seemingly, with each new edition, the publisher has had to progressively reduce the typeface (font) size in order to keep the total page count within acceptable limits.)
Written as a busines rather than a technical book, the author explains telecom and internet concepts in non-technical language – some explanations are very short, while others are almost encyclopaedic in length. It is marketed as "The Official Dictionary of Telecommunications & the Internet" and it certainly covers an extremely wide range of abbreviations and terms. In fact, you'll also find entries on Linux, VRML and RealAudio here – but COFDM doesn't seem to have reached Mr Newton's desk yet, although OFDM has.
Perhaps what we really need here is a comprehensive Broadcasting and Production Technology dictionary – compiled from a European perspective – which relevantly overlaps into the IT and telecom worlds. Are there any publishers out there taking note?
The Hutchinson Dictionary of Computing,
Multimedia and the Internet (3rd Edition)
Bound volume of 310 pages
Helicon Publishing, Oxford, UK, 1999
http://www.helicon.co.uk/
Ref: ISBN 1-85986-287-X. Price £14.99
Newton's Telecom Dictionary (15th Edition)
H. Newton
Bound volume of 930 pages
Telecom Books, New York, 1999
http://www.telecombooks.com/
Ref: ISBN 1-57820-031-8. Price $32.95
English spelling dictionary
Those readers who are involved in writing reports, papers, presentations or even articles for the Technical Review – in English – may be interested in the very inexpensive Oxford Quick Reference Spelling Dictionary. Containing some 67,000 spellings, including 4000 place names, it concludes with a 17-page "spell-it-right" guide which highlights top problem words in English. The dictionary provides both British and American English spellings, when different, and also shows how to hyphenate words if they have to be divided at a line-end.
It is interesting to note how preferred spellings in English have evolved over the 20 or so years since Cassell's Spelling Dictionary was one of the desktop "bibles" (e.g. millenium in Cassell's has now become millennium; world-wide has become worldwide, and organisation has become organization).
Oxford Quick Reference Spelling Dictionary
Bound volume of approx. 300 pages
Oxford University Press, UK, 1999
Ref: ISBN 0-19-960168-9. Price £3.99
Mike Meyer
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