AV Technology - October 2008 - (Page 10)

precedent october 2008 | headlines Get Smart INTERNATIONAL AUDIO SUMMIT The International Audio Summit, to be held in Santa Monica from November 1719, is for technical decision makers involved in broadcasting, movies, and audio. This conference covers new technologies in acquiring and sharing information and trends in audio and video production. Speakers from industry, science, and trade associations will lecture on topics such as new formats for production and broadcast, audience involvement via innovative audio applications, and new wireless communication systems in broadcast centers. A variety of workshops will take an indepth look at important issues surrounding new production and broadcasting formats, next generation technologies, and audio for sports productions. The summit is organized by the Sennheiser Sound Academy. Visit www.audiosummit.com ATSC Adopts Standard For Advanced Video Coding V ideo compression, which reduces the bandwidth required to transport a digital video signal, was one of the key technologies that enabled the development of digital television (DTV). The state-of-the-art for video coding technology in the early 1990s was MPEG-2, and this became a fundamental part of the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) standard, as well as DTV standards in other parts of the world. Due to “Moore’s Law,” the processing speed and memory capacity of hardware devices for video encoding and decoding has advanced greatly since MPEG-2 reasons for adding AVC to ATSC is that several countries that still have to decide on the DTV transmission standard to be adopted have asked for advanced codec capability, and this is needed for ATSC to be competitive with alternative systems under consideration. In the U.S., AVC is unlikely to be used in the near future for regular DTV broadcasting because the large installed base of MPEG-2 integrated receivers and set-top boxes in this country would be unable to decode such programming. According to an ATSC press release, standards for new mobile/handheld (M/H) and non-real- LONG-TERM ENVIRONMENTAL IT STRATEGY Do IT managers have a long-term plan/strategy targeted at reducing the environmental footprint of their It infrastructure? SOURCE: CUTTER CONSORTIUM DON’T KNOW NO YES BICSI ANNOUNCES NXTGEN PROGRAM TIMELINE Edward J. Donelan, BICSI president, has announced the BICSI NxtGEN Program timeline, beginning with the unveiling of the ITS (Information Transport Systems) Design Fundamentals Program at the 2009 BICSI Winter Conference in Orlando, FL, January 19-22, 2009. The BICSI NxtGEN Program fulfills two of the four main goals of the BICSI strategic plan. The credential goal calls for BICSI’s credentials to be regarded as the most coveted and premiere designations in the ITS industry. KEY DATES ARE AS FOLLOWS: MAY 2009 — The Specialty Exams (Wireless, Outside Plant, and Network Transport Systems) will be offered to individuals without the Registered Communications Distribution Designer (RCDD) as a prerequisite credential. SEPTEMBER 2009 — The Telecommunications Distribution Methods Manual, 12th edition, will be released. JANUARY 2010 — The first RCDD exam based on the new NxtGEN prerequisite qualifications will be adminisV tered.Visit www.bicsi.org. www.avtechnologyonline.com was developed. This has enabled increasingly sophisticated compression algorithms to be developed that take advantage of the increased hardware power now available at ever-lower price points. These new video encoding/decoding (codec) systems provide significant improvements in coding efficiency compared to MPEG2 and can result in equivalent or better quality at lower bit rates. However, none of the new advanced codecs are backward compatible with MPEG-2, which creates a challenge for their introduction into existing broadcast systems. One of the new codecs that is receiving wide acceptance in deployment of new video services is Advanced Video Coding (AVC). In September, the ATSC published a standard to enable the use of AVC for ATSC DTV. One of the time (NRT) services are now being developed in ATSC that, by their nature, would require new receiver devices. These are obvious candidates to take advantage of the improved efficiency of AVC. In fact, a high-efficiency advanced codec is virtually essential for the M/H standard in order to preserve adequate DTV channel bandwidth for existing MPEG-2 services. In their press release on AVC, for the first time in public, the ATSC refers to “ATSC 2.0.” This concept for next generation services for fixed receivers is part of the ATSC long-term strategic plan for the future of DTV. ATSC 2.0 is currently in the development stage in the ATSC Planning Committee, chaired by NAB Science & Technology staff member Graham Jones, and is a separate effort from the mobile/handheld standard now in preparation. 10 | AV TECHNOLOGY | october 2008 http://www.audiosummit.com http://www.bicsi.org http://www.avtechnologyonline.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of AV Technology - October 2008

AV Technology - October 2008 Contents Precedent Corporate: Residential AV Does Not Equal Commercial AV Government: Funding Problems? Education: DIY ISP.EDU, Part Two The Cost of Bandwidth Star Grounding Wars Understanding IoIP How to Equip a Smart Classroom Two Rooms With A View From Primitive to Professional Product Review:�Visionary Solutions AVN 420 Encoder Product Spotlight: Document Cameras New Products Ad Index AV MO: Using Infrared Microphones

AV Technology - October 2008

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