PRO-MPEG Forum Staged Major Demonstration At NAB '99
Business/Technology Editors
NAB99
LAS VEGAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 6, 1999--
Broadcasters and Manufacturers Showed Unprecedented
Interoperability
Over 20 companies participated in the Pro-MPEG Forum's
multi-tiered display of MPEG-2 based solutions, in a cooperative
demonstration that was unprecedented in the industry for its breadth
and level of interoperability. Comprised of a theatre-style video
presentation and hands-on demonstration exhibit area, the Forum united
broadcast and program creators, equipment manufacturers, and component
suppliers.
Nick Wells, of the BBC's Research and Development Department, and
Chairman of the Forum, commented, "MPEG-2 is without question the
universally accepted standard for digital transmission. At NAB, the
Pro-MPEG Forum provided a platform to show that it is fully
interoperable throughout the entire production and distribution chain,
with all types of equipment, and with a variety of interfaces. There
are many benefits to a consistent use of MPEG-2: it's efficient,
practical, economical, and permits the highest technical quality. MPEG
is a technology that enables the great potential and promise of
digital technology to be achieved."
The Pro-MPEG Forum was formed in 1998 to promote the many
benefits of MPEG-2 and to ensure end-to-end interoperability of
equipment from different manufacturers.
"With the widespread acceptance of digital television, new and
demanding requirements across all broadcast applications are being
made," Wells added. "The versatile compression technology of MPEG-2
addresses these conditions. The Pro-MPEG Forum is adopting the
recommendations of the EBU/SMPTE task force to ensure
interoperability, including the use of SDTI-CP and networking
technologies. Together, this enables the movement of compressed
digital video seamlessly from one manufacturer's device to another's
through the entire production environment. With its flexible bit rates
and GOP structures, quality can be tuned for different purposes. We
saw this in action at the NAB demonstration area, as well as in the
booths of individual manufacturers."
Aside from its technological benefits, MPEG-2 is of vast
geopolitical importance. According to Scott Teissler, CIO/CTO at
Turner Broadcasting and CNN, "The Pro-MPEG Forum is a global effort at
really deep digital standardization of the broadcasting industry. At
last suppliers and users of broadcast technology are systematically
confronting the necessary range of compatibility and standards issues
for actual operations."
Frank Governale, Vice President of Operations at CBS News, cited
the economics of MPEG-2 as a persuasive benefit. "MPEG-2 standards
allow for all broadcast and consumer manufacturers to build equipment
which creates an economy of scale, thereby increasing interoperability
and reducing the cost of ownership -- a savings that will naturally
benefit broadcasters and the end consumer of content as well."
The Forum's technology showcase at NAB highlighted not only
interoperability, but also the manufacturers' dedication to current
and future usability, including: simplification of MPEG through
multiple operating points and application segmentation; maintenance of
high-quality across multiple generations through MPEG transcoding; the
emergence of PC applications for MPEG; flexibility of multiple
transport interfaces; suitability for multiple video formats (from
SDTV to HDTV); application of metadata; and temporal coding benefits.
The demonstration area included 150 pieces of equipment from over
20 manufacturers of MPEG-2 products. Compressed data was streamed
end-to-end: from acquisition, to contribution, to production, to post
production, to distribution. Direct file transfer was demonstrated to
show the merging of the computer world and the video world. A variety
of transmission and emission communications interfaces (DVB-ASI; ATM,
and others) showed the flexibility of how MPEG data can be sent and
received.
Video acquisition was shown from a Sony Betacam SX camera and an
NEC MPEG disc camcorder. Other acquisition formats (Digital Betacam,
DVCAM, and DVCPro) were also showcased. Contribution links from a
satellite (NDS) and DS3 (Barco), as well as remote ATM (Thomson and
ECI Telecom) were demonstrated. A Pro-Bel router switched MPEG signals
from sources to destinations.
Direct SDTI-CP transfer from a Sony MPEG VTR to a Quantel MPEG
Edit Server was shown at one of the Forum's key compression points of
MPEG-2, at 50mbps (I-frame). This compression point is especially
suited for MPEG editing: Fast Multimedia and Pinnacle Systems both
showed MPEG non-linear editing equipment.
Playout servers from Tektronix, Hewlett-Packard, Sony, and Vyvx
took the edited bit streams and played the MPEG-2 output. At the
distribution and emission end, a Barco encoder and Leitch multiplexer
provided MPEG-2 over a DS-3 interface, which was de-multiplexed and
decoded to a display monitor. Ad and logo inserters were demonstrated
by Snell & Wilcox, as well as Chyron/Pro-Bel. MPEG encoders were shown
by Barco, EMC2, Philips, Sony, and Thomson.
The interoperability demonstration showed a fully MPEG,
end-to-end, multi-vendor production system capable of staying in MPEG:
from camera-eye to viewer-eye. The picture quality of this end-to-end
demo was validated using the Tektronix Picture Quality Analyzer (PQA)
and transport stream analyzers, which demonstrated the high quality
achievable in the MPEG domain even at very low data rates.
According to Don Leake, Communications Chairman of the Pro-MPEG
Forum and IBM's Manager of Sales and Marketing for the Digital Video
Products Group, "In order for the broadcast industry to take the next
steps into digital delivery, it is of paramount importance that all
involved parties come together to create an efficient and
cost-effective standard. With the MPEG-Forum, this goal was
well-achieved at NAB, and the results are not only immediately
applicable, but also show that MPEG is the only standard with room for
future growth. "
"MPEG interoperability starts at the chip level," said Fermi
Wang, General Manager of the PC/Codec Division at C-Cube. "As a
pioneer in MPEG technology, C-Cube is committed to its implementation
as a fully interoperable standard. We believe participation in the
Pro-MPEG Forum will enable the major MPEG suppliers -- C-Cube,
Philips, IBM, Thomson, and Sony -- to accelerate adoption of MPEG
throughout the broadcasting industry."
Quantel Engineering Director Peter Owen recounts, "There was a
time when MPEG manufacturers implemented products in a vacuum where
standards were concerned. The Pro-MPEG Forum bridges the needs of the
end users, brings together the manufacturers, and guides the component
suppliers. The Pro-MPEG Forum provides a critical mass that brings the
benefits of MPEG to the real-world in truly compatible products."
Akio Yamakata, Senior Director of the Technology Development
Office of Fuji TV Networks (Japan), agreed, "A consortium of this size
and membership is truly unparalleled in the broadcast arena. We
appreciate the critical work the Pro-MPEG Forum is doing to create a
better environment in which the user community can be assured of
future commercial success." |
