EBU • UER - Technical Review

No. 294 (April 2003)

Déjà vu for new recording media –
Sony and Panasonic once more compete for attention

For decades, broadcasters have faced difficult choices for analogue and digital recording formats. The production equipment giants, Sony and Panasonic, prefer to each go their own ways in developing equipment formats and standards. The dream of users would be for different manufacturer's equipment to be compatible, bringing wide availability and competition for price and features. It is many years since this has been the case, and NAB 2003 showed that life will get even more difficult for broadcasters in the years ahead.

Sony showed its new optical disc family of camcorders and editing equipment. The recording media is a DVD-sized blue-ray optical disc which has a capacity of 23 GB. The camcorder records both a high-quality image and a low-quality image that can be sent to an editing station (at up to 30 times real time) and used for viewing and off-line editing. In this way, Sony argues that the new system will bring substantial workflow improvements to production. CNN has agreed to test the system.

The Sony Blue-Ray Camcorder – discs are inserted in a side loader

Sony Blue Ray editing equipment – the discs are contained in protective jackets

Panasonic unveiled – non-coincidently – a prototype for a new family of equipment based on solid-state memory cards, with (naturally) DVCpro compression. By transferring the memory card to a PC, the user can edit directly. Panasonic say the first products will be available in spring 2004. Of course, its selling point is that it has no moving parts. A PCMCIA card is used for storage which slots into the camera. The version shown at NAB had four 1 GB memory chips in each card, which each allow 18 minutes recording at 25 Mbit/s and 9 minutes at 50 Mbit/s.

Panasonic are not worried about the costs or size of digital storage chips, because they believe they have Moore's Law on their side. They say they will have 16 GB cards by 2005 and 64 GB cards in the longer term. How much will the cards cost? Panasonic admit to 400 USD for the 4 GB card at the start, but they say it will be completely reusable and never wear out.

The Panasonic solid-state memory camcorder – one or two PCMCIA memory cards
can be slotted into the side of the camera

How do the two systems compare? It's too early to tell –- but at first sight it looks like the Sony system will be cheaper but will bring fewer benefits. Difficult decisions lie ahead for broadcasters!

Sony also had a range of other products, including a new HDTV studio camera (HDC-910) that can deliver both 1080i and 720p/60 outputs. 720p/60 is the HDTV production and delivery format used by ABC, and which EBU tests have shown has higher compression quality efficiency than 1080i.

In other production equipment areas, JVC showed a professional handheld HDTV camera (well, almost HDTV) – the JY-HD10U – which provides native 720p/30, 480p/60 and standards-converted 1080i outputs. These are recorded on MiniDV tape.

Thomson introduced their iVDR system (Intelligent Video Digital Recorder) which is a content management system for multiple formats.

Digital Cinema

A large slice of the NAB convention itself was given over to the new art and science of "digital cinema" – the use of electronics rather than celluloid in an electronically-connected cinema industry. "And about time", you may say "but why should broadcasters care?" One reason made clear by the Convention, at least for US broadcasters, is that they would like to make use of the "d-cinema" themselves. Whilst not being used for movies, d-cinemas could provide pre-screening of premium television programmes to a paying audience, or could provide occasions to meet the stars in closed circuit. Cinema owners also want to use their electronic cinema networks for business meetings; and – with the apparent shortfall in Clergy in the USA – for religious services. The new digital age could mean that cinema chains will become part cable, part cinema and part broadcast.

The Convention revealed major tensions about who should or could take the lead in d-cinema standardization. One school held that the job was rightly the province of the SMPTE and the DCI (the grouping of major Hollywood studios, the Digital Cinema Initiative). Another held that the ITU-R should be involved. There were contradictory reports about the meaning of recent agreements in the ITU-R about who should do what. However, the DCI hopes to arrive at its list of requirements for d-cinema before the end of this year. It is likely to recommend picture qualities going beyond HDTV – 2k or 4k "lines". Furthermore, the DCI is also considering a package of measures to help cinema owners meet the cost of the change.

A notable announcement was that a large US chain of cinemas (Landmark Theatres) has agreed with Microsoft and DCS (Digital Cinema Solutions) to move its 53 cinemas (177 screens) to digital, using Microsoft's Windows Media Player 9 system. The cinemas will use "off the shelf" PCs and Microsoft software to decode the income data. The writer was told that the Windows Media Player system will operate at 720p/24 at about 8 Mbit/s, but was unable to find out how much the change will cost. In principle, this quality level would be below that likely to be found in the requirements of the DCI.

Digital cinema demonstration from Microsoft – 720p/24 movies at 8 Mbit/s.

Digital terrestrial television

The roll out of digital terrestrial television continues in the United States at a still modest rate. The ATSC provided an exhibition area which included a range of HDTV receivers, many of which were AC-PDP, and a static demonstration, arranged by Zenith, of a system for carrying both HDTV and SDTV, with more robust error correction, in the same multiplex.

A more elaborate demonstration was provided by Microsoft. They had arranged with the broadcaster, Sinclair, to broadcast an ATSC (like) multiplex from a local transmitter, which contained additional error correction and an IP-encapsulated HDTV signal, surround sound, stereo and an SDTV signal intended for mobile reception. The HDTV was Windows Media Player 9 (WMP9) 720p/24, encoded at 6 Mbit/s. The SDTV was encoded at 1.5 Mbit/s using WMP9 via an encoder developed by Tandberg. The total came to about 9 Mbit/s, with the rest of the multiplex filled by additional FEC.

As a demonstration of IP encapsulation and WMP9 picture quality, it worked well though the content was high-quality movie material, which is relatively easy to encode well. However, the radio-frequency system proved inadequate, and produced picture freeze very often on a journey around town in the vehicle. This was possibly because of (as Microsoft believed) increased EMI due to the convention, or multipath. Their view was that space diversity reception (two antennas in different places on the vehicle, and two front ends) would largely solve these problems.

The ATSC IP mobile test vehicle – the receiving antenna is on the roof

Digital radio

The roll-out of the IBOC digital radio system, IBiquity, is now set to begin in the USA. IBiquity rides piggy back on an FM radio channel – a digital multicarrier signal is provided in the skirts of the FM signal. The system needs a 200 kHz FM channel spacing, which is used in the USA. The 100 kHz used in Europe makes the system impractical here. The IBiquity system is now named HD-Radio.

European DAB followers could sit back and smile at the now infamous claims of the industry that "receivers will be available in volume later in the year". The systems on show performed quite well, and looked effective in car receivers. Will the receiver roll-out come quicker than for DAB? Only time will tell.

In-car HD-Radio – the soon-to-be-rolled-out digital radio system in the USA

An interesting demonstration was provided jointly by NTL and Microsoft of the potential of DAB to carry multimedia. Capital Radio in London provided four of its radio channels, with some multimedia, and this was added to an EPG and a 150 kHz version of CNN for inclusion in a DAB multiplex. The DAB transport stream was carried from London to Las Vegas by the PanAmSat satellite and displayed locally on a PC. The system worked well, the EPG was useful, and CNN was usable on a small screen.

NAB Engineering Award

The NAB Engineering award for excellence was won this year by European, Leonardo Chiariglioni, the pillar of MPEG and the force behind a host of other collaborative standards projects such as DAVIC.

Leonardo Chiariglioni (right) receives the NAB Engineering Award from NAB Technical Director, Lynn Claudy

Final favourites

The NAB convention is a vast array of exhibits of new technology and a vast catalogue of presentations about the present and future of the industry. The writer found two personally-appealing and practical items.

The first was the position adaptive digital terrestrial antenna. This set-top unit rotates automatically to achieve maximum signal strength.

The ATI DTV5000 antenna seeks out the direction of the highest signal strength automatically

The second was the use by Autocue of tablet PCs for programming autocue content. Using a tablet, the script to be used on autocue can be created or corrected anywhere in the studio, and sent by wireless link to the autocue machine. This should be a real advantage for just-in-time changes to scripts.

Autocue uses tablet PCs to allow autocue scripts to be written and corrected anywhere in the studio

Finally, it should be said that interactive television and multimedia applications were not forgotten at the Convention, but they are no longer seen in the USA as great money spinners or saviours of digital television. Today, they are seen more as "click and you can buy Jennifer Anniston's sweater" rather than thoughtful enhancements to the television programme.

The mood of the US view of broadcast interactive multimedia was summed up by one speaker as follows: "The key to interactive television will be when it can all be done with one thumb, so you don't have to put the beer down".

David Wood
Head of New Technology, EBU