This is the third installment of Philip J Cianci’s book “High Definition Television – The Creation, Development and Implementation of HDTV Technology”. This book provides a comprehensive look at how we got to where we are today with HDTV. Starting back in the mid 60’s in Japan through the Grand Alliance to today’s global deployment of HDTV, you get an inside view of what went on.
It’s a fascinating story that’s well told.
Phil has made arrangements for TheOnLineEngineer to publish excerpts from his book over the next several weeks. This is the first excerpt from Chapter 1.
The book is available from Amazon and a list of links to international booksellers can found on Phil’s website – www.HDTVarchiveproject.com.
Chapter 3
“Techno- Industrial War”
The failure at Dubrovnik to establish a world television standard was not without precedent. On more than one occasion the European television community rejected NTSC, with the intent of protecting regional manufacturing. Nevertheless, encouraged by the success of the CCIR 601/SMPTE 125 digital interface and a new spirit of global technical cooperation, an industry consensus regarding HDTV parameters was beginning to coalesce: image quality equivalent to 35mm release prints, i.e. at least twice the resolution of current television systems, and a display aspect ratio of 16 x 9.
Anxious to get started with this new medium of artistic expression, some European broadcasters opted to temporarily use the 1125i60 Hz based production system, even if they opposed a 60 Hz format (Bögels, p. 4). But this did not imply capitulation to Japan Inc.’s latest technological invasion; Europe staunchly refused to allow the Japanese to continue to destroy professional broadcast and consumer electronics industries by establishing “screwdriver plants.”
During the CCIR Dubrovnik Plenary, European delegates decided to use the MAC 50 Hz system for analog and HDTV satellite transmission. In need of some form of economic stimulus as inflation was rising at about 4 percent per year, at its June 30 London meeting, the European Economic Community announced the launching of the Eureka-95 Project; an expansion of an alliance between Philips, Bosch, Thomson and Thorn-EMI. With funding primarily from member companies, “Eureka Project 95” (“Eureka-95,” “E!95” or “EU95”) would develop HDTV standards and production, transmission, display and recording equipment. Philips was the project’s main sponsor and directed efforts in the Netherlands; Thomson in France; Broadcast Television Systems (BTS), Philips’s partnership with Grundig, would manage activity in Germany. European-bred HDTV would turn back the Japanese economic assault.
Events and topics discussed in this chapter include:
- EUREKA-95 and HD-MAC
- MST and NAB Congressional HDTV demos and FCC Advanced Television Petition
- Formation of the Advisory Committee on Advanced Television (ACATS)
- The first independent HDTV production houses
- Development of SMPTE 240M and tri-level sync
- Establishment of the Advanced Television Test Center (ATTC)
- NHK’s Seoul Olympics HDTV broadcasts, EUREKA-95’s IBC ’88 demonstration
and more…
From High Definition Television: The Creation, Development and Implementation of HDTV Technology © 2012 Philip J. Cianci by permission of McFarland & Company, Inc., Box 611, Jefferson NC 28640. www.mcfarlandpub.com.
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