Digital Video Broadcasting: Technology, Standards and Regulations
An overview of the technical, political, and market issues relating to digital video broadcast and digital television.
TABLE OF CONTENTS Digital Video Broadcasting: Technology, Standards and Regulations
Chapter 8: European digital video broadcasting project
8.1 Introduction
As stated in Chapter 1, the government-driven approach to establish a European standard for an analog satellite HDTV broadcasting system appeared to be a failure. The HDMAC Directive, which was meant to set a standard, was abandoned as a policy line. Meanwhile, in the United States, the FCC charged the GA with developing a standard for a digital terrestrial HDTV broadcasting system. In reaction, market parties in Europe initiated the market-driven DVB project for the development of digital wide-screen (16:9) television.
This chapter discusses the DVB project s developments, first providing the background and subsequently explaining the project s structure and related research projects. Next, the standardization process, including the European Commission s and the national governments roles, is discussed. This is followed by a description of the various cooperating standardization bodies and groups. Finally, the ambitious planning and the results are described.
8.2 Background
The European DVB project s technical basis was formed in late 1990. In an experimental European project called SPECTRE, it was proved that it is possible to effectively reduce the transmission capacity that is required for DTV. Until that point in time, it was not clear whether it was possible to practically implement digital coding systems. The concerned compression system was also known as the motion compensated hybrid discrete cosine transform coding system.
In reaction to the developments in the United States, the Scandinavian HD-DIVINE project on the development of an HDTV standard for digital terrestrial broadcasting started in 1991. Moreover, Swedish television launched the idea...
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