MPEG-1 is formally known as ISO/IEC 11172. ISO/IEC refers to the fact that the standard is recognised by both ISO and IEC because JTC 1, the Technical Committee under which MPEG operates, is a joint ISO and IEC Technical Committee. The number “11172” is a 5-digit serial number that the…
The achievements of MPEG-1
Besides being an excellent set of pieces of technology, MPEG-1 is also a remarkable collection of “first ever” achievements. It was the first integrated audio-visual standard. This was a great achievement and did set an example to the media industry. For the first time a standard had been produced where…
The Highs And Lows Of Television
One-to-many communication seems to be a business blessed by the blindfolded goddess. Newspapers are one of the first and, until recently, the most successful of such businesses. Coveted, pampered, feared, lured, controlled or suppressed by Public Authorities, they are incredibly powerful tools to shape public opinion – if content entices…
The Digital Television Maze
At the very first meeting in Ottawa, MPEG had set for itself an initial work plan based on three targets: substandard definition television as provided by SIF (1/4 of SDTV) at up to about 1.5 Mbit/s, standard definition television at up to 5 Mbit/s and high definition television at up…
MPEG-2 Development – Video
The first open MPEG-2 “session” took place in Porto in July 1990. Months before, while in search for a meeting host for this ever-growing MPEG group, I had asked Prof. Artur Pimenta Alves of INESC to host the July 1990 meeting during a COST 211 working dinner at Ipswich. He…
MPEG-2 Development – Audio
As with MPEG-1, the Audio work in MPEG-2 took a different turn from its original direction. MPEG-1 Audio already provided an excellent way to compress stereo audio, exactly what many broadcasters were thinking of providing as a first step in their soon-to-come digital services. But some expected that the future…
MPEG-2 Development – Systems
The development of the MPEG-2 Audio and Video standards required the best experts in digital audio and video processing, but the development of the Systems part required seasoned engineers, a species in scarce supply today, so much so that we may no longer be able to access their unique expertise…
Inside MPEG-2
Unlike MPEG-1, where a reference model strictly need only consider the decoder, the full extent of the MPEG-2 standard requires consideration of the complete chain from source to destination for the DSM-CC part. The figure below gives a schematic representation of the scope of the MPEG-2 standard. The Source of…
The Impact of MPEG-2
The radio spectrum is sliced for use by a multitude of services and the VHF/UHF band assigned to terrestrial television broadcasting is very narrow. Spectrum scarcity used to make television a great business to be in, first because the number of broadcasters in any given market is reduced to a…
Beyond MPEG-2 Audio And Video
In 1992 and 1993 I was looking with interest at the developments in Europebearing the name “European Project on Digital Broadcasting”. Seeing what was brewing in Europe, the VADIS Strategic Advisory Group asked me to organise a “European Seminar on Digital Television”. This was held in Geneva hosted by the…