China's HDTV system prototype............................
eet.com
Posted: 9:00 p.m., EDT, 9/15/98
China stages HDTV prototype trial
By Sunray Liu
BEIJING - The trial run of a prototype HDTV system announced by the Ministry of Science and Technology here could give a big boost to China's fledgling TV industry and to a government drive to build a base in intellectual property for emerging digital technologies.
The terrestrial broadcast trial from the government's Central Television Tower here was completed on Sept. 12, the government said. Along with making China the fourth nation to develop a working HDTV system, the two-stage HDTV initiative spawned a total of 26 patent applications, officials said.
Experts here said the prototype system serves not only as a technology testing platform but also as a vehicle for Chinese HDTV standards. China is currently deciding whether to adopt the U.S. Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) spec or the European Digital Video Broadcast (DVB) standard. South Korea adopted the ATSC standard in November 1997, and Taiwan followed suit in May.
Observers said the Chinese system is technologically about five years behind the U.S. system and about three years behind Europe's.
China began its HDTV project in November 1994. At the time, experts and officials from 11 ministries and other institutions formed an HDTV research and development coordinating team and began formulating an HDTV strategy.
The coordinating team eventually decided to split the HDTV effort into two parts. The first step was to develop a prototype system in two years. The second called for commencing trial broadcasts by 2000.
In July 1996, the HDTV project gained government approval and sponsorship. Nine universities, institutes and manufacturing concerns-as well as the former Ministry of Electronic Industry, Ministry of Radio, Film and Television, State Education Committee and others-were tapped to conduct research. Shanghai Jiaotong University, Zhejiang University, the Academy of Broadcasting Science, a branch of the former electronic industry ministry, Beijing Broadcasting Equipment Facility and other partners also joined in.
According to Chinese government estimates, TV sets plus components and recording equipment account for 43 percent of the Chinese electronics industry's revenue.
Meanwhile, proponents of the U.S. and European transmission standards are closely monitoring digital TV developments in China to determine which way the government will go on a spec.
"China, of course, is an immense market, and also extremely important in our efforts to promote adoption of the ATSC standard," Robert Graves, the U.S. group's chairman, told a broadcast exhibition here in August. ATSC is working with broadcasters and government officials in Hong Kong in hopes of getting a leg up on its European competitors. ATSC is scheduled to conduct a technical seminar and HDTV demonstrations in Hong Kong this month. It conducted two HDTV broadcasts in China last year, Graves said.
"China is taking a deliberate look at both the ATSC and DVB standards, and they are also building systems themselves that comply with both standards," an industry observer said. "It may be that marketplace developments will be at least as important as [the] technical advantages of the standards."
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