WASHINGTON, Dec. 26 /PRNewswire/
-- On the heels of the Federal
Communications Commission's adoption today of the digital television (DTV)
standard based on technology developed by the Digital HDTV Grand Alliance, the
U.S. research consortium heralded the move as a "major victory for American
television viewers."
The Digital HDTV Grand Alliance -- General Instrument Corporation, Lucent
Technologies, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Philips Electronics
North America Corporation, the David Sarnoff Research Center, Thomson Consumer
Electronics and Zenith Electronics Corporation -- today praised the FCC
decision:
As developers of the innovative and uniquely flexible system upon which
the new standard is based, the members of the Digital HDTV Grand Alliance are
particularly pleased by the FCC's decision to adopt the DTV transmission
standard.
Final FCC approval of the Grand Alliance-based standard marks a great
victory, not only for our consortium but, more important, for America's
100 million TV households. For consumers, digital HDTV will deliver extremely
clear, error-free images and CD-quality sound. This exciting technology, the
most computer-friendly TV broadcast standard ever devised, will also enable a
wide range of information-age applications, because each TV channel will be
able to carry 19 megabits per second of data into the home.
The FCC's action means that the core elements of the standard will be
"mandated" (Dolby AC-3 audio, MPEG-2 compression techniques, the MPEG-2
packetized data transport structure, and the VSB digital modulation and
transmission system). In addition, we believe that the video formats
specified in the ATSC standard -- though not mandated by the FCC -- will be
adopted as a "de facto" standard by the nation's broadcasters.
Now that the DTV standard has been adopted, the Grand Alliance urges the
FCC to assign, as soon as possible, a digital television channel to each
broadcaster. This move -- required by April 1, 1997, according to direction
from Congress -- will mean that the transition to digital television
broadcasts can truly begin. This has been a long process, but today's
historic announcement means that the United States has entered the digital
television age, and will lead the world toward delivering the benefits of the
technology for consumers.
The Digital HDTV Grand Alliance was formed in May 1993 when the developers
of digital HDTV systems agreed to combine their technologies for a single
best-of-the-best DTV system for North America. Over the next two years, the
technology developed by the Grand Alliance was integrated and tested
extensively in independent laboratory and field tests conducted for the FCC
Advisory Committee for Advanced Television Se> |
