Kicking off this series of three article on XML technologies in broadcasting, the author offers us an introduction to the eXtensible Markup Language, which was the subject of an enthralling EBU Seminar in Geneva earlier this year (EBU members can access the proceedings at http://www.ebu.ch/ptech_xml_sm01.html).

NewsML has been developed and ratified as an open standard by the International Press Telecommunications Council (IPTC), for the structuring of multimedia news. This article provides an introduction to NewsML, which is a derivative of the rapidly-spreading XML standard.

As end-user bandwidth increases to a level where the (re)distribution of audio/video material via the Internet becomes attractive, XML-based standards that help broadcasters migrate their existing content to the Web are becoming richer and more powerful.   SMIL 2.0 – developed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) – is the newest version of the Web’s most popular multimedia format.

This article provides an introduction to the concepts and facilities of the SMIL 2.0 language, in the context of the work flow requirements for taking existing broadcast content and making it available for a Web-centric audience.

Due to the high penetration of cable and satellite TV services in Germany, the take-up of terrestrial TV is currently less than 10% (at least for the main receiver in each home), and with a slowing tendency. Therefore, in order to reverse this trend, viewers of future DVB-T services will have to be offered new incentives such as portable indoor reception, without the need for a classical roof-top antenna.

In the present study, the extent to which full area coverage could be achieved – for portable indoor reception – was investigated in the Schleswig-Holstein region. During the transition period, the level of the effective radiated transmitter power will have to be reduced in accordance with the Chester agreement. It is shown that, after conversion of the existing transmitter network in Schleswig-Holstein, a DVB-T coverage probability of 70% could be reached.

Higher coverage probabilities, for portable indoor reception, can only be realized in a cost-effective way by the use of single-frequency networks. However, this implies a revision of the Stockholm Agreement 1961.