All current encoders need to be replaced........................
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The federal government has provided $55 million for the project, matched by $60 million in private funding. Companies involved include NBC, Sarnoff, Comark Communications, IBM [IBM], Philips [PHG], MCI [MCIC], Sun Microsystems [SUNW] Tektronix and Thomson Consumer Electronics.
Hermreck says the ATP project, now in its second year, is focusing more towards interactive applications of digital video but is still accepting proposals on compression technology, digital cinema and applications that could affect the DTV transition. Proposals are accepted on a competitive basis and although a competition for new proposals has recently closed, Hermreck anticipates another call for proposals within the next year.
Under the NIST project, Sarnoff is working on a technology to make the production of HDTV programming more cost-effective and more flexible than current processes. Dr. Michael Isnardi, head of Sarnoff's Compression Group says their goal is to leverage existing digital technology to still work with the high bit rates for HDTV.
"Broadcasters have invested in the legacy equipment based on the SMPTE-259M standard," Isnardi said. "Now they want to institute HDTV, but they don't want to tear apart their existing infrastructure and invest in new equipment." One of the areas Sarnoff is looking at is ways to reduce the cost and labor of editing in bitstreams within the confines of current technology.
When affiliates receive a compressed MPEG-2 bitstream from the networks, they have to decode it to digital video, do their edits in the video domain and then re-encode. This is called a "na‹ ve" approach and is currently broadcasters' only choice. The process is expensive and picture quality can be degraded due to decoding and encoding at 19.4 Mb/s - but it works. "In order for broadcasters to replace this process, it would require a complete replacement of current encoders," Isnardi said.
Looking for a more cost-effective alternative, Sarnoff has developed "compressed bitstream splicing," working entirely in the compressed domain. The process allows broadcasters to create seamless bitstream switching without encoding and decoding. Isnardi stresses that the technology, already a SMPTE standard, (312-M) is for seam cuts, not dissolves or fades but added that they are working on technology that would address these editing effects.
Sarnoff is working with Thomson to develop an HDTV encoder that will incorporate the SMPTE compressed bitstream capability to be available before the end of the year. Philips and NDS are among the other companies also looking at incorporating the technology into their HDTV encoder line-up. |
