| HDTV ... and beyond | |
| 2009-Q2 | TV displays — a progress report |
Richard Salmon 
(201 kB) |
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| In the 5 years since my first Technical Review article on television displays, we have seen the domestic TV environment change out of all recognition, as Liquid Crystal and Plasma displays have essentially displaced the CRT (Cathode Ray Tube) completely, in terms of sales. This article covers the latest developments in the displays market, as we move into a world where manufacturers are prototyping a variety of different technologies and where 3D displays are also starting to appear. |
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| 2009-Q2 | Display measurement — a simple approach to small-area luminance uniformity testing |
| Felix Poulin and Maxime Caron
(893 kB) |
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| To address the need for a more exhaustive luminance uniformity test for video displays, this article proposes a small-area uniformity method. In addition to the benefits of the currently recommended large-area uniformity, a small-area uniformity test can help identify sudden changes in luminance and also identify problematic areas and patterns. |
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| 2009-Q1 | Managing audio delays and lip-sync for HDTV |
| Rowan De Pomerai
(302 kB) |
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| Viewers who have invested in high-quality HD receiving equipment have problems with audio-video synchronization in the home – due to the processing delays introduced by modern LCD and plasma displays. Set-top boxes often provide controls to manage this, but viewers have no way of calibrating the settings easily. Consequently, the BBC set out to help them by broadcasting a synchronization test signal, as well as undertaking a full review of multi-channel audio in the production and broadcast signal chains. |
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| 2009-Q1 | The launch of HDTV ... in Austria |
| Manfred Lielacher and Ulrich Schönfisch
(377 kB) |
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| ORF – the Austrian public broadcaster – started in the early 1990s to experiment with HDTV (1250) during the Winter Olympic Games in Albertville (1992). Further productions followed – in cooperation with NHK, Japan – including the famous New Year’s Day Concerts from Vienna. Since 2004, ORF has been producing TV programmes in HD on its own, especially major cultural events such as the Salzburger Festspiele. This article describes ORF’s experiences in converting to HD – particularly in relation to the Euro-2008 football finals which were jointly hosted by Austria and Switzerland in June 2008. |
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| 2009-SE | Editorial: Beyond HDTV – television ‘on the run’? |
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| 2009-SE | Super Hi-Vision — the star of the show! |
| Yoshiaki Shishikui, Yoshihiro Fujita and
Keiichi Kubota
(1089 kB) |
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| On 12 September 2008, at 10 o’clock in the morning, more than 100 members of the press packed into the 50-seat NHK Theatre at IBC Amsterdam to witness the world’s first international transmission of Super Hi-Vision programming. In the sweltering room, the potential and feasibility of Super Hi-Vision were demonstrated by the images displayed on the 275-inch screen, which were transmitted live from London City Hall and also as pre-recorded programming from Turin. An experiment – born of meticulous planning and cooperation by eight organizations over the course of a year – was very successful and it was the most eye-catching demonstration at IBC-2008. This article describes the collaboration between members of the Broadcast Technology Futures (BTF) group that made these demos possible. |
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| 2009-SE | Super Hi-Vision — the London-Amsterdam live contribution link |
| John Zubrzycki, Thomas Davies, Peter-Calvert
Smith, Paul Styles, Bill Whiston, Yukihiro Nishida and Masaru Kanazawa
(1301 kB) |
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| The first international Super Hi-Vision (SHV) contribution link took place in September 2008. Live pictures from London were shown in a specially-built theatre, constructed in Amsterdam for the International Broadcasting Convention (IBC-2008). The link used standard telecommunications circuits to demonstrate that, in principle, it is feasible to backhaul contribution-quality SHV signals from anywhere in the world that has access to broadband telecommunications. This article gives an overview of the SHV system and then describes the transmission equipment used, the operations at the outside broadcast site in London, the link to Amsterdam and the reception in the SHV Theatre. Finally, the application of a new coder – called Dirac – to SHV, and other further work, are outlined. |
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| 2009-SE | Super Hi-Vision — delivery perspectives |
| Alberto Morello, Vittoria Mignone, Kazuyoshi
Shogen and Hisashi Sujikai
(882 kB) |
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| Super Hi-Vision – the 4320 line x 7680 pixels/line TV system under development by NHK, the Japanese public broadcaster – offers an astonishing user experience, thanks to a picture resolution which is sixteen times that of what we presently call ‘High Definition’ (HDTV). There are 60 progressively-scanned frames every second and, for the audio, 22.2 three-dimensional surround channels – nine at ceiling height, including one directly overhead; ten channels at the centre height of the screen; three front channels at floor level and, for the rolling thunder and other low-frequency effects, two channels at the front. Since the bitrate of the native Super Hi-Vision signal is a massive 24 Gbit/s, the major part of the technical challenge is in developing ways of delivering the service to the final user. One of the highlights of IBC-2008 in Amsterdam was the first live transmission of Super Hi-Vision from the RAI Research uplink station in Turin to Amsterdam, via a Eutelsat Ku-band satellite using DVB-S2. This article summarizes the studies under development at the NHK Laboratories and at the RAI Research Centre ... towards the evaluation of various SHV delivery systems, via both satellite and terrestrial broadband channels. |
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| 2008-Q2 | Super Hi-Vision — research on a future ultra-HDTV system |
| Masayuki Sugawara
(546 kB) |
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| This article briefly describes the current status of R&D on the “Super Hi-Vision” television system in Japan. The R&D efforts on Super Hi-Vision are intended to explore the next-generation television system to succeed HDTV at some point in the future, and it consists of ultra-HD images and three-dimensional multichannel sound. The conceptual ideas behind the research project and the status of the technological developments are described. The collaboration between various EBU Members and NHK is also mentioned. |
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| 312 | HDMI & HDCP — the manufacturers' perspective |
| HDTV signals offer great opportunities to broadcasters, but there is also the negative side – a high risk of piracy. In order to protect prime content against illegitimate use, content-protection mechanisms can be used. For the digital HDMI interface between an HDTV set-top box and an “HD ready” display device, HDCP technology is chosen. This is a tool that can be used at the discretion of the broadcaster who can activate it by means of a switching signal. In the case of a piracy attack, the technology offers a revocation mechanism whereby a list of revoked devices is transmitted in a safe way to the receiver, where it is stored. The availability of a content protection mechanism – being a mandatory requirement of the EICTA “HD ready” logo – does not mean that the display device always needs to be fed in a protected manner. Free-to-air signals that are transmitted in the clear are always displayed. |
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| 312 | HDCP — the FTA broadcasters' perspective |
| The first HD services have now been deployed on pay-TV platforms using content-protection measures such as HDCP, in accordance with contractual obligations mandated by the production studios. Before long, free-to-air TV platforms will also become involved in HDCP. This article provides technical information on the HDCP system, which is used to protect the HDMI link from a set-top box to a display device (HDMI is the HDTV equivalent of the familiar “SCART” connector used with standard-definition television). The article also explains “what HDCP is” and “what it is not”, and outlines the views of several different European broadcasters on methods for controlling content protection. |
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| 311 | The development of HDTV in Europe — a tale
of three cities: Dublin, Dubrovnik and Geneva |
| This article provides a short history of the search for a wordwide HDTV standard, starting with the early Japanese analogue system in the mid 1970s up to the present day ... where the EBU is recommending the use of 720p and eventually the 1080p digital standard. |
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| 308 | HDTV — EBU format comparisons at IBC 2006 |
This article provides some background information on the HDTV format comparisons conducted by EBU Technical Department at the International Broadcasting Convention (IBC) in Amsterdam during September 2006. The objective of the demonstration was to provide neutral and educative information for the HDTV format debate. The demonstration not only showed the two current HDTV formats, 720p/50 and 1080i/25, but also introduced the next-generation HDTV format – 1080p/50. All three formats were presented with identical content and simultaneously on three Full-HD displays, in uncompressed and compressed form. Thus, viewers of the demonstration were able to judge the HDTV image quality for themselves. |
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| 307 | Editorial: HDTV
fever |
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| Apr 05 | Why HDTV will flourish (Published
in the IEE's Communications Engineering journal) |
| As Europe's top pay-tv operators put the finishing touches to their high-definition plans, the technical debate is far from over. |
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| 301 | Editorial: HDTV
format wars |
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| 301 | EBU Workshop: High
Definition moves up the agenda for EBU Members |
| The EBU held a Workshop in Geneva on High Definition Television in December 2004. About 100 delegates from across Europe came to hear about, and discuss, the new thinking in technology, economics, and programme-making that will be called for in the age of "HD". Here, David Wood outlines what happened at the Workshop. |
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| 300 | High Definition for Europe — a progressive
approach |
| This article gives the background to recent discussions in the EBU about High-Definition Television (HDTV). The work described here was largely undertaken by EBU Project Group B/TQE (Television Quality Evolution) whose current membership is given in Appendix 1. The balance of evidence suggests that the public interest will best be served by using a progressively-scanned delivery channel. Evidence about which progressive format would be optimum for the EBU environment has also been gathered, and is discussed. |
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| 299 | Image formats for HDTV |
| For several years, European broadcasters have been making programmes in high definition – often based upon co-production deals with the USA and Japan – using the 1920 x 1080 Common Image Format. However, European consumers are currently restricted to down-converted standard-definition versions of the original full-resolution HD content. This situation will soon change as more broadcasters offer HD services – in addition to the pioneering and ground-breaking start made by Euro1080. This article offers an overview of HD scanning formats and advises European broadcasters not to go against the tide by introducing new production formats for HDTV. |
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| 298 | The changing world of TV displays — CRTs
challenged by flat-panel displays |
The CRT has dominated the display industry for 100 years. Its reign is coming to an end, not tomorrow, but in the not-too-distant future. This article provides an overview of the progress being made by flat-panel displays in chipping away at the TV market. Plasma display technology has been developing fast but, watch out – here comes the LCD juggernaut, sweeping all before it … There are other technologies to watch as well, and there could still be more surprises round the corner. Beware; there’s some hype about, but there’s also some well-founded market research to guide the way. |
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| 298 | Maximizing the quality of SDTV in the flat-panel
environment |
| The broadcasting environment is changing because of digital technology. Further changes will be needed soon, if flat-panel displays become widely used in home receivers. The quality demands of large-screen flat-panel receivers will call for new care and attention from broadcasters in providing “conventional-quality” television. This article is intended to help broadcasters understand the factors which affect quality in this new world, and it offers suggestions for ways of maximizing the delivered picture quality. |
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| 295 | Editorial: HDTV
revisited ... |
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| 288 | HDTV — ready for take-off in Europe? Gabriel Fehervari
(429 KB) |
| Last year, the Belgian facilities company, Alfacam, placed their faith in HDTV by designing and constructing two state-of-the-art OB vehicles, one of which was recently demonstrated at IBC in Amsterdam. This article offers an overview of the facilities offered by this new HDTV OB vehicle, which is also equipped to provide standard-definition pictures, simultaneously. |
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| 281 | Editorial: Scanning
by numbers? |
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| 280 | Safe areas for widescreen transmission I. Baker
(187 KB) |
| There are not yet any accepted definitions for the “safe areas” in widescreen television production. This was a matter of pressing concern in the UK so the UK broadcasters together drew up an ad-hoc standard for immediate use in the UK. The basic concepts behind dual-standard transmissions and the approach taken to achieving compatibility, are outlined here. The reasoning for setting the safe areas at the chosen values are then given. |
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| 276 | Editorial: HDTV
or not? |
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| 272 | The European widescreen market |
| This article describes the overall evolution of the 16:9 television receiver market in Europe, and analyses the different strategies that must be undertaken to ensure its durability. It underlines the practical difficulties that have been met so far, and suggests initiatives which should help the manufacturers and the broadcasters to gain the confidence of the television viewers. |
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| 272 | The 16:9 format – a technical and artistic
challenge |
| The technical innovations which are pervading the world of broadcasting will achieve their full potential only if all the professionals concerned adopt a new approach and new working methods. In this article the Author describes how the new 16:9 format has changed the rules for shooting, and explains the aesthetic advantages it offers. |
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| Multichannel Audio (MCA) | |
| 2008-Q1 | Microphone systems for Surround Sound pickup — and their use at Wimbledon tennis and The Proms |
| Bill Whiston
(246 kB) |
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| This article briefly describes some of the microphones developed specifically for Surround Sound pickup, along with several of the main Surround acquisition systems on which the majority of the dedicated Surround mics are based. It offers some personal advice on whether a particular system is suitable for use in this recording environment or that. Some microphone systems are obviously more intrusive “in shot” than others, depending on the location. The author also describes two major outside broadcasts that have involved Surround Sound mixes – the Wimbledon Tennis Championships and the BBC Proms Concerts from the Royal Albert Hall in London. |
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| 308 | Prix Europa — results of the 2006 media
streaming trial |
The Prix Europa 2006 opening concert was given on 14 October 2006 in Berlin by a Portuguese World Music group called Gaiteros de Lisboa. On the occasion of this one-hour long concert, the EBU organized a technical experiment to distribute multichannel 5.1 audio – coded in HE AAC (High Efficiency Advanced Audio Coding) over the internet using a Peer-to-Peer (P2P) technology from Octoshape. This experiment is significant because, for the first time, an event was “broadcast” live in 5.1 multichannel format across the Internet, potentially addressing large audiences with high-quality surround sound. |
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| 307 | Multichannel audio — a review of the work
of EBU Focus Team B/MCAT |
Over the years many EBU Members have experimented with multichannel audio (MCA) within radio and television services. In more recent times, since the advent of DVB digital broadcasting, multichannel audio has become an integral part of Members’ transmissions, improving the quality and user enjoyment of many different types of programming. The Focus Team B/MCAT (MultiChannel Audio Transmission) was formed to allow EBU Members to share their experiences of multichannel audio broadcasting and to address any transmission issues arising. The final output of the group is EBU Tech doc. 3311, EBU Guidelines for Multichannel Audio in DVB. This article describes the efforts and studies that lay behind the creation of this document. |
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| 306 | Audio in next-generation DVB broadcast systems |
Broadcasters have significant new requirements for audio delivery in next-generation broadcast systems such as High-Definition Television. These include the capability to deliver soundtracks ranging from mono to 5.1 channels and beyond – with greater efficiency than with current systems, but also to maintain compatibility with existing consumer home cinema systems. A new audio delivery system, referred to as Enhanced AC-3 (marketing name: Dolby Digital Plus), has been developed to meet these requirements, and has been standardized in DVB and ATSC, referring to ETSI TS 102 366 V1.1.1 (2005-02). |
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| 305 | MPEG-4 HE-AAC v2 — audio coding for today's
digital media world |
Delivering broadcast-quality content to consumers is one of the most challenging tasks in the new world of digital broadcasting. One of the most critical aspects is the highly efficient use of the available transmission spectrum. Consequently, a careful choice of compression schemes for media content is essential – for both the technical and the economical feasibility of modern digital broadcasting systems. In the case of audio content, the MPEG-4 High Efficiency AAC v2 profile (HE-AAC v2) has proven, in several independent tests, to be the most efficient audio compression scheme available worldwide. It has recently been selected within DVB as part of its overall codec toolbox. HE-AAC v2 comprises a fully-featured tool set for the coding of audio signals in mono, stereo and multichannel modes (up to 48 channels) – at high quality levels using a wide range of bitrates. |
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| 301 | Digital multichannel audio — live transmission
of Prix Europa concert in Dolby AC-3 by RBB, and in Dolby E via
the Eurovision Network |
The Eurovision network is continuing its evaluation of different technical options for multichannel audio (MCA) and, in October 2004, it broadcast a live concert from Prix Europa in Berlin using the Dolby E format. The 5.1 surround sound production was carried out by the German radio station RBB Radio Multikulti in Berlin. Part I of this article describes some of the problems in a 5.1 live mixing situation and how the mix was transported via a wide-area network to the satellite uplink in Potsdam for multicast distribution. In addition, some current issues on DVB signalling and set-top box compatibility are discussed, and a perspective on lessons learned for the future is given. Part II reports on the experience gained by the EBU from the Prix Europa 2004 Dolby E experiment. It also describes the technical and operational aspects of the trial in some detail and gives a short description of Dolby MCA technology.. |
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| 297 | The first European live radio broadcast in 5.1
surround |
| Europe’s first satellite radio broadcast in “5.1 surround” took place from the Prix Europa competition in Berlin on 11 October 2003. This article outlines how the DTS 5.1 mix was produced in Berlin, distributed over the EBU’s Eurovision network, and delivered by Swedish Radio as a DVB-S satellite radio broadcast. | |
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| 297 | Multichannel audio — in the Digital Home |
| This article takes a light-hearted look at multichannel audio developments for the home, covering such technologies as Dolby Digital and DTS, and also looks at the current DVD format wars | |
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| 292 | The EBU's multichannel audio activities |
| EBU Project Group P/MCA (Multichannel Audio) was set up to support the introduction of the 5.1 multichannel audio system for radio and television. The group has now reported and the results of its work are presented here. |
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| 292 | Multichannel audio for television |
| Television sound can no longer be considered as a single entity. We will soon have viewers (listeners?) demanding “5.1” cinema-quality sound from every programme, whilst others – possibly the elderly or hard-of-hearing – wanting just the programme dialogue to be clearly reproduced from a tiny portable television. In this article, the author paints a picture of what he personally believes can be done with TV sound to cater for different user expectations – without making any fundamental changes to existing digital TV receivers, nor adding any significant costs at the production level. |
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| Spectrum | |
| 2008-Q4 | DSO — the Swedish experience |
| Per Björkman
(194 kB) |
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| One of the most interesting, complicated, intriguing and political questions for the upcoming years in Europe will be the question of how to handle the spectrum in the UHF band (470 - 862 MHz). Up to now, this has been the frequency space used for analogue television but with the approaching analogue switch-off, this will change. In Sweden, the last analogue transmitter was shut down a year ago and the process for a new spectrum allocation is up and running at full speed. This article takes a closer look at the situation in Sweden. |
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| 2008-Q2 | Editorial: Safeguarding
a future for terrestrial digital broadcasting |
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| 2008-Q1 | The roll-out of DTT in France — not just SD ... but HD and mobile TV services as well |
| Aurélien Louis and Matthieu Roger
(491 kB) |
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| Despite the rather late launch of DTT services in France compared to some neighbouring countries, they are already being adopted widely by the viewers, thanks to a long tradition of terrestrial television reception. By increasing the number of services and the transmission quality, the digital television landscape is maintaining its rapid evolutionary pace. This article gives a brief description of the current DTT situation in France and of its soon-to-come evolution: HDTV and mobile TV launches. In the longer term, terrestrial broadcasting networks will develop further, as a result of a national scheme to re-allocate the frequencies freed up by the digital switchover process. |
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| 2008-Q1 | The transition process in relation to Wi95revCo07 |
| Darko Ratkaj
(145 kB) |
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| The first T-DAB planning meeting – held in Wiesbaden, Germany, in 1995 – produced an allotment Plan for T-DAB and a new agreement called “Wiesbaden Special Arrangement, 1995” (Wi95). Most of the countries in Europe obtained two coverages across their whole national territories. Subsequently, the need for additional T-DAB services intended to cover smaller areas was identified, which led to the second T-DAB planning meeting in Maastricht (The Netherlands) in 2002. In additional to the two coverages already available in the Wi95 Plan, each CEPT country obtained one additional coverage. The original Wi95 had to be revised and it was now called “Wiesbaden 1995 Special Arrangement, as revised in Maastricht 2002” (Wi95revMa02). Following the GE06 Agreement that resulted from RRC-04 and RRC-06, the T-DAB Special Arrangement was further revised at a meeting in Constanta, Romania, in July 2007. The revised document is now called “Wiesbaden 1995 Special Arrangement, as revised in Constanta 2007” (Wi95revCo07). |
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| 312 | Editorial: Technological
neutrality and service neutrality |
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| 312 | Spectrum Planning — analysis of methods
for the summation of Log-normal distributions |
When carrying out coverage predictions for RF signals, statistics play a big part and the statistical nature of the predicted values cannot be ignored. In the particular case of location variation, the signals are assumed to follow a log-normal distribution and various methods are available for carrying out summations of such signals. This article examines the different algorithms in an attempt to assess the suitability of each one and to identify the optimum method to use. Two main scenarios are considered. The first looks at the summation of a series of signals with various mean values, such as might be used when summing the contributions of a number of interferers. The second looks at the best method of including a constant such as the minimum field strength. In all cases, the impact of the mean level and standard deviation of the contributors is considered. |
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| 311 | Self-interference in SFNs |
With the introduction of newer digital broadcasting systems – such as mobile television – concern has been expressed about self-interference in single-frequency networks (SFNs). A study has been carried out on a simplified network to investigate this issue, considering the impact of factors such as the transmitter spacing, location variation standard deviation, signal correlation and receiver performance. The outcome of this analysis indicates that self-interference in dense SFNs cannot be ignored. Additionally, it was found that some of the factors considered have a significant impact on network coverage / prediction accuracy. Conversely, in other cases, it is possible to increase the model complexity significantly without a commensurate improvement in the results. |
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| 309 | RFI — protecting the terrestrial broadcasting
services from new interference sources |
Over the last few years, new wireless applications have been multiplying and appearing quickly on the market. Despite the CE product marking scheme, framed by the EMC and R&TTE Directives, it appears that some of these new devices do not respect the principle of using the spectrum without causing interference to existing on-air services. This article provides a brief overview of the new and most threatening sources of interference to terrestrial radio and television services. |
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| 309 | A simple guide to radio spectrum |
| The radio spectrum is a scarce resource. The advent of digital services which use spectrum more efficiently than analogue services will make spectrum available for new, innovative services. But spectrum scarcity will not disappear as these new services are developed. Furthermore, radio waves do not respect international borders, buildings or each other. International harmonisation is needed for each spectrum band. Recent years have seen a distinct move by the UK Government towards the use of market forces, for example through the auctioning of spectrum. Those responsible for spectrum planning face difficult decisions. How, in particular, should they decide what is the right balance between making spectrum available for companies providing commercial services, and ensuring universal availability of public services? |
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| 309 | Implementation of the Digital Dividend —
technical restraints to be taken into account |
At the RRC-06, a new Agreement and associated frequency plans for digital broadcasting and analogue TV broadcasting during the transition period were agreed (GE06). The next step is implementation of the new Agreement. Broadcasting organisations, network operators, spectrum user forums and others have announced their opinions on the use of Bands III, IV and V. A term often used in relation to the implementation of the new Agreement is “digital dividend”. This article describes the technical constraints to be taken into account when using released spectrum for several digital dividend applications. |
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| 308 | Editorial: The
digital dividend |
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| 308 | GE06 — overview of the second session (RRC-06)
and the main features for broadcasters |
The Geneva 2006 frequency plan (GE06) is set to replace the Stockholm plan of 1961 (ST61) – providing for T-DAB and DVB-T digital services in the VHF and UHF broadcasing bands (Bands III and IV/V) throughout the European Broadcasting Area and beyond. The EBU contributed actively and efficiently to the success of the planning process, by developing the calculation software that was used by the ITU at RRC-06. This article describes the planning process and its outcome which should ensure that spectrum is available for digital terrestrial broadcasting over the next few decades, covering a large area including 118 countries. |
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| 307 | Potential threats to radio services from PLT systems |
Power-Line Transmission (PLT) is a means of transmitting data along an existing, ubiquitous infrastructure: mains-electricity wiring. You might be forgiven for thinking “So what? What has this to do with broadcasting?” The answer is: “More than you might wish!”, since PLT systems have a demonstrated ability to interfere with radio reception, which of course includes traditional over-the-air broadcasting. This article tries to explain some of how this comes about, what the threats are and what is or isn't being done about it. The occurrence of this interference is contrary to the general principles of regulating radio systems, but many of the detailed regulations in force, or proposed, do not provide adequate protection for broadcasting. “Notching” the PLT signals has been offered as a palliative measure but many requirements must be met for this to become a “cure”. One promising possible extension to the notching technique is described here. If it were properly adopted, it might provide a constructive solution to the inevitable stalemate in the standards process. |
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| 305 | Editorial: Spectrum
efficiency |
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| 302 | Editorial: Digital
switchover |
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| 302 | RRC-06 — technical basis and planning configurations
for T-DAB and DVB-T |
| One fundamental part of the RRC planning process is to carry out a compatibility analysis. To facilitate this procedure, a reduction in the large number of possible transmitter configurations, down to just a few reference planning configurations, is useful. For compatibility calculations, SFNs may be represented by generic reference networks, whereas single transmitters are described by their “real” characteristics. This article describes various planning configurations and reference networks for T-DAB and DVB-T, while keeping an eye on DVB-H requirements as well. |
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| 300 | RRC-04/06 — an overview of the first Session
(RRC-04) |
The ITU Regional Radio Conference, RRC-04/06, was convened to update the Stockholm 1961 and Geneva 1989 VHF/UHF television broadcasting Plans for the European and African Broadcasting Areas, respectively. It takes account of the spectrum needs for digital radio and television terrestrial services in the European and African Broadcasting Areas, and also in neighbouring areas. The first Session, RRC-04, was completed in May 2004 and this article provides an overview of the progress made in establishing the planning criteria and parameters for the later second Session, RRC-06, to be held in 2006. |
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| 298 | Editorial: Revision
of the 1961 Stockholm Plan |
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| 298 | Frequency economy – new convergence |
| Frequency economy in terms of economic efficiency leads to quite different conclusions on how to use the broadcast spectrum than frequency economy in terms of spectrum efficiency. This article discusses some aspects of frequency economy and convergence, as seen from a radio broadcaster’s perspective. | |
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| 298 | Accurate coverage prediction and optimization
— for digital broadcasting |
| Digital broadcasting services (e.g. DVB-T and DAB) require higher prediction accuracy than traditional analogue networks, because digital services are planned with tighter margins on the signal strength and interference. This article describes new prediction models, created by the authors, that offer higher accuracy and which can be used to optimize digital broadcasting networks. |
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| 294 | Estimating the value of spectrum |
| The auctions of UMTS spectrum in Europe have raised worldwide awareness of the potential value of this natural resource which, over the past decades, has been virtually free to use. Many broadcasters now fear the loss of their spectrum to more valuable telecom applications. In this article we derive expressions for the value of both telecommunications and broadcast spectrum. An investigation of the capacity of the ether leads to the conclusion that, in the rare case of spectrum shortage, it is more reasonable to take spectrum from telecoms and give it to broadcasters than the other way around. |
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| 292 | Reflections on a near-past T-DAB conference |
| With the 2002 CEPT Maastricht Conference now behind us, this article provides an insight into some of the more important decisions made on the future spectrum availability for T-DAB services. |
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| 290 | Editorial: Spectrum
planning |
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| 290 | Reflections on a
near-future T-DAB conference — or making "war on this bloody
tyrant time" |
| This article gives a brief outline of the topics to be discussed at the forthcoming T-DAB planning meeting, which will be held in Maastricht during June 2002. |
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| 290 | Revision of ST61
— lessons learned from history |
| Over the next few years, the Stockholm Frequency Plan of 1961 will be revised to produce a new plan for digital broadcasting in the European Broadcasting Area. In this article, the author describes some of the lessons learned from history which must be taken into account when revising the original Stockholm Plan. |
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| 290 | Revision of ST61
— the key issues to be addressed |
| Through the auspices of the ITU, many countries of Europe have embarked on a process to revise the arrangements for the planning of terrestrial television for a digital era. Whilst engineers clearly have a vital role to play in providing technical solutions to facilitate the preparation of the new plan, there are other factors that must be resolved before the engineers can proffer a solution. This article seeks to highlight why we are having a Conference and the key issues to be addressed in seeking a successful outcome. It will require the cooperation and expertise from all the parties involved – including administrations and broadcasters who will need to be clear about their requirements in order that technically satisfactory solutions can be achieved. |
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The full index of
Spectrum articles, going back to 1992, can be found here. |
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| Webcasting | |
| 2008-Q4 | Evolution of the BBC iPlayer |
| Anthony Rose
(838 kB) |
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| For more than ten years, EBU Members have been developing and refining their web sites in order to enhance and augment their core radio and television broadcasting activities. The web is no longer merely an information medium (providing textual and pictorial information) but has become an audiovisual content-distribution medium for the internet-connected PC user – for both linear (scheduled) programmes (“channels”) as well as for non-linear (“on-demand”) programmes. The BBC’s development of the iPlayer is undoubtedly one of the best examples of how broadcasters can exploit the internet as a new media delivery mechanism. It can thus serve as a blueprint for other broadcasters to develop their broadcast services on the internet. This article is based on a series of phone-calls in August 2008 between Franc Kozamernik (EBU Technical) and Anthony Rose, BBC Controller Vision & Online Media Group, which includes the iPlayer. |
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| 2008-Q3 | Technical trial of the EBU P2P media portal |
| Franc Kozamernik
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| The EBU P2P Media Portal (EBUP2P) was developed as a demonstration tool for EBU Member organizations to show their television and radio channels internationally. A 6-month trial of the portal was set up by EBU Project Group D/P2P in the first half of 2008 to evaluate P2P (Peer-to-Peer) technology – via the example provided by the company Octoshape. This article reports on the outcome of the trial. |
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| 2008-Q3 | MIRO — open and decentralized internet TV |
| Dean Jansen
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Miro is a free, open-source platform for Internet TV. Ideal for high-definition video, it features an open content guide with over 5,000 channels that can be freely subscribed to. The application boasts nearly 500,000 users and has been downloaded more than three million times in the last year. Miro has been compared to Tivo, Firefox and iTunes; it functions as both a video library and a very intuitive system for subscribing to and watching internet video channels. Additionally, Miro can search and save videos from video-sharing sites, such as YouTube and Daily Motion. |
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| 2008-Q1 | Streaming audio contributions over IP — a new EBU standard |
| Lars Jonsson and Mathias Coinchon
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| Audio-over-IP end units are increasingly being used in radio operations for the streaming of radio programmes over IP networks, from remote sites or local offices into main studio centres. The IP networks used can be well-managed private networks with controlled Quality of Service. However, the open Internet is increasingly being used also for various types of radio contribution, especially over longer distances. Radio correspondents will have the choice in their equipment to use either ISDN, the Internet via ADSL or other available IP networks to deliver their reports. ISDN services used in broadcasting will be closed down in some countries. The EBU has created a standard for interoperability in a project group, N/ACIP (Audio Contribution over IP). This standard, which has been jointly developed by members of the EBU group and manufacturers, is published as EBU Tech 3326-2007. The standard has quickly been implemented by the manufacturers. A “plug test” between nine manufacturers, held in February 2008, proved that earlier incompatible units can now connect according to the new standard. |
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| 312 | Multiple Description Coding — a new technology
for video streaming over the Internet |
| The Internet is growing quickly as a network of heterogeneous communication networks. The number of users is rapidly expanding and bandwidth-hungry services, such as video streaming, are becoming more and more popular by the day. However, heterogeneity and congestion cause three main problems: unpredictable throughput, losses and delays. The challenge is therefore to provide: (i) quality, even at low bitrates, (ii) reliability, independent of loss patterns and (iii) interactivity (low perceived latency) ... to many users simultaneously. In this article, we will discuss various well-known technologies for streaming video over the Internet. We will look at how these technologies partially solve the aforementioned problems. Then, we will present and explain Multiple Description Coding – which offers a very good solution – and how it has been implemented and tested at STMicroelectronics.. |
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| 308 | RawFlow — using P2P to create virtual "multicasts" |
RawFlow is one of several emerging technologies for streaming audio and video content over P2P networks. The Danish public-service broadcaster DR has been using RawFlow for streaming its online radio since 2003 and will shortly start streaming video with this technology. TSR, the Swiss national broadcaster, trialled RawFlow video streaming during the Tour de Suisse cycling race earlier this year and the Estonian public broadcaster, Eesti Radio, is also experimenting with it. A broad overview of RawFlow is given in this article along with some results from its use by DR over the last three years. |
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| 308 | Prix Europa — results of the 2006 media
streaming trial |
The Prix Europa 2006 opening concert was given on 14 October 2006 in Berlin by a Portuguese World Music group called Gaiteros de Lisboa. On the occasion of this one-hour long concert, the EBU organized a technical experiment to distribute multichannel 5.1 audio – coded in HE AAC (High Efficiency Advanced Audio Coding) over the internet using a Peer-to-Peer (P2P) technology from Octoshape. This experiment is significant because, for the first time, an event was “broadcast” live in 5.1 multichannel format across the Internet, potentially addressing large audiences with high-quality surround sound. |
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| 306 | EBU Seminar report — From P2P to broadcasting |
As more and more broadcasters use the Internet to webcast their programmes, Peer-to-Peer (P2P) is becoming an interesting transport mechanism to convey these programmes to the general public, more efficiently than any traditional internet methods. This article reports on the Seminar "From P2P to broadcasting" which was held at EBU headquarters in Geneva on 14 and 15 February 2006. It was jointly organized by the Technical and Training departments of the EBU, with the involvement of the Radio, Eurovision and Legal Departments. |
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| 304 | An introduction to Internet Radio |
| This article – based on an EBU contribution to the WBU-TC Digital Radio Systems Handbook – introduces the concept of Internet Radio (IR) and provides some technical background. It gives examples of IR services now available in different countries and provides some guidance for traditional radio broadcasters on how to adapt to the rapidly changing multimedia environment. |
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| 303 | Introducing Octoshape — a new technology
for large-scale streaming over the Internet |
| The popularity of live streaming over the Internet is growing. The number of private Internet connections are rapidly expanding and consumers may today go online from almost any location using wireless technologies. However, live streaming over the Internet was born with two problems: scale and cost. The challenge is to transmit a
signal to many users simultaneously and to do so without the transmission
cost rising in proportion to the audience size. |
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| 296 | Streaming audio in the networked environment |
| This article offers essential advice to radio broadcasters on fine-tuning a PC-based “information-infrastructure” for the editing, storage and streaming of audio files. The chosen infrastructure is based on the use of four separate entities called “clouds” – Audio workstations, Network, Audio fileserver and Audio-data storage. |
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| 293 | Broadcasting over the Web |
| There are several different ways of distributing audio and video content over the Internet. You can encode it offline in any number of formats (Windows Media, Real, QuickTime etc) and host it on a web server for people to watch at their leisure. There may also arise a situation where you would want to do a live broadcast over the Internet, somewhat like a conventional television broadcast. There are many factors to consider when setting up for a live Internet broadcast – beginning with the available “live” encoding technologies. This article covers some of the many products available that will enable you to present a live audio and/or video broadcast over the Internet, with varying levels of complexity. |
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| 292 | Media streaming over the Internet — an overview
of delivery technologies |
| This article reviews the basic concepts of media streaming over the Internet, particularly those associated with Internet Protocols (IP) and server technologies. The article concentrates on the delivery aspects of audio and video over the Internet but does not cover audio and video compression schemes nor media capturing/authoring/publishing tools in any detail. These aspects will be covered in future editions of EBU Technical Review. |
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| 291 | Webcasting
and the Eurovision Song Contest |
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| 291 | A snapshot of the EBU's webcasting activities |
| The EBU recently carried out a survey of its Members to establish the extent of their Internet and webcasting activities. The results are reported here and offer a valuable snapshot of the webcasting activities of EBU Members in late 2001. |
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| 285 | Internet
geography? |
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| 282 | Webcasting — the broadcasters' perspective |
| This article is based on the work carried out by the former EBU Webcasting Group. It provides an update on the extremely fast developments in the area of webcasting that have occurred since the publication of the Group’s document, “BPN 022 – Practical Webcasting”. It also outlines some of the opportunities and challenges provided by webcasting and gives some indication of the future prospects. In particular, the article explores the impact of the Internet on the broadcasting sector. We are witnessing the process of convergence between the Internet and the emerging digital terrestrial and satellite broadcast systems. The convergence of the PC and digital broadcast terminals is bringing about the delivery of new services as part of the multi-channel offerings from digital radio and television broadcasters. |
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| Published
quarterly by the European Broadcasting Union ISSN: 1609-1469 |
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| Editeur Responsable: | Lieven Vermaele |
| Editor-in-Chief: | Mike Meyer |
| French Editor: | Eric Piraux |
| Reproduction of articles in EBU Technical Review is authorized only with the prior consent of the Editor-in-Chief. | |
| The responsibility for views expressed in articles published in EBU Technical Review rests solely with the authors. | |
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European Broadcasting Union |
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