broadcastengineering® - americanradiohistory.com · 2019. 7. 17. · panasonic: the olympic...

www.broadcasitengineering.comJANUPRY 2002

BroadcastEngineering®

A PRIINIEDIA PUBLICATION

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romicastEnTHE JOURNAL OF DIGITAL TELEVISION

FEATURES52 GRAPHICS TECHNOLOGY FOR REMOTE

BROADCASTINGBy Jim BostonThe technology behind television remote broadcasting isquite elaborate in both ingenuity and cost.

58 CENTRALCASTING: No BENEFIT WITH-OUT RISKBy John LuffThe effects of falling revenue and rising costs have tippedthe scale towards increased need for automation.

75 A BROADCASTERS' GUIDE TO PSIPBy Jerry WhitakerSurvey helps recognize need for more education regard-ing transmission of PSIP information.

7!

merino

BEYOND THE HEADLINESDownload

14 CASTING FOR DTV BUSINESS MODELS

FCC Update

B oadcastEngineming

Graphics for Remotes -

OP'.fir

20 USE OF DIGITAL FREQUENCIES FOR ANALOGOPERATIONS

Business Models

22 PPVNOD

DIGITAL HANDBOOKTransition to Digital

26 UNDERSTANDING COMPOSITE ANALOG VIDEO

Computers and Networks

32 COMPRESSION, COMPUTERS AND NETWORKS

Production Clips

38 AUDIO FOR POST: FRAME RATE

ON THE COVER:The NMT HD -2 mobile

production truckbroadcasting a profes-

sional football gamefrom the Oakland

Coliseum. The HD truckwas designed andintegrated by Sony

Systems IntegrationCenter, San Jose, CA.

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(continued on page 6)

4 broadcastengineering.com JANUARY 2002

The right partner makes all the difference.Panasonic: The Olympic Games' Broadcast Technology Partner.

Gold medal -winning performances require the right partner.

As the supplier of leading -edge digital video equipment to host

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taking performances of this year'sGames for future generations to enjoy.11111,8101 50

To acquire your piece of Olympic Winter Games history -theactual equipment used in the production of these Games -visit

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BroalcastEngineeringTHE JOURNAL OF DIGITAL TELEVISION

SYSTEMS DESIGN& INTEGRATION

Systems Design Showcases

42 THE DISCOVERY TELEVISION CENTER

Transmission & Distribution

48 WHAT'S HAPPENING UP THERE?

NEW PRODUCTS& REVIEWS

Applied Technologies

71 SNELL & WILCOX'S SYSTEM HD

78 MIRANDA: NETWORKING THE NETWORK

79 VCI's STAR II+ TRAFFIC SYSTEM FOR

CENTRALCASTING

Technology m transition

80 NEWS EDITING: CUT ... AND PASTE?

New Products

82 SONY'S DRES777, PLUS OTHER NEW PRODUCTS

DEPARTMENTS8 EDITORIAL

12 READER FEEDBACK

07 CLASSIFIEDS

91 ADVERTISERS INDEX

92 EOM

Name this

VTR

Name and date this VTR.

Called a "Videocorder" itclaimed "electronic editing"complete with the ability to"tape your material fromother tapes, or off the air, orlive camera and insert theminto your pre -corded tapes

with perfect synchroniza-tion." Correct entries will beeligible for a drawing of thenew Broadcast Engineering t -shirts. Enter by e-mail. Titleyour entry "Freezeframe-January" in the subject fieldand send it to:[email protected].

Correct answers received byFeb. 17, 2002, are eligible towin.


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The NewBroadcast Engineering

Notice anything different about BroadcastEngineering? We've changed.

It's with a lot of pride and enthusiasmthat we present the newly designed Broadcast Engi-neering magazine. The staff has spent the last sixmonths working with leading magazine design firmAlpanian Design Group to develop the best lookingand most readable magazine possible. We reviewed thelatest research in reader needs and preferences for

magazine look and feel. Then, led by Alan Alpanianand his staff, we set about developing a completely newlook and feel that we believe is both unique and easierto read. The new format is more open, more colorfuland easier on the eye.

Our goal was to improve the presentation, whilekeeping the award -winning contents that keep read-ers coming back. We've kept the knowledgeable au-thors that have made Broadcast Engineering the Jour-nal of Digital Television. Inside, you'll still find the workof Brad Gilmer, Michael Robin, Don Markley, JohnLuff, Paul McGoldrick and Harry Martin. Plus, we'veadded a new technical writer, well-known and respectedindustry guru, Craig Birkmaier. Craig will be focusinghis research and writing on several new topics designed

to help you better understand the application of tech-nology to business.

We've also developed a new column, Download, tolook at a different technology each month. You'll learnhow the technology applies to your business and whatit takes to implement it. This will be a "heads -up" lookat developing applications that broadcasters and con-tent developers are just now beginning to implement.You'll learn what you can to do to bring their successto your facility.

We've also made corresponding changes to our Website. Perhaps most beneficial to readers is the online clas-sified ad section. Need a job, or want to post a job? Seeour Web site, www.broadcastengineering.com, for help.

Over the last year, most of you have asked, "Will theindustry survive; will business get better?" You bet itwill! As evidence, a recent report commissioned by theNAB and MSTV estimates that DTV set penetrationcould reach 75.5 percent by 2006 if all new sets soldafter Jan. 1, 2004, had DTV tuners. And HDTV is in-creasingly popular. Just visit your local electronics storeand watch people plunk down their credit cards forlarge -screen, HD -capable sets. Indeed, this editor hascommitted to HDTV with the purchase of his ownset. And as soon as my local stations begin HD trans-missions, I'll be there with a tuner.

HD Olympic coverage will be provided on NBC andon HDNet on a delayed basis. Millions will now havean opportunity to view the Olympics in HD. Whenviewers see HD in their friends' homes and at the lo-cal electronics stores - they'll want it! And we wantyou to share in the building excitement.

Over the next year, Broadcast Engineering will be bring-ing you many exciting articles - all designed to help youand your facility be more successful. From implement-ing HD to datacasting to interactive TV, the answers liein the upcoming pages of Broadcast Engineering.

editorial director

Send comments to: direct: editorgorimediabusiness.com Web site: www.broadcastengineering.com


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The SGI Media Server for broadcast is at thecenter of some highly efficient centralcastinginfrastructures already implemented in Europe.These customers see great performance advantages in thecombination of video serving and TP (total performance) stor-age technology from SGI.

SGI Media Server for BroadcastPeoprietary systems are very good at doing what they aresLpposed to do. That's the problem. The rules and your needschange and closed systems can't keep up. Unlike other mediaservers on the market, the SGI system is based on Origin fami-ly servers and the industry's most robust UNIX'operating sys-tem, RIX'. And its operation is based on open standards forvideo, data networking, file transfer, and storage. Format agilityis key to SGI Media Server for broadcast which supports themost popular broadcast digital formats-MPEG -2 (3Xi= and

XFfile formats), DVCPRO, and uncompressed. For movingvideo within or between facilities, the SGI Media Server forbroadcast manages vdeo as data and distributes files at fasterthan real-time rates over data networks. It is a powerful andversatile solution for mission -critical applications includingacquisition, play to air, commercial insertion, serving digital newsediting systems, and distribution between and within facilities.

Digital Asset Managementand CentralcastingA centralcasting model generates a need for asset manage-ment. The layer of the centralcasting architecture above mediaservers is the asset management software that controls thetransfer and archive of video files. SGI' StudioCentral" Libraryis a digital asset management infrastructure that is globallyscalable and built on ooen standards.

The SGI approach is that asset management and broadcastserving must work hand-in-hand: This is why SGI StudioCentralLibrary 3.0 integrates with Media Server for broadcast and taperobotics for backup and archives. StudioCentral is engineeredto seamlessly scale to global, usage and harness the content -sharing power of fast wide area networks. Media Server forbroadcast, StudioCential, and SGI' Total Performance storageproducts provide the structural framework for other third -partyapplications.

Scalable Serving and File SharingRegardless of the distance, moving video over data networkswith highly scalable Origin family servers preserves the quali-ty of the content. Data is identical from where it left to whereit arrives. But, even more important, the speed of the transferis a business decision that can be controlled by you insteadof the server manufacturer because SGI has the largestvariety of network interfaces available. The Origin seriesprovides unparalleled sustained throughput for high-speedsupport of the latest networking p-otocols. With thei- superiorscalable processors, storage, I/O network connectivity, high -

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Total Performance StorageSGI" Total Performance 9400 (TP9400) storage arrays enablecustomers to solve large, complex content managementchallenges with standard or customized solutions designedfor reliability and throughput. The 2Gb SGI TP9400 storagesystem with the SG!' CXFS" clustered file system serves asa broadcast SAN uniquely enabling heterogeneous, simulta-neous and faster -than -real-time shared file access betweenmultiple hosts for applications such as direct server editingwhile simultaneously protecting bandwidth for critical broad-cast applications. CXFS software with an SGI TP9400 SANprovides faster time to content creation and distribution byenabling users to share the same video over fast dataconnections, avoiding the need to move or copy data duringeach step of the workflow process.

SG! Worldwide, Corporate Headquarters. 1600 Amphitheatre Pkwy., Mountain View, CA 94043, USA102 Silion Graphics. Inc All nghts reserve.' S3enificationa subject to change without notice Silk.on Srat hies. SGI. Ongin IRIX, and the SGI logo are registered trademarks and Media Commerce, Sd Media Server. CXFS. and XFS are Trademarks of Silicon

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S glMSVERIGES TELEVISION (SW) of Sweden transitioned toall -digital production with 34 SGI Media Servers for Broad-cast and an SGI Origin 3400 system, moving all of its news,sports, and current events programming units into a new, all -digital facility in Stockholm supported by the SGI infrastructure.

"Sveriges Television is very pleased to have launched anew digital production system based on Internet technology.The new system was put to a test during the extreme newssituation the first week of operation in early September,and came through without failures," said Niklas Krantz,project manager for SVT. "The networked system, whereplayout is done from seven SGI Origin 200 Media Servers,ingest from three 4 -channel SGI Media Servers and filetransfers directed through an SGI Origin 3400, covers thewhole of Sweden: 10 news rooms in Stockholm and 10regional news rooms around Sweden, connected on a net-work for faster than real-time transfers of video files. Wehave been able to do more than we ever thought possiblewith SGI Media Server."

THE WEATHER CHANNEL relies on two SGI Origin 2000servers, and more than 50 Silicon Graphics 02 high-per-formance graphics visualization systems b deliver weatherinformation to cable head -ends throughout the U.S. Over2,000 SGI media servers receive the centralcast localizedweather information and play to air under 'central control.SGI systems also enable the Weather Channel to broadcastlocal weather forecasts to over 10,000 different locations.

"The Weather Channel uses SGI visual workstations toprocess, store and distribute weather imagery to cable sys-tems throughout the United States," said Raymond Ban,executive vice president for meteorological affairs and oper-ations, The Weather Channel. "Thanks b SGI technology,The Weather Channel is able to bring viewers the newestgraphics and most accurate, up-to-the-rniniute forecasts."

FRANCE TELEVISION PUBLICITE, the advertising produc-tion subsidiary of national broadcaster France Television,converted last year to all -digital ad insertion using SGI Originservers for their public service networks (France 2, France 3and La Cinquieme) and six cable TV stations."La Cinquieme broadcasts clips in MPEG-2 formats, whichare transferred from a central production to the remotetransmission facilty then served directly from the SGI MediaServer for Broadcast," says Christophe Scherer, FranceTelevision Publicite's IT director. "It not only saves consider-able editing time, but also enables us to react rapidly to anylast-minute changes before on -air broadcast."

Phone: 1-800-800-SGI1 www.sgi.com

ATSC Table 3Michael Robin:I enjoy reading your articles. In your

column Getting from 4:3 to 16:9 onthe Broadcast Engineering Web site,you did make one (to some people)faux pas. There is no 720 horizontalformat in Table 3 in the ATSC stan-dard.

JOHN GOLITSIS

MISSISSAUGA, ONTARIO, CANADA

Michael Robin responds:

I have several comments as follows:1) Format conversions from 4:3

SDTV to 16:9 HDTV use sig-nal sources as specified by theITU-R BT.601 Recommenda-tion with a 4:2:2 sampling strat-egy. Table 1 of the ATSC A53lists this standard as well as twoHDTV standards and refers tothem as "Standardized VideoInput Formats."

2) The "601" signals using the 4:2:2sampling strategy have an activeluminance sampling grid of 720pixels by 483 lines. While the 720sample structure is slightly ad-hered to, some signals maychange the active number oflines to slightly different values.In my example, I used the720x480 source format.

3) The change from 720 horizon-tal pixels to 704 occurs in theATSC compressor. Table 3 of theATSC A53 lists the allowed com-pression formats. The ATSCdocument does not explain why720 is changed to 704 in thecompressor. Interestingly, theATSC A63 version intended forcountries using the 625/50 scan-ning format specifies 720 pixelsinstead of 704. So, this is anotherATSC item needing revision.

In response to the Could Dead BirdsDelay DTV? editorial, Broadcast En-gineering writer and consultant DonMarkley reports:

A few years ago, I had the occasion totestify at a zoning hearing for a new2000 -foot tower north of Des Moines,IA, the third in an existing antenna farm.

Some of the protestors to the newtower presented a paper that had beenprepared by either Iowa State or theUniversity of Iowa showing the resultsof a two-year study of the dead birdsaround the tower. The protesters usedthe research to argue that any newstructure would simply kill more birdsand should not be allowed.

Upon studying the report, we foundthat none of the dead birds discoveredaround the towers were on the endan-gered species list or even presented aconcern about their populations. Infact, many of the birds the protesterswere concerned about were on the U.S.Department of Agriculture's listing ofbirds that are considered to be commonpests and disease carriers.

We argued that the tower, therefore,provided a valuable public service inreducing the population of those un-desirable pests without killing any en-dangered or concerned species.

While the zoning commission didn'tbuy our argument as to the public ser-vice provided by the tower, they alsodidn't consider the bird kill to be objec-tionable and approved the tower.

Is cable preventing HDTV?

Since August of this year, I have beenon a list of people waiting for HD boxesfrom Time Warner cable (located in alarge mid -United States city). As of twoweeks ago, I was number 492 on a listof 700 or so local people who are alsowaiting on HD set -top boxes from thecable company. The customer servicerep I talked to had no idea how muchlonger I might have to wait.

This is an improvement over when Ifirst put my name on that list. Then, thecustomer service rep at the Time Warneroffice couldn't (or wouldn't) even tell mehow long it might take or how manypeople were ahead of me. In fact, sheseemed to want me to stop asking ques-tions and leave as soon as possible.

This time when I called, they had apartial answer for the delay, "They'remade by hand:'

Aside from the question of handconstruction, this seems like a strangeway to do business, especially with thiskind of demand. If there are 700people on the list for an HD STB thatwill cost them an extra $10 per monthinto eternity, that amounts to a mini-mum of $84,000 per year for the cablecompany. All that money is sitting onthe table right now! And, that doesn'ttake into account the many potentialsubscribers who may have gotten dis-couraged and went to DirecTV.

The slow penetration of HDTV is of-ten rightfully blamed on the broadcast-ers' lack of HD content. But, with majorcable companies like Time Warner as thegateway to these programs, it seemshypocritical for the cable industry toclaim that it can't (won't) make HD STBsavailable to the customers who've beenwaiting months to get them.

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Casting for DTVBusiness ModelsBY CRAIG BIRKMAIER

Is data the big fish thatgot away?Two years ago data broadcasting

was catching the enthusiastic interest ofbroadcasters looking for additional rev-enue streams from their investments inthe DTV transition. Everyone was cast-ing their bait into the DTV stream.

Today, a business plan that will turndata broadcasting into a viable busi-ness remains elusive.

Questions about modulation and

gress. This despite the fact that ancil-lary services were authorized by the1996 Telecommunications Act.

Questions about the allocation of bitsfor these new services have been raisedby the broadcast networks, apparentlyconcerned about the impact on the de-livered quality of HDTV programmingand/or the ability to entice affiliates tocarry network data services.

And the question of how to deploy asufficient quantity of data -broadcast -

Action on the Internet has shifted to business -to -business applications.

reception have cast doubt on the vi-ability of DTV broadcasting to pushIP data and digital media content tothe masses.

Questions about the use of the DTVchannel to compete with other broad-band services have been raised by Con-

ne fifth of surfers

November 2000

Broadband12%

capable receivers to enable a viablebusiness remains unanswered.

Today, the only platform that existsfor data broadcasting is a PC, to whichone must add a DTV receiver boardthat costs between $300 and $500. Ex-ternal receivers that interface with a PC

Broadband growth = 90%Internet growth = 11

SOURCE: Nielsen/NetRatings

November 2001

Broadband20%

www. nielsen. corn

Where's them'competition?

Congressional subcommittees ofthe Justice and Commercecommittees held hearings about theproposed merger of DirecTV andDish Networks on Dec. 4, 2001. As it

to demonstrate just how confusingthese issues are, at these hearings,most 7,ongressmen took positionsfor or against the proposed DBSmerger, but they did not dividedown party lines, or along rural/urban lines.

The fundamental question is who'scompeting virth whom?If the merger is viewed from thenarrow perspective that DirecTVcompetes only with DISH Net-works, it seems clear that themerger would be denied. But DISHand DirecTV argued that the realcompetitor is cable, and that theyneed economies of scale tocompete more effectively.A key factor in the debate iscarriage of local broadcast signalsvia the DBS services. SinceDirecTV and DISH are competingfor the largest markets, where theycan reach more potential sub-scribers, they ouplicate the localsignais they carry. New spot beamsatellftes are on the way that willmake it possible to carry morelocal broadcast channels, butthere would be better synergy ifthe competing DBS services did

not need to duplicate both localchannels and tie 100 to 200national channels they delivertoday. At the hearings theypromised to deliver all local signalsto 100 markets, including at leastone TV market in every state. BE


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via USB or Firewire have not been de-veloped for ATSC.

The collapse of the dotcoms, not tomention the downturn in television adrevenues, didn't help. Geocast was un-able to line up additional funding andpulled the plug March 1, 2001. iBlastmanaged to secure additional funding,and is now testing the first of morethan a dozen proposed services in Los

Angeles. DTVPlus, a joint venture withWRAL-DT, recently launched TotalCast,the first regularly scheduled data broad-cast service, in Raleigh/Durham, NC.Dotcast is working with Disney to de-velop a system that will use both analogand digital broadcasts to deliver moviesto local cache storage for consumptionon demand. Meanwhile, SpectraRephas focused on business -to -business

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DTVPIus and WRAL-DT recentlylaunched a datacasting service totransmit broadband content such asthe game shown above directly topersonal computers.

applications using encrypted DTVbroadcasts.

The PC remains at the center of thedatacasting pond, largely because of therapid proliferation of new forms of digi-tal media based upon the Internet'sTCP/IP packet data standards. The pro-grammable nature of the PC enables en-trepreneurs and early adopters to test thewaters of this new medium in hopes oflanding the killer app that will driveDTV into millions of homes.

To address this opportunity, a widerange of companies, with technologiesrelevant to the development of themarkets for datacasting, have formedthe PC DTV Promoters Group. Mem-ber companies offer technology or ser-vices that enable PC users to receivedigitally broadcast signals from terres-trial stations, cable services or satelliteproviders. Products include DTV re-ceiver cards, HDTV software decod-ers and data broadcasting services.

Business models fordatacasting

Despite the lack of success withdatacasting to date, there are thosewho are still optimistic.

Pete Lude, vice president of broad -castengineering for iBlast, is one. Lude' be-lieves that the current DTV transmis-sion standard is solid enough to build aviable datacasting service upon. "High-speed cable and DSL data services can'treach everyone today. We can reachmore potential customers than cable orDSL in most markets." iBlast countsamong its affiliates 255 TV stations in


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156 markets.Still, Lude' concedes that the real

question is "What is the businessmodel?" Hoping to answer thatquestion, iBlast is testing a PC -centric new service calledPowercast to deliver news, enter-tainment, movie trailers and pro-gram reviews, with content beingprovided by iBlast investors.

In Raleigh/Durham, WRAL-DTrecently began deployment of theTotalCast service in collaborationwith DTVPlus and AccessDTV.The service broadcasts broad-band content including video ondemand and local programmingdirectly to personal computers

PC DTV Promoters Groupwwwpcdtv.org/

Data casting companies/servicesdotcast

WWW.datcast.com/htdocs/home.htm

DTV3lusV/Nw.dtvplus.com/

iBlastW NW. iblastcom/

SpectraRepwNw.spectrarep.com/

TotalCasttotalcastdtvplus.com/

TV+InternetW'NW.tvplusintemetcom/

lAavexpresswww.vvavexpress.com/

Receiving hardwareAccessDTV

www.accessdtv.com/B )C7

www.b2c2inc.com/products/pc-products.html

Hainpaugewww.hauppauge.com/

Ravisentwww.ravisentcom/products/indexCPDTV.html

Videon Centralwww.videon-central.com/hdtv.phtml

using the digital television signal.Products that integrate analog televi-

sion/cable tuners and personal video re-cording capabilities for PCs have beenselling briskly. But the total number ofconsumers using DTV datacasting ser-vices may still number in the hundreds.

Today the real action on the Internetis in business -to -business applications.Most businesses have broadband capa-bilities, a critical enabling technology forapplications enhanced with digital me-dia. One business focused on this op-portunity is SpectraRep.

SpectraRep bridges the gap betweenthe content provider and local contentdistributors by bringing them togetherby delivering content via satellite to a lo-cal broadcast station that then becomesthe hub of a local wireless streamingmedia network The DTV broadcast in-frastructure is used much like an STL.Each reception site benefits from a fixedprofessional antenna installation andany equipment required for bridginginto the facility's analog TV or data net-works. For example, SpectraRep is work-ing with its affiliate KLAS-DT in Las Ve-gas to create distribution networks fo-cused on the trade show business in LasVegas. The Las Vegas and Sands Con-vention Centers and a number of areahotels are equipped to receive and dis-tribute the data broadcast.

CooperationAccording to John Able, a former

head of the NAB, broadcasters need towork together to develop a competi-tive business model. He believes theyfirst need to develop a receiving devicethat supports existing TV sets.

Craig Birkmaier is a technology consultantat Pcube Labs, and hosts and moderatesthe Open DTV Forum.

IN ADDITIONVisit our Web site,www.broadcastengineering, formore discussion on the optionsavailable to broadcasterssearching for a way to generaterevenue by datacasting.


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Use of DigitalFrequenciesfor Analog OperationsBY HARRY C MARTIN

In September, the FCC issued anorder regarding its ongoing 700mHz "band -clearing" proceed-

ings in which it said television stationsnow operating on Channels 59-69 canmove to their digital channels and op-erate in the analog mode until the lat-ter of December 31, 2005, or the datein which there is 70 percent penetra-tion of DTV receivers in their markets.

Previously, the Commission had en-couraged band clearing by Channel59-69 licensees, but said that any sta-tion moving its DTV channel as partof a band -clearing plan would haveto convert to DTV and abandon ana-log operations altogether by the May1, 2002, DTV operations deadline.

Various wireless industry groups havebeen pushing the FCC to adopt proce-dures to encourage clearing the 700mHz band so it will be available forpublic safety and advanced wireless ser-vices. The FCC wants to clear the bandso it can proceed with a planned June19th auction of 700 mHz spectrum,which the government hopes will bringin billions of dollars. But with broad-casters occupying the band for the in-definite future, the FCC may be selling"green bananas" and will not likely re-ceive the huge sums it expects.

The National Association of Broad-casters and the Association of MaximumService Telecasters have been participat-ing in these proceedings in order to en -

DatelineThe deadline for commencement ofDTV operations by all commercialstations is May 1, 2002. For non-commercial educational stations,the deadline is May 1, 2003.

sure that existing TV stations do not findtheir service areas compromised by thenew short -spaced analog facilities. TheFCC allows a DTV station to cause in-terference (calculated according to theLongley-Rice method) to up to two per-cent (2%) of the Grade B service area ofan incumbent analog station. However,

standards, there will be very little bandclearing until the nation has convertedto DTV. With most DTV receivers stillon the shelves at Circuit City and BestBuy, such a conversion is years away.

Individual applications now are pend-ing that propose the use of DTV chan-nels in the analog mode. The short-spac-

Various wireless industry groups have been push-ing the FCC to adopt procedures to encourage

clearing the 100 mHz band.

the analog -to -analog interference rulesare based on the minimum mileagespacings contained in Section 73.610 ofthe FCC's rules. An industry study showsthat of the 82 stations in the Channel59-69 band which have DTV channelsin the core (channels 2-51), only twocould meet the FCC's analog spacingstandards using their DTV channels.This is not surprising. If DTV-allottedchannels were fully spaced under theanalog rules they would have beenadded to the Table of Allotments as ana-log stations years ago.

This means the FCC's Septemberinitiative to further encourage Chan-nel 59-69 band clearing may be a com-plete flop. Such a failure, as noted,would have disastrous consequencesfor the FCC's efforts to get top dollarat its upcoming 700 mHz auction.Potential bidders for the frequencieswill have no idea when they will bevacant and available for wireless use.Unless the FCC agrees in the contextof individual waiver requests orthrough further action in its band -clearing rulemaking proceeding torelax its analog -to -analog interference

ing waiver requests in some of theseapplications show that less interferencewould be caused than the FCC has al-ready permitted the station to cause if itoperated on the same channel in theDTV mode (e.g., 1.9 percent interfer-ence to the co -channel station's GradeB when the new facility is operating inthe analog mode vs. 2.0 percent if thefacility were operating, as already autho-rized by the FCC, in the DTV mode).Ultimately, the FCC may need to takethe rulemaking route to determine howmuch protection should be given to theincumbents from the temporary analogoperations.

Harry C. Martin is an attorney with Fletcher,Heald & Hildreth PLC, Arlington, VA.

IN ADDITIONFor a look at how NCE-TVs may

profit from DTV, visit our Web site atwww.broadcastengineering.comand click on FCC Update.

SENDSend questions and comments to:

[email protected]


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The Next Generation Video ScalerExtron introduces the DVS 406, a resolution -enhancing video scaler with an innovative feature set. The DVS 406 combines input flexibility andseamless switching with superior image quality enhanced by Extron's patent -pending scaling technologies: Dynamic Motion Interpolation(DMIrm), 3:2 and 2:2 pulldown detection with True -Rate Film RecoveryTM, and Accu-RATE Frame Lock (AFLTm). With this highperformance scaler, A/V system integrators can improve image quality and simplify system design while building in future -ready upgradeability.

Extron's DVS 406 video scaler provides the following advantages:

Converts NTSC, PAL, or SECAM video into high -resolution RGB video

33 different output rates, including HDTV

Six video inputs for input flexibility: One RGB or HDTV to RGB converter,one RGB or interlaced or progressive component video, three composite video or S -video,one SDI (optional)

Seamless switching with cuts and dissolves between RGB input #1 and anyvideo input

Dynamic Motion Interpolationrm delivers superior level of imageenhancement with no loss of image fidelity

3:2 pulldown detection for NTSC and 2:2 film detection for PALhelps maximize image detail and sharpness for materials thatoriginated from film

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I

I

2

2

U) PPV/VODBY LARRY BLOOMFIELD

Video on demand (VOD)and interactive television(iTV) currently seem to

be popular topics with broadcasters.When it comes to

multicasting, the FCC says atelevision station is only re-quired to transmit its mainchannel in the clear. Depend-ing on the quality of serviceneeded and the type of mul-tiplexing used, a station cantransmit more than a dozenchannels to serve almost anyneed, purpose or audience.Cable and multipoint distri-bution systems have beengenerating revenue by sub-scription and pay per view(PPV) for decades.Other potential revenue

generators include nearvideo on demand (NVOD)and subscription video ondemand (SVOD). But mar-ketable content is critical tomaking any of these ser-vices successful.

The term "pay per view"usually conjures visions ofmovies, concerts, sports andother special events, but whynot add to that educationalopportunities or other non -entertainment applications?

In addition to the DTV ap-proach of over the air (OTA)multicast, there is also theoption of offering VOD/PPVand iTV material using theInternet. If real-time deliveryis not necessary, VOD can of-fer QoS that could exceedthat of HDTV, providedend users have storage andplayback facilities in place

to accommodate it. As the quality of IPdelivery improves this could become animportant alternative delivery approach.

iTV is slowly coming into its own also.

There's little question that iTV willmake use of both PSIP and IP to affordfull two-way digital communication.

The University of California at

Data

Content

Networkcontrol

software

Returnpath

manager

Return path

Digitalsatellite

Subscribermanagement

system

Multiplexmanagement

system

CA headend

EMMgenerator

Compressionand

multiplexing

fl

Broadbanddigital cable

Home TV

Home

J

Smartcard

Securityserver

Traffic andplayout

<> ECMgenerator

Internet Digital terrestrial

Smartcard

Office

An integral part of utilizing PPVNOD for revenue generation is having mechanisms suchas the system shown above in place to control access to material and handle billing.Image courtesy NDS.

22 broadcastengineeriing.com JANUARY 2002

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Berkeley, for example, has a VOD sys-tem that is designed to provide accessto a large amount of video informationover computer networks. Clients cansubmit requests over the Internet to theVOD system to view audio, video andgraphical streams. Data is then streamedfrom a media file server through thenetwork to the client's computer.

CNN has a rather impressive VODservice available on the Internet, as wellas by subscription to other deliverytechnologies. This technology could bescaled down to fit the needs of a localor regional operation.

If broadcasters wish to get paid fortheir on -demand services, they need tomaintain control of the content. Figure1 (on page 22) shows a typical demandvideo system for hire. Whether the de-livery method is terrestrial, broadband,hardwire or satellite, conditional accessis important to the delivery of content.

A subscription management system(SMS) can be used to grant access to

the method of distribution. Once thereis a subscriber base, the next level ofcontrol grants conditional access tospecific material and provides a levelof protection to the producer of thecontent. This is key in light of concernsabout copyright protection and intel-lectual property rights.

Conditional access systems deter-mine the time, delivery method andlength of subscriber access to the se-lected material, ensures they get billedfor that access, and protects contentfrom unauthorized viewing.

There are a number of ways of lettingsubscribers know what is available forpurchase, including a menu or GUIwhere selections can be made. Some sys-tems rely on a set -top box with a smartcard that the end user addresses. Otherapproaches require the subscriber to callin to select what they want to see. Bothrecord the choices for billing purposes.

Broadcasters wishing to implement on -demand video services must have access

to the material they wish to distribute,either in -plant or from one of several"networks" offering these services.

Video servers are becoming a main-stay in most television facilities and canbe used to provide local access to ma-terial for on -demand services. The ca-pacity and the number of output portsare the only limiting factors in grant-ing access to a video server's contents.

Purchasers of an automation systemwould be well advised to find out iftheir intended system will accommo-date SMS, CA and other such add-ons;some of the better known names in thisfield will not at this time.

Cable and DTH operators havefound PPV and NVOD lucrative andmany are introducing iTV. Broadcast-ers might do well to give some con-sideration to this method of generat-ing revenue. BE

Larry Bloomfield is a consultant in thebroadcast industry.

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Strike one, you're out.A single bolt of lightning can throw you off the air for hours - even days.

Even if your grounding exceeds minimum-equirements, you could be in for some majoreague problems. One New England TV stationost $140,000 in equipment costs. plus untoldamounts in revenue, from lightning damage.A midwestern FM station was tossed off the airfor several weeks, costing them thousands ofdollars. And lightning doesn't affect just com-mercial stations. Virtually every transmissiontower - whether for police and firs stations, 911call centers or telecommunications - is at risk.

The only way to play it safe is to upgrade

your grounding system to 1-5 ohm resistance,as recommended by IEEE. At a fraction ofwhat it would cost tc repair and replace dam-aged equipment, you can get a correctly sized,properly installed cooper -based groundingsystem. It's what these two statiors did. Andlightning hasn't been a problem sirce.

Learn how to protect your statior from strikingout - get our Power Quality CD-ROMand case histories tcday. Call ODA a-.888-480-4276. Or v sit us athttp://powerquality.copper.org.

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Understanding03 Composite Analog Video

BY MICHAEL ROBIN

11 color television systemsuse the principle of addi-tive colors, with green,

I blue and red as primary colors. Theprecise colorimetry coordinates are set

- in relevant standards. Monochromecompatibility requires the generationand transmission of a full -bandwidth

O signal representing the brightnesscomponent of the televised scene. Thiscomponent is called the "luminance!'The mathematical expression for theluminance signal is:

= 0.587 FG + 0.114 FR -F 0.299, where

E'y = The gamma -corrected voltagecorresponding to the luminance infor-mation

= The gamma -corrected voltagecorresponding to the green informa-tion

E'B = The gamma -corrected voltagecorresponding to the blue information

E'R = The gamma -corrected voltagecorresponding to the red information

14IM. A, ,

11, 1 11 1 11 11111

Professionals look to indust Web sites

In a studio environment, the band-width of the luminance signal is re-stricted only by the state of the art ofthe equipment used. Normally, thebandwidth of the luminance signalgenerated by the camera is at least 8MHz, or a horizontal resolution inexcess of 600 LPH.

in the receiver by a suitable combina-tion of the blue and red color -differ-ence signals.

The color -difference signals arescaled in amplitude by suitable multi-plication factors to avoid transmitteroverloading. The NTSC scaled color-

difference signals are:

In a studio environment, the bandwidth of theluminance signal is restricted only by the state of

the art of the equipment used.The chrominance information is

conveyed by two of the three primarysignals minus the brightness compo-nent. These signals are known as theblue and the red color -difference sig-nals. They are:

E'B - E'y = -0.587 E'G + 0.889 E'B -0.299 E'R

E'R - E'Y = -0.587 E'G - 0'114 E'B0.701 E'R

The E'G - E'y signal can be recreated

Industry n is is top demand

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E'R_y = 0.493 (E'B - Ey) andE'R = 0.877 (E'R - E'y)Component analog and digital stan-

dards use different scaling factors.

The NTSC systemThe NTSC color -television system is

a single -channel television concept.Luminance, chrominance and synchro-nization information are combined tobe transmitted in a 6 MHz RF channeloriginally specified for monochrometransmissions. The transmission ofcolor takes advantage of the character-istics of monochrome video's spec-trum. Essentially, the chrominance in-formation is transmitted in the spec-trum "holes" of the monochrome in-formation. As described in the SMPTE170M standard, the concept uses awideband (4.2 MHz) luminance signaland two narrowband chrominancecolor -difference signals of equal band-width. The color -difference signals maybe B -Y and R -Y or I and Q, as in theoriginal 1953 specifications of theNTSC system. The bandwidth of eachof the color -difference signals may be600 kHz or 1.3 MHz, depending onwhere they are used. The wider band-width is used within studio environ-ments where there is no significantbandwidth limitation. But transmission


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and reception constrainsO the chrominance band -O width to 600 kHz, and the03 remaining chrominanceO bandwidth is wasted.

Each of the scaled color-

< difference signals modu-lates a subcarrier. The twosubcarriers are identical

- in frequency but differ inphase. The phase differ-

- ence between the twoO subcarriers is 90°, so the

original signals modulat-O ing the two carriers can

be recovered withoutcrosstalk. The twosubcarriers are obtainedfrom a common crystaloscillator. The type of modulation issuppressed -carrier amplitude modu-lation. It is consequently referred toas suppressed -carrier quadrature am-plitude modulation. Since thesubcarrier is suppressed,only the sidebands are ob-tained at the output of themodulators. This results inthe complete cancellationof the chrominance signalwhen no colors arepresent.

The frequency of thechrominance subcarrier isan odd multiple of the halfhorizontal scanning fre-quency. This results in theinterleaving of the lumi-nance and chrominancespectra. The type of spec-trum interleaving used inNTSC is called half-line offset. The fre-quency of the subcarrier is equal to

fsc = 455fH /2 = 3,579,545 ±10 HzThis leads to a slightly modified hori-

zontal (15,734.25 Hz instead of theoriginal 15,750 Hz) and vertical (59.94Hz instead of the original 60 Hz) scan-ning frequencies. The chosensubcarrier frequency results in a re-duced visibility, on a monochrome re-ceiver, of the subcarrier sidebands anda potential 920 kHz beat between thecolor subcarrier and the audio carrier.

Figure 1 shows details of the NTSC

.4 fH -

Y C

Luminance spectral components

'; jar ';

455fH/2

A

fH/2

fH

Chrominancesubcarrier

residue

A

Chrominance sidebands spectral components

>f

Figure 1. Details of NTSC FDM spectrum around the chromi-nance subcarrier

frequency -division multiplexing of theluminance and chrominance spectraaround the chrominance subcarrier.

Figure 2 shows a simplified blockdiagram of an NTSC encoder using

3.58 MHz subcarrierfeeds the B -Y modulatorand, through a 90° phase -shift network, the R -Ymodulator. The E'y signalis delayed to compensatefor the chrominance de-lay introduced by thecolor -difference low-passfilters. The adder com-bines the luminance,chrominance sidebands,composite (horizontaland vertical) sync and a180° phase -shifted gatedsubcarrier burst into acomposite color signal.

Figure 3 shows a phase -domain representation of

the B -Y subcarrier (0°) and the R -Ysubcarrier (+90°). A third subcarrieridentifies the synchronizing burst(+180°).Figure 4 shows a vector representa-

tion of the chrominancesubcarrier-modulationprocess. A given color, de-scribed by a given set ofE.By and E'R_y signal values,

is represented by two am-plitude -modulatedsubcarriers in phasequadrature. The instanta-neous values of the twomodulated subcarriers re-sult in a vector describedby its amplitude and phaseangle with respect to the B-Y phase (0°). The vectoramplitude represents thecolor saturation and its

phase angle represents the hue.Figure 5 shows a 100/7.5/100/7.5

(100 percent) color -bar signal wave-form resulting from the addition of

EY

Delay

2.KM,

BA' modulator

Burst key

Composite SYNC

R -Y modulator

900shift

Adder

0. Burstgen.

En. dedO. Mt

Figure 2. Simplified block diagram of NTSC B-Y/R-Y encoder

B -Y and R -Y color difference signals.Green, blue and red signals are fed toa resistive matrix that algebraicallycombines percentages of these pri-mary color signals toform the luminance(E'y) signal and thetwo color -differencesignals. Each of thecolor -difference sig-nals is band -limitedbefore being fed tothe respective bal-anced modulators. A

Burst+180°

B -Y0°

Figure 3. Phase domain representation of the twosignificant equal frequency subcarriers. The thirdsubcarrier represents the synchronizing burst.


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+180'

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E

4Burst

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+ 0°

B -Y subcarrier

Figure 4. The instantaneous ampli-tudes of the subcarrier result in avector whose amplitude representssaturation and phase represents hue.

luminance and chrominance compo-nents. A burst of nine cycles of fre-quency and phase reference subcarrieris transmitted during the back porch ofthe horizontal blanking interval. Thisreference signal is used to assist in theregeneration of the suppressed carrierrequired for the recovery of the B -Y andR -Y signals. Note that the peak positivesignal excursion, for yellow and cyan col-ors, is 130.8 IRE, which is beyond theoverload level of a television transmit-ter. Figure 6 shows the relationship be-tween video signal level and percentageof video -carrier modulation. Televisiontransmitter tests are carried out with areduced amplitude color bar signalknown as 75/7.5/75/7.5(75 percent) whosemaximum signal am-plitudes don't exceed100 IRE. It is importantto stress the fact thatpeak -amplitude green,blue and red primarysignals will generatecomposite color signalsequivalent to the 100percent color bar signal.Since there are nohighly saturated yellowand cyan colors in na-ture, the probability oftransmitter overloadunder normal operat-ing conditions is verylow. Problems occur,however, with synthetic signal sources,such as character generators and graphicsystems, which can create primary sig-nals resulting in excessive -amplitude

composite -colorsignals and lead totransmitter over-load. Video trans-mitter overloadproblems will af-fect not only thetransmitted pic-ture quality butalso the accompa-nying sound. Thesound is recov-ered in the televi-sion receiver byusing theintercarrier beatapproach. Thisapproach creates asignal that is fre-quency -modu-lated by the audiosignal and ampli-tude -modulatedby the video sig-nal, resulting in amodulated beatfrequency of 4.5MHz to recoverthe audio signal. The 4.5 MHz signal isfiltered by a bandpass filter to removethe video -signal component and is

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Chrominance componentp -p subcarrier level in IRE

Composite color signalsubcarrier added to lumancelevels in IRE

93.6

23 3 23

7.5-1.

170.8 IRE(1.22 Val)

Figure 5. NTSC 100/7.5/1 )0f3.5 color bars signal waveform

Gvermodulation of the video transmit-ter will result in cancellation of the videocarrier. Under extreme circumstances,

the derived 4.5 MHz au-dio carrier is periodicallycancelled at the videohorizontal and verticalscanning rates. This re-sults in the so-calledintercarrier buzz effect.This can be avoided bycarefully monitoring and

100, controlling video -signallevels to avoid transmit-ter overmodulation. BE

Video level

Syn: tip -40 IRE

Blanking 0 IREBlack 7.5 IRE

White 100 IRE

120 IRE 4-- 0°0 1 .F% 703',0 75%

Figure 6. Significant video signal levels shown as a percentageof carrier amplitude in negative amplitude modulated systems

treated as a frequency -modulated car-rier. It is amplitude -limited to removevideo interference, and FM -detected torecover the original audio information.

Michael Robin, formerengineer with theCanadian BroadcastingCorp.'s engineeringheadquarters, is anindependent broadcastconsultant located inMontreal, Canada. He isco-author of Digital

Television Fundamentals, published byMcGraw -FM.

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Compression,Computers and NetworksBY BRAD GILMER

Compression is one of theenabling technologies thatallow computers to pro-

cess video.It is vital because it conserves pre-

cious storage space. Uncompressedvideo files are big. How big? Well, 100hours of uncompressed video (theaverage size of an active commerciallibrary in a local television affiliate)requires about 8.5 terabytes. That's alot of storage.

But storage is only one dimension ofthe problem. Moving uncompressedfiles over conventional 10BaseT oreven 100BaseT networks can takehours. Also, video can crash other ap-plications trying to coexist on a net-work. Applications may crash due totimeout errors as they wait for an ap-plication at the other end to respond.As more video users are added to thenetwork (instead of using simplepoint-to-point connections), conven-tional "dumb" hubs must give way to

These early codecs allowed for bit -ratereductions on the order of 50 percent,or 2:1. These schemes reduced thenumber of bits transmitted by lookingfor repetition of bit sequences. For ex-ample, a scene of a person sitting infront of a white background contains alot of repetitive information. Thesecodecs look for repetition of strings ofbits and compress the data by saying,in effect, "repeat this pattern of bits Ntimes." Such codecs are lossless.

As the name implies, lossless codecscompress a file and then uncompress

to 40 percent bit -rate reduction. How-ever, as soon as you employ theseschemes, you introduce artifacts. Lotsof effort goes into trying to hide theartifacts from the end viewer. Engi-neers have engaged in a very interest-ing interplay between physics and bi-ology to achieve this. Without stray-ing too far from the subject, it is im-portant to realize that the human be-ing at the end of the chain is a vitalpart of the whole system. The eye andbrain have certain characteristics thatmake them less sensitive to missing

As soon as you start throwing out bits, you no

longer have a perfect, lossless cnpy.

it so that the final result is an exact,bit -by -bit copy of the original. If youhave an exact copy of the original, thenby definition there are no compres-sion artifacts. Unfortunately, the com-pression ratio of lossless codecs seems

100 hours of uncompressed video

8.5 Terabytes

100 hours of video compressed at 30:1

284 Gigabytes

Figure 1. A visual representation of 30:1 compression. One hundred hoursof uncompressed video would occupy about 8.5 terabytes of storage. At 30:1compression, the same 100 hours would occupy about 284 gigabytes.

switching technology to increase avail-able bandwidth to each user. Gig -E or1000BaseT makes things more toler-able, but large transfers can still bringtraffic on these networks to a crawl.

When computer scientists and videoengineers first tackled the problem, theyapplied compression/decompressionschemes, also called codecs, that hadbeen used in the traditional IT sector.

to be limited to somewhere between2:1 and 3:1. Past this point, codecsmust achieve some of the bit -rate re-duction by "throwing out" bits that aredeemed unnecessary. And as soon asyou start throwing out bits, you nolonger have a perfect, lossless copy.

Most users are willing to sacrifice theperfect copy at the receiving end inexchange for an additional 30 percent

bits in some areas than others. Engi-neers developed compression tech-niques to take advantage of the spe-cific characteristics of the human vi-sual system.

With the advent of more complexcompression algorithms, bit -rate re-ductions up to 100:1 and beyond arenow possible, but users have to maketradeoffs between bit -rate reductionand artifacts, editibility and delay. Adecision about compression quicklybecomes a balancing act. One combi-nation of compression choices mightbe acceptable for transmission from astation to its viewers, but might beunacceptable for a transmission of asporting event from the field to thestation. To further complicate the dis-cussion, there is the issue of time de-lay through the compression chain. Asa general rule, the more aggressive thecompression, the more delay involved.A large amount of delay may be accept-able for one-way transmission, but maymake a circuit unusable for a two-way live interview. For example, in alive -interview situation, the average


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untrained person is able to commu-O nicate over a circuit with a delay up to0 about 850 ms. Delays larger than that

result in the person repeating a ques-tion or reply before the person at the

Z other end has a chance to respond.When delays become larger than this,trained on -camera talent is required.

you designing a one-way circuit? Areyou planning to edit the video at thereceiving end? Are you planning to re -compress the video for onward trans-mission? What is the end -viewer envi-ronment? To give you some frame ofreference, bit -rate reductions of about30:1 result in what may be described as

Videoin

Pre-

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Compressedvideo in

ComprEssionengine

Decompressionengine

Compressedvideo oLt

Display

Prn, wm."011.,,M,

Figure 2. Decisions made about pre -filtering can be as important as deci-sions made about compression.

So how much compression can youuse and still have "acceptable" artifactsand delay? The answer, of course, de-pends on a number of questions. Are

an acceptable combination of level ofartifacts and delay for some applica-tions. Going back to our original fig-ure of about 8.5 terabytes for 100 hours

of uncompressed video, if a 30:1 com-pression ratio is acceptable, total stor-age can be reduced to about 284gigabytes. (See Figure 1.) For manyapplications, it may be much easier tojustify the cost of the smaller system.

Decisions made about the video be-ing fed into the compression system canbe as important as decisions about thecompression system itself. Compressionschemes reduce repetition in the data.If a scene is highly repetitive (a plainbackground behind a stationaryspeaker) the scene can be highly com-pressed without generating observableartifacts. If a scene has very little repeti-tion (sports sequences with lots of ac-tion) it will be more difficult to com-press. Noisy video images are some ofthe most difficult to compress becauseof the random pattern of the noise. Forthis reason, many compression systemsuse pre -filtering to increase perfor-mance. These pre -filters can be quitecomplex in their own right, using the

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characteristics of the human visual sys-tem to hide the information they are fil-tering. In addition to filtering noise, pre -filters may also reduce the bandwidthof the video signal fed to the compres-sion engine so that the compressor hasless information to compress. There is adirect interaction between choices madein pre -filtering and choices made in thecompression engine itself. It can takequite a bit of work to achieve the rightcombination of pre -filtering and com-pression. Fortunately, most manufactur-ers have done a lot of research in thisarea. Researchers have learned thatsimple bandstop filters or other non -in-telligent pre -filtering algorithms pro-duce poor results. After several years ofdevelopment, engineers have come upwith a number of more complex filter-ing techniques that are almost imper-ceptible to the average viewer.

There are many excellent articles andtexts on compression. Dave Fibush,Chairman of the SMPTE Technology

Committee on Compression, has writ-ten an excellent overview of video com-pression, which is available atwww. t ekt r o n ix. com/Measurement/App_Notes/backgrounders/vidcomp.html. A much more techni-cal paper on desktop compression sys-tems is available atcrl.research.compaq.com/who/people/ulichney/papers/swcodecs96.pdf.

What about more conventional com-puter compression methods? Here thelist seems endless. There are the Win-dows Media Format, TIF, GIF, MP3,ZIP, and on and on. The best thing tosay is that there are many codecs, newcodecs come out every day, and thesituation is likely to stay this way. Thegood news is that vendors have devel-oped plug -ins that allow them to sup-port a wide variety of codecs.

But, despite the fact that compres-sion has been one of the key enablingtechnologies, its importance may bewaning. Imagine a time of infinite

bandwidth and free disk drives. In sucha world, compression becomes unim-portant. You may think that this viewis crazy, but a number of top CTOs be-lieve that, while disk and bandwidthwill not be free, eventually their cost willbecome so low that other factors willbecome much more important. As oneCPO explained recently, "If you canbuild a multiple Gig -E network for sev-eral thousand dollars, and if you canget disk storage for $50 per gigabyte,why worry about compression? Justbuild a faster network with bigger serv-ers:' We will see what the future holds.For now, it's hard to imagine a worldwhere costs are so low that compres-sion becomes unimportant. BE

Brad Gilmer is president of Gilmer &Associates, executive director of the AAFAssociation and technical moderator ofthe Video Services Forum.

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Audio forPost: Frame RateBY PAUL D. LEHRMAN

Drop or non -drop? Pull-upor pull -down? 30 or 29?And what is 23.976? All

questions that strike terror into thehearts of post -production audio en-gineers, sound designers and evencomposers, all over the country.

Anyone who works with sound has hisor her own nightmare stories aboutdealing with this issue. One of my fa-vorites, from the days when analog mul-titrack ruled the post -production world,involved a studio who striped 29.97SMPTE on one track and 60 Hz Nagraresolve tone on another and then triedto get their synchronizer to lock to both.The hapless two-inch machine buckeduntil the tape snapped.

Even now, in the age of digital, we stillcan't escape problems with sync. I justwent through this, working on a scorefor a 15 -minute filmon Beta SP video thatwas being posted byan expensive transferhouse in New York.They asked me to pro-vide the music in or-dinary DAT formatand to tell them atwhat frame of the filmto start the audio.

When I got the vid-eotape back, the audiostarted right on themoney, but it endedabout 40 frames afterthe picture did. For thenext three days, thetransfer house and I argued about mis-matched frame rates and how to makethe audio and the video come together.They tried different DAT machines, dif-ferent video machines and different op-erators. They tried transferring it fromDAT to another videotape, and pulledit up and down, and probably in and

out as well. Ultimately, I determined thatthe DAT machine wasn't locked to housesync. All of the fretting about frame rateswas unnecessary. As long as everythingin the house was running from the samemaster clock, there was no problem.

For many of us, sync issues are rou-tinely solved by having our computersdo the required complex math on thefly. But the equipment only works cor-

much time and energy trying to dealwith it. The version that most peopleknow is this: In the early days of televi-sion, when everything was shades ofgray, the standard frame rate in theUnited States (and Canada) was 30frames per second. Since each televisionframe consists of two "fields" of alter-nating lines, the field rate was 60 Hz.When the color standard was adopted

Sync issues are routinely solved by having our

computers do the required complex mathon the fly,

rectly if it is set up and operated cor-rectly. At some point in the process ofscoring this particular film, my synchro-nizer changed its default clock value to

AMS Neve Logic 2 digital mixing console aridAudioFile hard disk editor in Chicago RecordingCompany's new Studio 55A.

30 fps instead of 29.97 non -drop, andsuddenly all my hits were in the wrongplace and the MIDI tracks weren't agree-ing with the audio.

In Europe, their video frame rates arenice, whole numbers. They don't under-stand why we would make our video run0.1 percent off, or why we spend so

in 1953 by the NTSC, it was discoveredthat the new color signals were suscep-tible to interference from 60 Hz ACfields, and if there was any differencebetween the line frequency and the scanrate of the received signal, it would showup as a visual "beating." But if you al-tered the field rate enough, the beatingwould speed up to the point that it wasno longer visible.

Unfortunately, this version is simplynot true. Line -frequency beating neverwas a problem. And if it were, the cureis worse than the illness. At a field rateof 59.94 Hz, if there really were beat-ing caused by AC -line leakage, you'dsee a bar roll across the screen aboutevery 17 seconds. Not pretty.

The real reason for the differencein frame rates is this: The lowerframe/field rate is designed to pre-vent potential visual beating be-tween the chrominance subcarrier inthe broadcast signal and the audiosubcarrier. For various reasons, thecolor subcarrier frequency in thetelevision signal needs to be modu-lated onto the picture carrier at 455/2 times the horizontal line fre-quency. At 30 frames per second, and


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with 525 horizontal scan lines perframe, this frequency is 15.750 kHz,which means the color subcarrierwould have to be at 3.583125 MHz.The sound subcarrier (as establishedon the first monochrome TV sys-tems) is at 4.5 MHz. If the twosubcarriers were to interfere andbeat against each other, the 916.875

kHz difference might be visible -and in fact, according to one reportpresented to the NTSC, it was vis-ible in some monochrome sets at thetime, under some conditions. Sincebackwards compatibility was a ma-jor consideration for the NTSC, thiswas a problem.

This report went on to say that if the

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difference signal happened to be an oddmultiple of one-half the scan rate, thisbeating would be reduced. If the framerate were dropped 0.10001 percent, thescanning frequency would be 15.734264kHz, the chrominance subcarrier wouldbe 3.579545 MHz, and the beat product(if there was one) would be 920.455 kHz,which is very dose to the 117th multipleof half the scan rate.

But a close look at the technical docu-ments and the committee proceedingsaround this point seems to show thatthe problem never really existed.

An engineer who was there at thebeginning, Rollie Zavada of EastmanKodak, diplomatically calls the deci-sion to change the frame rate "debat-able." Other sources say that the firstgeneration of color sets, and theblack -and -white sets that were madeby the time the color standard wasadopted, had good enough filters onthe audio section that leakage be-tween the subcarriers was simply notan issue. The decision meant expen-sive alterations to transmissionequipment, as the AC line could nolonger be used as a frequency refer-ence for sync, according to video en-gineer Tim Stoffel.

We had the chance to change theframe rate with the advent of digitaltelevision and HDTV but didn't. Theoriginal HDTV standards all specifieda frame rate of 30 fps. Progressive, in-terleaved, 1080, 720, whatever varia-tion you looked at, there was no men-tion of 29.97 anywhere in the propos-als. But the HDTV programs now inproduction and going out over the airare running at - you guessed it -29.97 frames. The FCC mandate forHDTV is incredibly vague, and hasover the years been increasingly dic-tated by the broadcasters themselves,which means networks and stationshave been free to do just about any-thing they want with it. And droppingthe frame rate is something that cameeasily. BE

Paul D. Lehrman is Insider Audio columnistfor Mix magazine, and Web editor for Mixand related sites.


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by Videotek to the ergonomic key-boards and Pro Tools workstations, thearea required a more multipurposefeel. Rather than having a dubbing sta-tion just to dub, Discovery wanted tohave the ability to have edit control-lers in case a need arose for quickoffline edits or machine -to -machineedits. In addition, more tie lines wereadded to the router and a couple of

DTVC's new QC workstations are multipurpose andare used for machine -to -machine editing, screeningand dubbing, as well as real-time quality control withVideotek's VTM-300, to meet increased productiondemands.

Envision machines were incorporatedto make it easier to manipulate andreconfigure audio.

Operational goalsA top priority for the operations

was to increase throughput. Takinginto account the peaks and valleys inworkflow (especially in the domesticmarket's busy fourth quarter season),the challenge was to meet the needsof an international operation's moreaggressive deadlines. For every dubmade, the material needed transla-tion and, in the case of the Discoverynetwork in Latin America, not just toone language but to multiple regionallanguages of Portuguese and Span-ish. To address this concern, the de-sign team closely monitored theworkflow to come up with the mostefficient way of handling it withoutgoing overboard on capital expenses.


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Each room in thecore areas, including

post -production, audiosuites and edit suites, was acous-

tically designed with a treatment ofapproximately 200 small wooden

boxes, each one with separate dips, foroptimum audio reflection. DiscoveryTelevision Center wanted nothing to af-fect the audio, so operators would beable to hear the audio that will air. A pri-mary acoustical concern was the prox-imity to Miami International Airportand the effects of air traffic on the coreareas. The building's physical structureand subsequent glass treatment playeda large part in combating this.

Equipment and issuesDiscovery Television Center works

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Acoustic Design: Russ BergerDesign Group: Russ Berger, RichardSchragSystem Integration: Harris Corp.System Design: Discovery Commu-nications Inc. and Harris Corp.

EquipmentlistSony DVS 7200 switcherSony DME7000Accom Axial 3000Accom Extreme and 4224 DDRsChyron MaxSony DMX E3000 audio mixerAvid DS nonlinear suiteDiscreet Logic Flint systemsSony DATHarris/Louth Automation serversHP MediaStream video serversSony DVW A510, A500, A500P (PALand NTSC)Videotek VTM-300Tektronix WFM601ATASCAM DA98, DA88Scientific-Atlanta Power Vu Plus

meets on a regular basis to discuss ev-erything from the latest server designs,asset management, technology and up-grades, to efficiencies and how to op-erate better and more cost effectively.

From that operational initiative, theDiscovery Television Center has startedcreating technology that other

able to handle true digital I/O.For the edit suites, DTVC selected a

combination of Sony equipment - aswitcher, audio mixer and DME, as wellas an Accom editor and DDR DTVCrequired the flexibility to handle every-thing from complex video compositingto simple conform projects in both

A top priority for their operations111111b was to increase throughput.

branches are now using, including thedevelopment of audio file delivery viathe Internet for their translation pro-cess. The old methodology required thecenter to receive a Spanish or Portu-guese translation on DAT tape via cou-rier (which would often get hung upor lost in customs). Now vendors uti-lize a customized protocol and trans-fer the MP3 files using the technologyavailable via the Internet. Because Dis-covery is mono -mixed it is compatiblewith the translation files.

Approximately 300 companies createthe programs for Discovery comingfrom Latin America and Europe, whichresults in varying tape quality. Discov-ery Television Center staff sets up pro-grams for quality control 11 weeks inadvance of the air date. They useVideotek's VTM-300 for automatedquality control to ensure that DTVC'ssignals pass 75 points of test in videoand audio before air. The VTM-300 isused to check the tape before dubs aremade and sent to the translation housesto create the different language tracks.Before installing the VTM-300, DTVCused to run quality control on threeseparate units, which caused integrationconcerns. With all three in one unit,DTVC has been able to streamline theiroperation and cut costs.

The DTVC added five edit suites tothe three existing suites, including twoonline suites and a DS suite. The newsuites allow DTVC to accommodatethe increased need for its on -air pro-motion group and its internationalprogramming group's services. Foroffline editing they have six Avidsuites, upgraded with Meridian to be

NTSC and PAL formats. Keeping ev-erything in 601 was another consider-ation for quality. Finally, DTVC re-quired the ability to keep up with peakworkflow demands - therefore devicesharing and routing were key factorsin the design scheme.

On the audio production side, DTVCclients required a flexible format inter-change allowing them to handle a vari-ety of creative projects from M&E rec-reation to multiple language track re-cording. The combination of a Pro Toolsdigital audio workstation and the SolidState Logic Scenaria gave the facility op-erators this flexibility. The design team,responsible for creating both print andbroadcast, uses a combination of Dis-creet Logic Flint and Macintosh bundledwith Photoshop, Quark and Maya 3D.

For broadcast operations, the short-term goal was to move into servertechnology (again keeping everythingin 601) with the longer -term goal ofsharing similar content as technologybecomes available and asset manage-ment becomes more sophisticated.DTVC accomplished the first phase ofthis plan using Harris/Louth Automa-tion and HP MediaStream servers.One of the challenges they anticipatein the near future is dealing with mul-tiple language tracks in an efficientmanner, so eventually DTVC envi-sions a server that houses the audiofiles for playout. BE

Lisa Hyams is director of operations andPedro Wllabona is a technical supportmanager for Discovery Television Center.(Additional reporting by JB Duke.)


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What'sHappeningUp There'?BY DON MARKLEY

Traditionally, we monitor thetelevision signal at everystage of the process from the

initial generation point in the camerasuntil it leaves the transmitter itself. Wethen trust in the antenna to do itsthing, hoping that all will be well andthat the RF energy will leave the sys-tem somehow, please.

In older systems, the forward andreverse power was sampled, usuallywith probes in the transmission linein the combiner area. Those sampleswere detected and applied to meterrelays. These were electromechanicaldevices that could be adjusted to adesired level. If the meter exceededthat level it would cause a contact clo-sure that could be used to shut downthe system. This was normally doneto protect the transmitter in the caseof a VSWR trip or in the event of theVSWR increasing gradually until it

I I

reached an unacceptable level, such aswould occur if the antenna acquired asignificant coat of ice. (As is known bymost of the old-timers, some of the oldantennas could accumulate enough icearound the feed points to cause the

They were truly on/off type devices inthat they could be set for a maximumforward power and a maximum reversepower. If either of those were exceeded,a relay closed, giving you either a con-tact opening or closing that could be

Transmitters came to be equipped with positive

automatic power controls aided by microprocessors

in the transmitter control systems.

VSWR to increase to an unacceptablelevel.) Those devices did act to save thesystem but had no ability to sense mi-nor gradual change or to predict futuresystem faults.

The next level was the era of in -linemonitoring equipment such as the BirdWatcher and similar items from othervendors. These systems worked verywell within their design limitations.

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used to shut down the transmitter.They functioned a lot like the old meterrelays, but they added the service ofmeasuring power continuously. Theyalso added the capability to systems thatdidn't have the old relay capability, suchas the old FM transmitters.

The next level occurred when thetransmitter manufacturers started ac-tually including more protection intheir equipment. This included VSWRtrip circuits and VSWR foldback cir-cuits. The foldback circuits acted to re-duce the transmitter power so that thereverse power did not exceed a presetlevel. Therefore, when the antenna icedup, the transmitter would simply keepbacking off on output power to a pointthat no damage was going to occur tothe system. In addition, transmitterscame to be equipped with positive au-tomatic power controls aided by micro-processors being utilized in the trans-mitter control systems.

On to the next level... There is a newBird power meter, and similar systemsare being prepared by other manufac-turers. The new Bird system accuratelymeasures average power and providesa digital data stream containing bothforward and reverse power levels. This


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provides the basis for more compli-cated systems to be used, not only forremote control, but also for trendspotting. Furthermore, these systemsprovide accurate power measurementwithout field calibration or the needfor a calorimeter other than the ratherarchaic provisions of the FCC rules.Hopefully, those rules will changesomeday and allow the industry to

take full advantage of the accuratepower metering capabilities that arecurrently available.

The next level leads to devices suchas VSWR Vision from Dielectric. Ob-viously, if the device achieves the levelof acceptance that is anticipated, therewill be similar systems following fromother vendors. This system is onlinefull-time determining the VSWR and

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recording the VSWR values. Thosevalues can then be downloaded to acentral point where trend -spottingprograms can be used to identifyproblems that are starting to occur inthe transmission line. This systemmonitors VSWR incidents and recordsthe time when they occur. The systemwill then also call designated partiesas part of an alarm function to notifythem of a VSWR event. With com-puter analysis of this data, it is pos-sible to determine where the problemoccurred and to have repairs effectedbefore the line is totally burned up.

At the top level are complete inte-grated systems that are being built uti-lizing a multitude of devices such as theBird power meter and/or the VSWRVision. These large systems monitorforward and reverse power on multipletransmission line/multiple antenna/multiple user systems such as are be-ing installed at major antenna sites. Inaddition to simply monitoring the RFlevels on the transmission lines, thesesystems calculate non -ionizing RF lev-els in the vicinity of the antennas onthe roof of a building or along thelength of a tall tower.

The days of a simple prayer that theRF will go away from the antenna areover. We now have more than ad-equate systems that allow us to moni-tor the existing conditions, sense un-acceptable conditions and providegood prediction capabilities to avoidfailures and future downtime. It ismuch better to schedule the replace-ment of a failing component than it isto have it occur during a high -incomeevent. No, it never happens whenthose commercials are scheduled.Downtime will always occur whenrevenue is at its highest and all the sta-tion brass are touring the transmitterplant. That is, if anybody in the sta-tion brass actually knows where thetransmitter is located. BE

Don Markley is president of D.L. Markleyand Associates, Peoria, IL.


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Graphics TechnolovBY JIM BOSTON AND GEORGE HOOVER for Remote Broadcas

Tc

n years ago, a remote-production truck would have inluded a character generator

(CG), usually with a dedicated opera-tor, and maybe a still store, usually op-erated by the technical director (TD).In 1994, that started to change radicallywhen Fox wrestled NFL away from CBS.In a few years, the graphics effort grewto include impressive graphic displaysand animated moves - with sound ef-fects. Ten years ago, most of us wouldhave never guessed that many CGs to-day would have audio channels. Inthat time, the graphics component of

a remote production for at least two ofthe networks has expanded to requireits own 53 -foot trailer. At the start ofeach sports season, the mobile -unit ven-dors review their contracts and re -con-figure their production and supporttrucks for the upcoming season. Net-work and freelance crews, plus talent,often use the same set of trailers eachweek. The mobile -unit vendor will con-figure those units based on the unit's job(A -game unit, B -game unit, etc.). Often,a stand-alone production truck will bere -configured to become the graphicstrailer in a particular unit (typically,

three trailers comprise a unit).In the case of ESPN's Sunday Night

Football, the truck vendor, prior to thestart of the season, gathers the staff as-signed to the graphics -support units atthe field shop, along with personnelfrom the network Gear supplied by thetruck vendor and rental houses are un-packed and installed. Monitors, routerheads and communication gear areplaced and wired in. This can be oneor two items, or, in the case of ESPN,over 100 cases of equipment. Once thegear is wired and in place, the two trucksare interconnected, all the connections,


A production compartment in a rmote truck. Many broadcasters umore than one trailer to cover rmote events - one housing prodution and another with graphicsequipment. Photo credit GerlinAssociates.

timing and other signal -integrationconcerns are verified.

ESPN requires a three -trailer unit. TheA trailer has production, VTRs and cam-era controls, along with routing, distri-bution, and communications infrastruc-ture. The ESPN B trailer carries audioeffects (a Calrec C2 console), graphics(two Chyron Duets and an Aprisa), foursuper -slow-motion systems (two LDK/EVS and two Sony BVP9500/MAV).Other equipment in this unit includerobo-cam operating positions and aGrass Valley Profile, which is used to editfeature pieces. The B trailer is a 53 -footexpando. The ESPN C trailer carries theSportvision first -and -ten yellow -linesystem, the tech manager's office, andthe two Chapman sideline cameracranes, along with all the extra equip-ment, such as lighting gear.

The Fox A game has A and B units only.The B unit has an iNFiNiT! and an SGI02, the first -and -ten line equipment,and carryall space for the sideline ve-hicles. Super slo mos and Profiles are op-erated from the main truck The CBS Agame is similar to Fox's.

Now let's look at the systems requiredfor many network graphics packages.

Graphics systemsThe current workhorse CG for

remotes is Chyron's iNFiNiT!, whichwas first shipped in 1989. Just about ev-ery remote unit on the road has one.Common configurations would find a68060 processor with Transform IIboard and a three -channel mix buffer, a230 MB Zip, and/or 1 GB Jazz drive. Itis used for most sports productions. Thenotable exceptions are ESPN's SundayNight Football and ABC's MondayNight Football, which use Chyron's new-est CG and still store, the Duet andAprisa. The iNFiNiT! is used to producemost of the lower -third graphics. It usesproprietary hardware, operating systemand application software. Although notused in truck environments, Chyron didbegin offering a Windows client(WiNFiNiT!) in 1997 that runs on aseparate PC and controls the iNFiNiT!via Ethernet.

Most of the network productions callfor an SGI Onyx2, or SGI's scaled -down02 visual workstation running VizRT(formally Peak Everest and RT-SET)Discreet, or Sportvision software. Theseare real-time animation applicationsthat run on IRIX, which is SGI's imple-mentation of Unix SGI developed andhelped standardize a common set ofapplication -programming interfaces(APIs) known as Open Graphics Library(OpenGL). These APIs are, in essence,applications that sit between the real-time applications that are OpenGLaware and the OS. Calls to an OpenGLAPI result in calls to an IRDC. API. Thisallows for a common way of creatingand manipulating graphics independentof the underlying OS and hardware. Theapplications OS and hardware just de-scribed are used to produce the "FoxBox," which is the little upper -corner

score, down and yards graphic. No mat-ter which network uses this type ofgraphic, its nickname has become the"Fox Box." Fox has actually reformattedthe box to look like a ribbon across thetop of the screen. The Onyx2/O2 is usedfor all those snappy little real-time ani-mations where flags, time outs and firstdowns fly in and out. It also is used forscoreboards that fly together and thenapart. It takes a lot of processing horse-power to perform these complex graph-ics in real time. The SGI hardware isbased on 64 -bit MIPS RISC processors.In the graphics display part of the 02system, an integrated 32 -bit, double -buffered (one buffer to air while theother buffer is filling with the next frameof video), OpenGL graphics engine ren-ders very high -quality images for dis-play at up to 1280x1024 pixels at 75 Hz.

The Onyx graphics engine consists ofthree sub -components. The first is aGeometry Engine, which has a modelof the graphic in 2D or 3D. An objectmodeled in 3D can be made to spin,tumble or appear to be stationary as theviewpoint moves. Objects, which can betext, pictures or banners, are stored andmanipulated separately. They arebrought together, or composited, onlywhen needed for output. This allowsgraphics to be constructed only as tem-plates. The template is a framework tohold pointers. These pointers point toone or more Oracle -type databases thatcontain the actual objects. Thus theplayer line-up graphic, whose formatdoesn't change game to game as the play-ers do, stays essentially the same. Thetemplate for that graphic might holdonly pointers such as quarterback andhalfback, which point to a databaserecord that contains additional point-ers to such fields as QB_picture,QB_name, QB-stats, etc. This second setof pointers would be the variables thatchange every week, or even at the lastminute. The operator would sit at aPC or a laptop, running a thin clientthat would be used to input changessuch as distance or down, and then sendthe command via LAN to the SGI sys-tem. The system would then performthe transitions from old info to new.

JANUARY 2002 broadcastengineering.com 53

In addition, data streams such as gameclock, which are often wrapped in TCP/IP, can also arrive into the same box.Thus the graphics box would have sock-ets open to the operator's PC and thedevice providing the clock data via acouple of sockets.

Sockets are a method for communi-cation between a client program (such

Color announcer draws on stylustouch pad overlaid on a monitor.Thisused to be performed with a lightpen. The key is generally performedwith a Chyron Codi.

as the operator's control application)and a server program (the graphics ap-plications running on the graphics box)in a network. A socket is defined as "theendpoint in a connection:' Most OSstoday have API calls that support sock-ets. Calls to these APIs prompt the OSto open threads (separate processes thatwrap outgoing data or unwrap incom-ing data in the necessary protocol tosend the data to the appropriate recipi-ent). Often, the wrapping is a few layersthick. The most common way to initiallywrap the data is Transport Control Pro-tocol (TCP), which is a service that letsthe receiver put the data back in order(because some packets might take longerpaths than others from point A to B),and makes the recipient return a receiptverifying that the data arrived intact. Thenext layer would be Internet Protocol(IP). It provides the addressing that al-lows routers on the network to push thedata towards the receiver (small net-works would not need routers). Thethird wrap or layer would be the infor-mation necessary to traverse the localEthernet, either to a router for travelonto another LAN or out to the Internet,or, if the receiving device is on the sameLAN, straight to the device.

Graphics Technologyfor Remote Broadcasting

The second SGI graphics componentis the Raster Manager, which takes thecalculations from the 3D geometry en-gine and creates a 2D raster. This blockdoes all the pixel operations, color andtransparency blending, texture map-ping and multi -sample anti-aliasing. Itmust perform these operations at real-time rates.

The Raster Manager hands its out-put to the third graphics component,the Display Generator, which convertsthe digital data into the desired ana-log or digital format. The internalbandwidth of the Onyx2/02 is greaterthan 6 GBytes/s, so the box can handleSD or HD video.

The blur between graphics and stor-age continues to grow. Pinnacle Systemsis the main graphics package being usedby NBC at the Olympics, by CBS in theU.S. Open Tennis and their NFL A game,and by TNT at the Goodwill games. Pin-nacle products use Microsoft NT as theirOS. Pinnacle has a family of productsthat treats graphics as a collection ofobjects. A composite graphic is made upof objects. These objects are stored sepa-rately but related to other objects thatcome together to form a composite orcomplete video signal only when de-sired. An object, which could be a blockof text, a picture (animated or still), or abackground, can be modified individu-ally. Templates are created that bring therequired objects together to create a

and even their servers deal in these ob-jects. This means that stills or video dipscan be modified remotely by changinga centrally controlled object. In this way,the whole still or clip doesn't need to bereplaced, just the changed object. Thisconcept allows objects to be created andedited on laptops, perhaps by a graph-ics person sitting at the airport waitingfor a flight. But, more likely, the changeswill be made on desktops back at thenetwork and downloaded over theInternet by the truck crew once on site.

Chyron, which introduced the broad-cast character generator, is still a majorplayer in Graphics. ESPN and ABC usethe Chyron Duet - the replacement forthe iNFiNiT! - for NFL games. TheDuet (and its family of surroundingproducts like the Aprisa) also treatscomposite graphics as an associatedgroup of objects. The Chyron applica-tion running on the Duet is Lyric. Lyricis a text, animation and graphicsauthoring software and contains fea-tures such as the animation tool andclip playback device used for creatingMonday Night Football's promos, line-ups and animated 3D bar charts. TheDuet can even have a digital disk re-corder installed in it. This allows for asingle -channel clip player in the CGwith its storage via a SCSI drive. Whilethe user -interface application on a Duetrides on top of NT, the Chyron'sgraphic engine uses VXWorks, which

In a few years, the graphics effort grew to includeimpressive graphic displays and animated moves

- with sound effects.

composite output. What is interestingabout this approach is that the objects,such as the network's "bug," a banner,or an animated background, can be cre-ated on one graphics machine and bemade available to other machines. Theseobjects are shared and transferred be-tween machines via an Ethernet LAN.Two machines simply open a socket con-nection between each other.

CGs are not the only devices that dealin objects. Pinnacle's DVFs, still stores

is a real-time operating system. NTpasses the OpenGL-requested tasks offto VXWorks. OpenGL is a part of Lyric.

ESPN and ABC also use Chyron Aprisafor the NFL. The Duet controls theAprisa 300 systems, which provide Sun-day/Monday Night Football directorsthe flexibility to include animated clipsfor the Aprisa. During the game, thestand-alone Aprisa 300 systems are usedto play back network -promotion mate-rial as well as full -screen, rendered


graphic elements. The Aprisa can alsorun a scaled -back version of Lyric, whichallows editing of objects residing on it.The Aprisa comes in a number of varia-tions. The 100 is like the still stores wehave known. The difference is an inte-grated content- and asset -management

Fox box in upper left corner providedby SGI 02, lower banner provided byChyron Infinit!, and Sportvision'sfirst -and -ten line provided by SGIequipment. The score in the upperright is a linear key, usually providedby a Digital PC Codi.

database that can manage content acrossthe other Chyron still stores, CGs andservers. The 200 adds a DDR to the 100'scapabilities. The 250 is a 200 that has twochannels, which can be any combina-tion of clip player, still store or one ofeach. The 300 adds internal tran-sition effects.

Another item in the graphicsracks is the Chyron CodiTelestrator, with a 15" flat -paneltouch screen located up in theannounce booth that lets thecolor announcers (John Mad-den being the most well known)doodle on the screen. Compa-nies such as Sportvision andPVI are now offering systemsthat use chroma inclusion/ex-clusion techniques developedfor their first -down line to keythe drawing in such a way thatit appears to be under the play-ers and officials.

Some B games and local collegegames use a Chyron Maxine, whichproduces a basic Fox Box without ani-mations.

The four common still stores foundon trucks:

Accom (formally Abekas) A-42 stillstore, the senior member of this

family, has been around for nearly 18years.

Pixel Power Collage still store/CGLeitch StillfileLeitch DSF 3121 four -channel StillfileIn games where the game clock must

still be shot with a camera, olderAbekas A -53s are still occasionallyused for clock positioning. Manytrucks also have a Leitch Logo Com-pose for bug insertion.

Grass Valley Profiles are used forgame bumpers and transitions intoand out of replays. Two channels arerequired for video - one provides akey signal and the other the video fill.Two channel of audio are also used forthe audio that now accompanies thesetransitions. The graphics are usuallybuilt back at the network by theirgraphics departments.

Whereas game statistics used to becollected, compiled and interpretedmanually, today a lot of the stats yousee on screen and stated by the an-nouncers are created automatically.One company that does this isSportsMEDIA Technology Corp.They perform data integration and

allow for timely updating of the scorebecause most automatic systems won'tdisplaya score until it is official. Othergame activity is also entered manuallyinto that database. But SportsMEDIA'sdatabase can be used to automaticallyfill template pages created on a char-acter generator. The CG is set to auto-matically request data updates asrecords in the database change. In thisway, the CG will automatically updateits display as the official score, timeand other information changes.

One of the most interesting graphicsoverlays today is the first -and -ten line.Two companies provide these systems,and they are indeed systems. CBS usessystems from PVI, while Fox and ESPNuse systems from Sportvision. TheSportvision system comprises four SGI02s. The system gathers very accuratecamera pan/tilt-head and zoom -lenstelemetry, which is generated by aSportvision modified Vinten head. Thecollected data is sent via a microphonecharm& down the camera triax. Fromthe camera's CCU, it is sent to aSportvision computer called the gatherPC. The gather PC sends the compiled

pan/tilt-head data to a com-puter called the FIO. This is onebusy processor. It contains avirtual map of the playing field,and makes the geometry calcu-lations to determine where thefirst -down line is in 3D space.This computer also accepts datafrom another PC called thematte PC. The matte PC opera-tor decides what colors in thevideo are to be keyed over, andwhat colors can't be keyed over.The operator will have to makesubtle changes as field, sun anduniform conditions change. Inthe case of an indoor game, thisposition is often a set -once -

and -forget proposition. The FIO com-puter must do one other computationaloperation: It must recognize whichcamera is on -air. It does this by com-paring video fed into the system vs. thevideo from cameras equipped with themodified heads (usually the three -upcameras at both 20 -yard lines and the

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distribution services and provide acentral place to keep stats. What thismeans is that raw data generated dur-ing a game, such as scores as deter-mined by the official scorer and offi-cial time -clock information, are fedinto a proprietary database. However,the score is often entered manually to


50 -yard line) to determine whichcamera's telemetry to use. This approachwas taken instead of using tallies becausethe Sportvision equipment is installeddownstream from the switcher, and,because of convoluted video paths fromsources to switcher, it was felt that cam-eras couldn't always be guaranteed a tallysignal.

The output of the FIO computer isdata, which indicate which pixels to writeto depict the first -down line. The ren-der PC processes this data, and its out-put is the key and fill signals for the line.These signals go to a keyer. This processtakes 22 frames in NTSC (or SMPTE259) time. To compensate for this, thedirty video out of the switcher is delayedvia a Sierra Video Digilinx and then fedas the background signal to the first -down -line keyer. There is a second op-erator, the lead operator for the system,who turns the key on and off based ondirector input. A third operator is up-stairs in the booth. He communicatesto the lead operator where the first -down marker should be placed.

In the case of PVI's system, the lineis added upstream from the switcher.PVI's system also collects pan/tilt-headtelemetry and sends it to a box theycall the Elvis. This is a proprietary boxbased on VME-bus technology. ThePVI approach is heavily hardwarebased. This results in only sevenframes of processing delay. A secondPC running a user -interface applica-tion controls the Elvis. PVI's systemrequires three people to operate also.When it comes to sheer size of a re-

mote production, nothing comparesto the Olympics. The Winter Olym-pics is no exception. In some ways, theOlympics is like an NFL Sunday, butcontinues every day for nearly twoweeks. Just like NFL games, all the vari-ous venues need to be transportedback to a broadcast operation center(BOC), processe and sent on to the re-quired destinations. The host broad-caster must make every event avail-able to various broadcasters aroundthe globe. In addition, many broad-casters add their own capability to themix. NBC, the U.S. broadcaster, adds

Graphics Technologya significant amount of infrastructure,much of it for their graphics packages.This system is centered around a cen-tral server that is a repository of stillsand clips created by Quantel Henrys,HALs and Editboxes, plus Apple G4Macs running Adobe After Effects.The Apple G4 Macs are used to createspecial effects and elements that arecomposited in a Henry. NBC Olym-pics and Proximity Corp. developedthis central -server concept. Thus, theinitial creation of graphics occurs inQuantel and Apple equipment. Thenewly developed central server makesthe various graphics content availableto CGs and still stores at the various

An EVS slow-motion control in a pro-duction truck. Photo courtesy EVS.

venues. NBC is using Pinnacle FxDeko Its with ClipDeko internal clipplayers and Pinnacle Thunder XLfour -channel clip/still stores.

The IDS Corp. will provide scoring andevent timing data for automatic display.Chyron Codis will input and displayevent timing data, while results data willbe fed into each Fx Deko II at the venuescovered. As with football, graphics tem-plates or beds were built by the network- in this case, NBC - in New York.

The two new major items at this year'sOlympics are Proximity's "Xenoclip"clip translator and the "2 ME Box." TheXenoclip system allows NBC to trans-late clips produced on Quantel gearand put them in a data format that is

for Remote Broadcasting

immediately accessible to all character-

generator and still/clip-store gear - notjust stills anymore, but the ability to unifyall clips into one format accessible to all.The "2 ME Box:' produced in collabo-ration with Pinnacle Systems, allowsNBC to have a centralizPd storage areathat contains all the clips translated byXenoclip. They configure all the FxDekos and Thunder XL units to havethe "2 -ME" setup as a locally attacheddrive. This provides the ability to dragand drop clips from this server to a lo-cal drive (giving it instant access to play-back). All venues are connected to thegraphics section of the IBC using eitherISDN or T I lines. This provides the ven-ues this drag and drop ability as well.After Xenoclip translates the clips, theyare sent to the "2 -ME:' where anyone,whether local in the IBC or distant at avenue, can acquire either still or mov-ing images for playback.

A significant portion of many remote -production efforts today is graphics.One major network worried as long agoas the mid 70s that graphics would dis-tract the viewer. Today the viewer oftengleans as much from visual informationpresented with the action as the dialogpresented by the announcers. Thegraphics area will continue to expandas many players in the graphics realmare leading the foray into interactive tele-vision (ITV). The information gatheredand displayed as television signals cannow also be "re -purposed" for shipmentto "Web servers." As ITV -aware set -topboxes become available to DTV view-ers, the ever-growing graphics "engine"deployed in these boxes will generate thedata that provide the viewer's interac-tive experience.

Jim Boston and George Hoover arein the process of writing a book aboutthe remote -truck industry. They haveestablished a Web site to promote thisproject. If you have anecdotes or otherinformation that you think should bein the book, please visitwww.remotetruckbook.com. BE

George Hoover is senior vice presidentand general manager of NEF and JimBoston is a West Coast consultant.


BY LARRY BLOOMFIELD

Lt

isted below are some ofhe companies providingquipment and expertise for

the 2002 Winter Olympics. Whilespace here does not permit acomplete listing, you can view theentire report on the BroadcastEngineering Web site,

www.broadcastengineering.com.Accom will provide two turnkeyequipment packages incorporatingthe Abekas 8150 Digital Vision mixerwith Dveous digital video effects. Theequipment will be used by the Finnishbroadcaster YLE and the Norwegianbroadcaster NRK.

A complement of HyTRON 100

batteries and InterActive 2000

PowerChargers from Anton/Bauerwill be used in portable cameras andUltralights for remote events.

Canon will be the exclusive lenssupplier for NBC's coverage of allOlympics through the year 2008.

The Clear -Corn Q700 program-

mable, frequency -agile UHF wirelessintercom will supplement communi-cations systems for the Opening andClosing ceremonies.

DNF will provide their DMAT andST300 slow-motion controllers.

Dolby Digital 5.1 sound tasks willbe provided through the DP562 digitaldecoder. Dolby Surround will behandled by the DP563 encoder.

Editware's DPE-551 hybrid editorwill be used in some edit suites in theSalt Palace Convention Center. Thecontroller incorporates Graham-Patten's D/ESAM IV protocol.

Evertz Microsystems will besupplying several key productsincluding the 8010-SIE verticalinterval SID encoders and Evertz'sHD test generators, downconvertersand distribution amps.

Fujinon lenses are used on severalof the mobile trucks includingNational Mobile Television, South-west Television and Corplex Televi-sion. Corplex will also use Fujinon'sOS -TECH image stabilization adapter

at some locations.At least 16 Graham -Patten D/

ESAM 8000s are located in various

Olympic Playersedit rooms.

HDNet MI provide the 1080i HDfeed, which will be delayed 24 hours.

The network is using Ampex andSony servers, and a Snell & Wilcoxswitcher fed by Sony cameras. The

new Sencore TS3030 HD server willhandle the delayed playback.Packaging the digital programmaterial will be Divicom and Tiernanencoders.

Microwave Radio Communica-tions and Northwest Communica-tions Systems are supplying someaffiliates with CodeRunner equip-ment for live coverage of the Olympictorch relay.

At the heart of Olympic coveragewill be more than 250 DVCPRO50

recorders, 50 digital cameras and

Ross Synergy digital productionswitchers and RossGear terminalequipment.

Snell & Wilcox will provide muchof the standards conversionequipment necessary to feedbroadcasters outside North America.Seven Network Australia will employa Snell & Wilcox Alchemist Ph.0 TXstandards converter. A Snell &Wilcox Mach 1 will feed C7,Australia's cable sports network.

The 2002 Winter Olympics will relyheavily on Sony's new MVS 8000

production switcher. Three 8000s willbe used, two for live feeds from theInternational Sports Broadcastingcomplex and one for post work.

Telecast Fiber Systems will supplythe Viper II modular communications

platform and Addermultiplexers. Theywill be used toprovide coverage ofthe Opening andClosing, as well as

the alpine skiing,snowboarding andfreestyle aerialevents at the ParkCity Mountain

A competitor skates at the World Single Distance SpeedSkating Championships in the Utah Olympic Oval.©2001 SLOC photo by Laura Schaffer. Photo courtesyPanasonic.

more than 900 monitors fromPanasonic.

Key Panasonic equipmentincludes: AJ-D910WA 2/3" DVCPROcamcorders; AJ-D960 DVCPRO50

studio editing, slow-motion VTRs; AJ-0950 DVCPRO50 studio editing VTRs;

AJ-LT95 DVCPRO50 laptop editing

systems; AJ-D940 DVCPRO50 studioplayers; AJ-D95DC DVCPRO50

portable AC/DC VTRs; AJ-HD3700

multiformat 0-5 HD VTRs, AJ-D610WA 16:9/4:3 camcorders, a totalof 35 Ramsa sound systems at 14

different locations and 16 Astrovisiongiant displays.

Pinnacle Systems has suppliedthe Thunder and FX Deko II systems.

Several flight packs will feature

Resort, SnowbasinSki Area and DeerValley Resort.

Telex is providinga 464 -port RTS

ADAM intercom system, completewith their custom "Override IFB"feature.

Thomson Multimedia will supply 10LDK 23HS MKII high-speed superslow-motion cameras. They are alsoproviding their "Service Pit Stop."

Vela is providing their IDS line ofintegrated, inter -networked distribu-tion products. Included in thepackage are Vela analog and digitalvideo DAs, monitoring equipment andsoftware.

For more information on the equip-ment in use at the Olympics, go towww.broadcastengineering.com. BE



CENTRALCASTING:No Benefit Without Risk

BY JOHN LUFF

As stations seek cost effective ways tointerconnnect facilities for contentsharing and centralcasting, IP andEthernet technology are increasinglybeing tried. Last summer, KCTS-TV,Seattle successfully transmitted a real-time, multiple -program digital streamfrom Spokane to Seattle via anEthernet connection. Shown here is theKCTS-TV control room. Photo courtesyHarris.

Aur Arm Ar asaWaataammeras +41,10.0,0,.,APV,

Broadcast stations used to belargely autonomous. Somestill are. Managers of local sta-

tions can easily make local decisions onprogramming, advertising, personneland all other questions that must be re-viewed daily to keep a transmitter onthe air. But the economics of broadcast-ing have dramatically and irreversiblychanged. The combined effects of fall-ing revenue and rising costs havetipped the scale permanently towards

less autonomy for all stations, whetherthey are part of a group or not. Ad rev-enues have fallen steadily for an un-comfortably long time. Networks areconsidering reverse compensation tostem their own altered economics. Un-fortunately, all this has happened in anera when the FCC has granted thebroadcasters' wish to have an extrachannel on which to broadcast HDTV(or other services as finally authorized).

Every month, boardroom conversa-

tions consider ways to improve econom-ics for broadcasters. Some broadcasterspostulate that centralization, commonlytermed centralcasting, may be the onlyway to save local broadcasting from im-ploding in the jaws of the economic viseit is caught in today.

Centralcasting, or more generically,centralized operations, can increasecash flow and help balance the balancesheet. But it involves making careful,sometimes difficult, choices. Experts


ShareCastmg.distributed broadcast systems

ShareCasting is the next generation of centralcastingsystems that can share broadcast control and originwith regional stations. Now TV stations can maximizelocalization and reduce operational costs withregional sales, regional station ingest, central assetacquisition and shared storage.

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www.sharecasting.cornor call us at 352.372.8326.4581 NW 6th Street Gainesville, FL 32609 USA [email protected] TM and Florical TM are trademarks of Florical Systems. Inc.

Florical Systems led the way incentralcasting with the first hub -spokeaJtomation system to go ON -AIR backin 1996. Our expertise with multipletime zones, multiple device servers,zero timing and control room switchingdelivers highly reliable and scalablesolutions to our many customers whoare ShareCasting ON -AIR today.

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CENTRALCASTING: No Benefit Without Riskwho have studied centralized opera-tions liken these choices to picking fruitfrom a tree. The low -hanging fruit rep-resents the easiest changes to imple-ment, the higher fruit more difficult -and some fruit may be out of reach.When broadcasters think ofcentralcasting, their concept is often

worked hard to output a log from pa-per records. Now, the staff is decidedlysmaller and the work highly auto-mated. By centralizing traffic, a groupowner can marginally reduce thenumber of people required to keepmultiple stations operating, and therelatively low bandwidth required to

Centralcasting may be the only way to save localbroadcasting from imploding in the jaws of theeconomic vise it is caught in today. illy

limited to creating a common master -control operation for stations withcommon parents. But there is other,lower fruit to consider first.

One candidate for centralized opera-tions is the traffic department. Beforetoday's highly computerized opera-tions, a station's traffic department

connect a local sales operation to cen-tral traffic makes it quite economical.

Only slightly higher up on the fruit treeis the promotions department. Often,the promotions department bargainshard to get the personnel and capitalresources needed to do a good job ofpromoting the station. Computer non-

linear editing and production systemshave made sophisticated spot creationless expensive, but the creative indi-vidual is no easier to find or cheaper nowthan in the past. Centralizing promo-tions also comes with a little penalty indistribution cost. If the central promo-tions department is created as part of abroader interconnection, the distribu-tion may come nearly for free.

Above the low -hanging fruit lies thepotential for large savings over the longhaul. The true redundancy amongbroadcast stations varies with factorsthat are principally tied to the overlapof the individual programming grids.If all of the stations to be centralizedhave the same network affiliation, itseems logical that redundant processescan be centralized.

One of the approaches first used wasbased simply on remotely controllingthe station from a central site, but notmoving any of the video hardware or

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CENTRALCASTING: No Benefit Without Riskcontent to a central repository. Usingsoftware like PCAnywhere, or a remote -desktop control built into Microsoft'sfree NetMeeting conferencing package,it is easy to see how you could simplyremote the display from the automa-tion system to a central site and elimi-nate the local person watching thescreen for errors. When coupled witha return path for low -bandwidth videoand control/status on the transmitter,this approach seems to be the leastcapital -intensive topology possible.

Of course, with low cost comestradeoffs some stations will find un-acceptable. If the connection to the re-mote PC is lost due to a power failure,the process of restoring control, perhapseven programming, might not be quick.With few, if any, eyeballs watching thestore at the local station, minor prob-lems that might be solved in a couple ofminutes by a skilled operator becomemuch more complicated.

At the other end of the spectrum lies afully centralized facility in which a localstation without news programmingmight consist of nothing more than a

Master control operations at KGET-TVthe Ackerley Group's NBC affiliate inBakersfield, CA.The station providescentralcasting for itself and three otherstations. Photo courtesy KGET.

connection to the transmitter and thereturn status that is required in all in-terconnection topologies. This allowsthe local station to avoid any renovationas equipment wears out. And, if the in-

terconnection bandwidth is highenough, the full ATSC DTV signal canbe sent from the centralcasting site. Ifthe DTV stream contains a copy of theNTSC programming, it is possible to de-code that stream from the multiplex andconvert it to NTSC at the transmitter site,reducing the bandwidth to no morethan 19.3 Mbits downstream, and per-haps 1.5 Mbits upstream. The central sitecan provide a level of N+1 redundancythat the local station might not be ableto afford, since spares are spread acrossa larger capital base.

Full centralcasting works best whenthe stations all are of one network af-filiation, since one program streamcould be concatenated and onlyinterstitials would vary. But that's apretty idealized case, to which anyowner of multiple stations will attest.Thus, the probability is that a uniqueprogram stream is assembled for everystation and some of the redundancy the

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Centralcasting comes in many flavors and should not bethought as just another way to get rid of people. In fact,centralcasting technology may be the only way some com-munities can be served by small staffs. Photo courtesy Harris.

centralcasting site could enjoy is lost,requiring more hardware.

Centralcasting has its own Achilles'heel. The cost of interconnection is thecombination of local access cost to ahigh -bandwidth network (local loop),and the long -haul interconnection cir-cuit (often inter-LADA). WAN circuitswith the appropriate quality -of -service

guarantees andsufficiently robustdisaster -recoveryprovisions can beexpensive. High -quality video canbe transmitted inas little as 6 Mbits/s, but full-time 6Mbit circuits arehard to book un-less one uses DS3service (nomi-nally 45 Mbits/s).The excess bitscost the same asthe fully occupiedones, wasting

money.Packetized transport, like ATM, offers

potentially flexible WAN bandwidth.Some argue that ATM is inappropriatefor dedicated video service. While itmight suffice to note that FOX Sportsand others use ATM on a permanentand full-time basis, the engineering ar-guments should not be ignored. Con-

fusion about the suitability of ATM be-gins with its ability to deliver isochro-nous video, i.e., with deterministic de-livery. However, ATM adds other fea-tures that are potentially useful in cen-tralized operations, includingmulticasting the same packets to mul-tiple locations, a wide variety of stan-dard computer -industry interfaces, andinterfaces designed specifically for con-verting video data types to ATM.

Another variation on the centralizedoperations theme stands with one footin both camps. Distributed broadcast-ing, a technique that requires carefulevaluation by competent personnel,holds the promise of reducing labor tothe same extent as centralcasting, butdoes not necessarily play all program-ming from the central site. The prob-ability is high that the station has equip-ment in place to receive and air net-work programming without receivingit from the hub site. Taking advantageof that existing hardware may reducethe bandwidth requirements in theWAN. Such an approach requires that

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CENTRAILCASTING: No Benefit Without Risksome of the programming plays fromthe distributed broadcasting site andsome plays from the station. Whilecomplex, this approach allows distrib-uted servers to move media efficientlybetween sites in the background usingFTP or other techniques under auto-mation and asset -management control.

If all television was recorded andplayed under automation control, all of

these strategies would work well. Butwhat seems simple becomes potentiallydifficult when considering live events.In the centralcasting-hub case, it may benecessary to have multiple operators onduty during peaksports times. Networkshave a habit of regionalizing networks,and football teams don't coordinatetheir plays to fit into a standardizedmodel for inserting commercials. A hub

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that sends out signals to FOX, NBC, ABC

and CBS stations might find a situationquite impossible for one operator tohandle, though one operator could ar-guably control most normal program-ming on over 10 stations.As the number of combined stations

rises, the potential total capital -cost re-duction rises, but not exactly at the samerate. As the number of streams at riskrises, the level of redundancy needs torise to avoid the catastrophic case ofmany stations going off the air due to asingle failure. It seems unlikely thatmany broadcasters would have the capi-tal to take such an approach; at least untiloperations have proven successful for awhile and net savings have accumulated.But the savings in capital cost have to belooked at over years. With depredationon an aggressive five-year basis, a 20percent savings nets only 4 percent ofthat amount to the bottom line per year.While the total is important, the board-room will not see that 4 percent as worthmuch risk The real savings are in hu-man resources, traded against the costof interconnection. This is where therubber truly meets the road in central-ized operations. If the approach you takecan save sufficient personnel to over-come the cost of interconnection by awide enough margin, you will have apersuasive case.

It is worthwhile to note that central-ized operations is a fundamental shiftin the business operations of the com-pany as welL Broadcasting essentially hasbeen a local business since radio beganover 70 years ago. In the last few years,radio has moved aggressively to central-ized operations, and the once -marginallocal -radio business has returned toprofitability. A change at the root of tele-vision broadcasting may well achieve thesame result. But it will take years to fullyexplore the quirks in the factory opera-tions required by centraliwd operations,years to minimize risks and years to seethe full benefit of centralized operationscome to fruition. 1E

John Luff is vice president of businessdevelopment at AZCAR.


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AConsumers' newhigh -definition TVsets are dependentupon PSIP tables tofind broadcasters' digi-tal signals. Photo cour-tesy Zenith.

Broadcasters' Guideto PSIPBY JERRY C. WHITAKER

Although proper implementa-tion of the DTV Program andSystem Information Protocol

(better known as PSIP) at the televi-sion -station level is not particularlycomplex, neither is it straightforward.Broadcasters have voiced their need forsimplified information regarding theimplementation of PSIP Standard A/65A. To this end, the ATSC is develop-ing a draft Recommended Practice toexplain the operator -oriented elementsof PSIP and to provide practical ex-amples of typical station operation. Thedraft document will also provide guide-lines that should allow designers ofPSIP-related hardware and software to

from multiple markets. The PSIP pro-tocol was developed with these real -world situations in mind.

PSIP is a small collection of tables de-signed to operate within every transportstream (TS) for terrestrial broadcast ofdigital television. Its purpose is to de-scribe the information at the system andevent levels for all virtual channels car-ried in a particular TS. Additionally, itmay incorporate information for ana-log channels as well as digital channelsfrom other transport streams.

There are two main categories of in-formation in the ATSC PSIP Standard:system information and program data.System information allows navigation

PSIP is the glue that holds the digital television

signal together. a

prepare clear operating instructions forthe users of such equipment.

Inside PSIPPSIP is the glue that holds the digital

television signal together. Although PSIPis a voluntary standard of the ATSC, andthe FCC only requires parts of the stan-dard, it is, in fact, a requirement interms of actual real -world operation.In most locations, multiple DTV sta-tions can be received - in some cases,

and access of the channels within theDTV transport stream, and programdata provide the information neces-sary for efficient browsing and eventselection. Some tables announce fu-ture events and some locate the digi-tal streams that make up an event. ThePSIP data are carried via a collectionof hierarchically arranged tables. Fig-ure 1 shows the primary componentsand the notation used to describethem. The base tables are:

System Time Table (STT)Rating Region Table (RRT)Master Guide Table (MGT)Virtual Channel Table (VCT)

The Event Information Tables (EITs)are a second set of tables whose packetidentifiers are defined in the MGT.The Extended Text Tables (ETTs) area third set of tables and, similarly, theirPIDs are defined in the MGT.

The System Time Table is a small datastructure that fits in one transportstream packet and serves as a referencefor time -of -day functions. Receivers canuse this table to manage various opera-tions and scheduled events, as well as todisplay the time of day.

The Rating Region Table transmitsthe rating system in use for each coun-try using the ratings. Provisions havebeen nude for multi -country systems.

The Master Guide Table provides in-dexing information for the other tablesthat comprise the PSIP Standard. It alsodefines table sizes necessary for memoryallocation during decoding, defines ver-sion numbers to identify those tablesthat need to be updated and generatesthe packet identifiers that label the tables.

The Virtual Channel Table, also re-ferred to as the Terrestrial VCT (TVCT),contains a list of all the channels that areor will be online, along with their at-tributes. Among the attributes are the


A Broadcasters' Guide to PSIP

channel name and number. This tableis critically important as it contains theset of data that enables a receiver to tuneand locate the service being broadcast.The VCT is essentially a list containinginformation about each service that abroadcaster creates (or has announcedthat it will create) within the DTV ma-jor channel assignment, as well as infor-mation about the broadcaster's associ-ated analog channel.

advance. At minimum, the first four EITsmust always be present in every trans-port stream, and 24 are recommended.

Basic PSIP reguiemeatsThe three main tables (VCT, EIT,

STT) contain information that makesit easy for suitably equipped receiversto find the components required topresent a program (event). Althoughreceivers are expected to use stored in-

formation tospeed channelacquisition,sometimes pa-rameters mustchange. TheVCT is the tablethat must be ac-curate each in-stant because itprovides the ac-tual connectionpath. If nothinghas changedsince an EIT wassent for an event,the anticipatoryuse of the data isexpected to pro-ceed. Whenthere is a change,the new parts

would be used. These relationships -and the tables that carry them - aredesigned to be kept with the DTV sig-nal when it is carried by a cable sys-tem.

There are certain "must have" itemsand "must do" rules of operation. Ifthe PSIP elements are missing or

base PID

STT

RRT

MGT

VCT

For channel x:

source_id

For channel y.

source_id

EIT-0

source_id

source_id

source .

source sous _id

Figure 1. Overall structure of the PSIP tables

There are several Event InformationTables, each of which describes the eventsor television programs associated withthe virtual channels listed in the VCT.Each EIT is valid for a time interval ofthree hours. Because the maximumnumber of EITs is 128, up to 16 daysof programming may be advertised in

wrong, there may be severe conse-quences, depending on the type of re-ceiver. The following are key elementsthat must be set and/or checked by eachstation:

Transport Stream Identification(TSID). The station must set the TSIDcorrectly in all three locations (PAT,VCT common information, and vir-tual -channel -specific information).

System Time Table (SST). The stationshould check the STT time daily andlock it to house time.

Short Channel Name. This is aseven -character name that the stationcan set to any desired virtual -channelname. For example, WNABSD1,KNABSD2, WNAB-HD, KIDS, etc.

Major Channel. In most cases, thepreviously assigned, paired NTSCchannel is the major channel number.

Service Type. The service type selectsDTV, NTSC, audio only, data, etc., andmust be set as operating modes require.

Modulation Mode. This parametermust be set appropriately.

Source ID. The Source ID is a num-ber that associates virtual channels toevents on those channels. Typically, itis automatically updated by PSIPequipment or updated from an out-side vendor.

Service Location Descriptor (SLD).The PIDs identified here and in thePMT must be the same for the ele-ments of an event/program. Somedeployed systems require separatemanual setup, but PIDs assigned to aVC should not change (unless there isa good reason).

continued on p. 85

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LIBILI II

Snell at WilCOX.SSystem HDBY RICHARD SCHILLER AND SPENCER BARR

s more TV stations beginto broadcast in high defi-ition, an area that must

be given careful consideration is inter-connection. For the most part, TV sta-tions use coaxial cable for SD transmis-sion, driving signals more than 300meters at the SD data rate of 270 Mbits/s. Once the shift is made to HD, how-ever, the data rate is raised to 1.5 Gbit/s. At this rate, the maximum transmis-sion distance over coaxial cable dropsdramatically to a range of 100 to 150meters, and then only if high -quality coax is used along witha suitable cable equalizer at thereceiving end.

The restrictive transmissioncharacteristics of coax at HDdata rates make the use of opti-cal fiber transmission very attrac-tive. Two types of optical fiber exist:single -mode and multi -mode. Single -mode fiber has a very small (ninemicron diameter) center core, which isused to carry the optical signals.

The worldwide adoption of a single -mode fiber -based solution by thetelecom industry has seen many barri-ers of adopting high-speed optical net-works considerably reduced. Wide-spread component availability at afford-able prices is now a reality

stadium, TV station or even in a largestudio. For longer distances, fiber makessense and often is the only practical al-ternative. Other considerations includefiber's immunity to electromagnetic ra-diation as well as its small size and lightweight, both of which make it a fantas-tic signal transport medium.

The single -mode fiber transmitters inthe Snell & Wilcox System HD modularenclosure can be supplied with one, two

Up to 12 modules can fit into theSnell & Wilcox System HD, includ-ing transmitter, receiver and trans-ceiver cards.

or four optical outputs like traditionalcoax distribution amplifiers. Thesemulti -output variants are highly cost-effective for one -to -many connections.If the same signal is to be fed to two ormore destinations, this is the way to go.

Widespread component availability at affordable

prices is now a reality.

Snell & Wilcox manufactures a rangeof modular distribution products espe-cially for the demanding world of highdefinition known as "System HD:' Theseare far from typical as they can drive upto 150m of good coax cable.

Most high -definition products are lim-ited to approximately 100m. Even thiscapability will not get you very far in a

When designing the fiber system,you'll want to decide whether two sig-nals should share the same fiber. Fibersare small, light and very easy to lay, soyou'll want to install enough to cover anyrequirements. In fact, many people in-stall extra unused "dark" fibers just incase. However, there are times when itis just easier for two signals to share a

fiber. This is where Wave Division Mul-tiplexing comes in. By ordering trans-mitters with different wavelengths (col-ors) of laser light, a combining rear con-nector panel can join two signals ontoone fiber.

Though optical transmission networksprovide superior signal handling char-acteristics to coax networks for long-dis-tance/high data rate applications, theycannot work miracles. A poor qualityelectrical input signal to an optical trans-mission system will result only in a poorquality optical signal being transmitted.To simplify the design and installation,System HD's optical modules equalizeand re -clock any HD electrical input sig-nals before optical transmission andthen re -clock the recovered electrical sig-nals before distribution.

System HD provides comprehensivemonitoring of many factors affectingthe continuing operation of the sys-tem. These can be read locally or re-motely using the Snell & WilcoxRollCall equipment monitoring andcontrol system. On an optical trans-mitter module, for example, monitor-ing includes board temperature, inputsignal quality, the presence of CRC(cyclic redundancy check) errors inthe video, the line standard and framerate being transmitted as well as thelaser device health status. It also canestimate the length of coax feeding itsHDSDI input. BE

Richard Schiller is senior product manager,modular products, and Spencer Barr issenior design engineer for Snell & Wilcox.

IN ADDITIONVisit our Web site,www.broadcastengineering.com,for more discussion on the Snell &Wilcox System HD.

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Networldng the NetworkBY LARRY BLOOMFIELD

In the early days of broadcasting,"the patch panel" was the onlyway to get sources and destina-

tions changed that were otherwisehardwired to each other. It is difficultto credit the person who first cameup with the passive mechanical patchpanel, but they soon gave way to ac-tive devices that would permit onesource to be delivered to multipleoutputs. Thus, the routing switcherwas born.

In the early days of broadcast routing,switchers just switched audio and video.More complex systems that wouldswitch video, multiple channels of au-dio, time code and even machine con-trol were soon developed. As digi-tal became a part of the broadcastindustry, and since all the bits rep-resenting each of these functionscould be multiplexed together andsent down the same path, wiringbecame much simpler and easier.

One company capable of ad-dressing all these configurationsis Miranda Technologies, wittheir Network series of routerswhich offer a complete range ofanalog and digital, video, audio,high -definition and telecom routersin compact packages.

The goal in designing this equip-ment is to create a maintenance -freeenvironment. Each router and controlpanel is equipped with its own localcontroller, thus ensuring overall sys-tem integrity and decentralizing thecontrol of the system.

The routing switchers are compact sothey can be easily mounted in the rearof a rack to maximize rack space. Therouters can be configured for standarddefinition or high definition to meeteach facility's digital configuration.

The routers offer eight levels of inde-pendent control. All models in the se-

ries can be combined with each otherto form larger multi -level audio andvideo systems.

They feature a PC multi-user accesscontrol system, and single bus and X -Y control panels are also an option.The monitoring and control of thesystem is done by using iControl Web -based management software. Addi-

The model router NBC purchased iscapable of up to 360 Mbit/s with equal-ization out to 300m.

The Miranda Network series rout-ers feature the following options:

FormatsThe Network series routers are avail-

able in wideband analog video (up to250 MHz), analog audio, digital video

Typical applications for today's modem routers go

beyond the single station application.

tionally, the routing switchers will in-terface with nearly any of the automa-tion systems currently available in the

The Miranda Network 8x8 serial digi-tal router is capable of up to 360 Mbit/s with equalization out to 300m.

broadcast marketplace.Making sure that nearly 200 stations

get what they are supposed to, whenthey are supposed to, is no easy task.An elaborate router system, driven bya specialized automation system, has tobe in place to accomplish this. After sig-nificant evaluation, NBC selected theMiranda Network 8x8 serial digitalrouter as the backbone for switchingtheir new digital Skypath system andthe associated integrated receiver de-coders (IRD) at their affiliates to theappropriate outputs.

(143 to 540 Mbit/s), DVB/ASI, HD from143 Mbit/s to 1.5 Gbit/s, digital audio(balanced 110 ohms or unbalanced 75ohms), telecom formats 34/45 Mbit/sand 140/155 Mbit/s, and in RS -422 data.

SizesThe Network series routers are avail-

able in sizes of 16x2 up to 128x2, 8x8,16x16, 32x32 and 64x64.Control PanelsA variety of push button con-

trol panels are available in sizesof 8x1, 8x8, 16x1, 16x2, 16x16,32x1, 32x32, 64x1 and universalalphanumeric X -Y. Panels are

also available with an optional GPI/Joystick/Tally interface.Multi -Level SystemsAll models in the Network series can

be combined with each other to formlarger multi -level audio and videosystems.

For more information on routingswitchers go to www.miranda.com. BE


View an onlineproduct demowhenever yousee this logo.www.broadcastengineering.com


VCI's STAR 11+Traffic System for CentralcastingBY W. LOWELL PUTNAM

The centralcasting discussionmost often revolves aroundmaster control operations

and technology. This is mostly be-cause consolidation of engineeringoperations offers opportunities forachieving immediate economies ofscale. Of equal importance, however,is the consolidation of core businessfunctions, including sales, traffic andaccounting.

Traffic system requirementsAs the broadcast business contin-

ues to evolve, so must its support-ing systems. Broadcasters movingtowards centralized business opera-tions should begin by evaluating thecapabilities of their current trafficsystem.

Speed is one important element in

VCI's traffic system is an option for broadcasters try-ing to meet the increased data management require-ments of a centralcasting environment.

a traffic system for use in a

centralcasting environment becauseof the volume of data being man-aged and the number of users beingsupported.

In addition, it should not be neces-sary to bring down the entire system

for backups or spot placement. Thesystem should be able to complete in-voicing during normal operationalhours without slowing down the en-tire system. Finally, the systems

the centralized operation. Theyshould be able to manage their ac-counts electronically and have in-stant, real-time access to accurate in-ventory data. The traffic system

Broadcasters moving towards centralized opera-tions should bin by evaluating the capabilities oftheir current traffic system.

should allow for expansion of PCs,users and printers without perfor-mance degradation.

Reliability is also an important cri-terion. To increase reliability, the sys-tem should take advantage of stan-dard and readily available hardwarecomponents, including redundantpower supplies, disks and fans.

There should be areasonable balancebetween the levelof redundancy de-sired and the ex-pense of imple-menting it.Another require-

ment is for the traf-fic system to pro-vide a sophisticatedautomation inter-face. In the central-ized operation,where master con-trol is simulta-neously supportingseveral individualstations, a highly

automated environment is desirableto cut down on manual manipulationof logs. This improves productivityand reduces costly errors.

Integrated sales force automation isalso key. Multiple remote sales teamsneed to be able to interact easily with

should also accommodate differentsales philosophies.

A traffic system should allow for asmany data types as needed to supportboth clusterwide and individual sta-tion requirements.

It should also offer flexible report-ing to meet unforeseen requirements.With centralcasting still in its infancy,it is difficult to predict the ultimate re-porting requirements of any indi-vidual group, cluster or station. Amodern traffic system should offerflexibility for both consolidated andindividual station reporting.In addition, the traffic system

should eliminate redundant data en-try to the greatest extent possibleand should support large volumes ofdata.

While an ultimate goal ofcentralcasting is to achieve econo-mies of scale by consolidating com-mon functions, broadcasters mustbe careful not to force a cookie -cut-ter approach on individual stationswithin a cluster. The system shouldoffer complete flexibility to supportunique program formats and salespractices. BE

W Lowell Putnam is president and CEOof VCI.

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News Editing:Cut ...and Paste?BY JOHN LUFF

Ihave often wondered what per-centage of all editing done fortelevision, broadcast and non -

broadcast is done for news purposes.Many of our broadcast clients reportputting 75 to 100 cut stories on the shelfon any given day. Multiply by the num-ber of stations in North America thatproduce news (my guess is over 85 per-cent of all TV commercial stations) andyou get well over 100,000 news stories aweek. Add to that the prodigious out-put of the 24 -hour news channels andthe thousands of broadcasters overseasand you arrive at some pretty stagger-ing numbers - well into the millions peryear. A typical story might have a dozenedits. If the worldwide output is what Ithink, something like a half a billion ed-its are done per year. That's enough to

time efficient think of the labor savedor, in economic times like this, put outof work. There are huge issues at stakefor users and manufacturers. It ends upall being about workflow. How canyou get pictures from a camera andsound from location and voiceover cut

are squeezed every day, so savings gen-erated by workflow are highly valuable.

The bulk of edits in news stories arecuts, and few graphics are added tomany stories. When breaking newsis considered, it is almost always cutsonly. When electronic editing was

Margins are squeezed every day, so savings gener-ated by workflow are highly va uable.

together coherently and prepped for airwith both appropriate technical qual-ity and an editorial approach thatmakes the media more compelling? Atone time, broadcasters looked at newsas part of what the CommunicationsAct of 1933 required: use of the pub-lic airwaves "in the public interest,

Ingest station

Play to air

1Control

Edit station

Place your favoritemanufacturer's

VTR here

111111- Browse videor to the desktop

Low bit rate video

Media storage

111Disk array

New editing systems offer broadcasters features not available in VTR -only systems,including a desktop browse system, so editors can view material as it is ingested.

perk up the interest of anyone who sellsequipment to that market.

Even more staggering, if you couldmake that output just 10 percent more

convenience and necessity." Today, thehigh motives have been joined by bigmoney, and with big savings comeprofits that can be compelling. Margins

invented and news film was replacedby Umatic tape, broadcasters and net-works found huge savings in both thecost of shooting crews and the cost ofoperation for news. Coupled with theimmediacy of being able to air a storyminutes after it is recorded to tape, therevolution that electronic editing cre-ated is quite incredible.

Now we are on the verge of a secondrevolution. Computers are ideallysuited for cut and paste editing of anykind of media object. We all discov-ered drag and drop editing for wordprocessing years ago. Now, inexpen-sive hardware and fast processors aremaking the same simple process outof editing video. My home computercame with editing software and anIEEE 1394 interface for DV files andcost $900. In a stand-alone configura-tion it could easily replace one of twoVTRs in a news editing suite and doso with nearly the workflow speed ofthe ubiquitous Betacam or DVCPROediting suite that populates broadcastnews by the thousands.

So why hasn't it taken hold? Two rea-sons: complexity and speed. Only re-cently have nonlinear editing systemsfor news become networked. True,there have been some attempts in thepast to create systems, but they used ex-pensive computers, high -cost high -bandwidth network hardware, and


closed proprietary interfaces. They alsoused an operator interface that wasoptimized for making editing decisionsthat you might want to change yourmind about. They were not optimizedfor rapid news editing. Just the ingestprocess (capturing the content to thehard disk) was a drag on efficiency.

Now many systems can edit directlyto the timeline. The VTR is controlledjust like it would be in a VTR -to -VTRediting environment. At least onemanufacturer permits the stand-aloneVTR to control the computer! A"guest" editor who might be compe-tent, indeed very fast, can sit down atsuch a system and use the "user inter-face" on the front of a VTR to edit withvideo stored on the hard disk of theedit system. While not the most effi-cient way to work, it allows for a moreorderly transition for operators.

Some VTRs support high-speedtransfer of media for these applica-tions. Doing so can cut the time toload material into the editing environ-ment by a factor of four. In the futurewe may see the VTR acting as an FTPdevice to the editing system.

Recently, the availability of low-costnetworks to operate at sufficient band-width for such dense media as videohave transformed the economics ofnetworked news environments com-pletely. The only items of video hard-ware that impinge on the process arethe inputs and outputs of the system,including the optional VTR. Theplayout goes straight to the produc-tion switcher just like the output froma playout VTR would, and remote con-trol panels that would be applicable toa VTR work just fine.

Among the savings is the maintenanceof VTRs for ingest and edit. This can bea large cost to a station and one that re-quires everyone today to have excessmachines, or be willing to shut downan editing booth when a VTR dies. Thecomputer certainly can fail, but as theMTBF of the computer hardware islikely much higher and the maintenancecost much lower, the net operating costcan be a substantial savings.

One thing a network can provide

that is not available to closets withVTRs is a desktop browse system. Thisallows producers, assignment editors,copywriters, reporters and others in-volved in the workflow to view mate-rial as it is ingested to plan the finalstory before they begin the editorialprocess. This is the same revolutionthat newsroom automation softwarehas done for the copy side of news, andthese systems will be considered in afuture article in this column.

But beyond the simple review of lowbit rate copies of the media, some ofthese systems allow editorial decisionsto be made on the "skinny media," andautomatically conformed on the "fatmedia." Imagine the change inworkflow this can provide! When theproducer moves to the edit suite he hasalready rough cut the material hewants in the story, allowing the editorto do the polishing he is best at, in-cluding mixing audio and packagingthe final story for playout. By spread-ing the production process acrossmore individuals, the workflow can besignificantly improved.

It is possible with some systems tocomplete final versions ready for airwithout ever resorting to editing onspecial-purpose systems. For simplestories the crew might be only the re-porter. One 24 -hour news networkhas equipped its reporters withlaptops that have editing softwareand hardware. By the time they re-turn from the field the story may wellbe ready for air. Of course, the dan-ger is that production values will de-cline without the skills of the profes-sional editor. But these advancementsallow the field kit to be a camcorder,fishpole and mic, and laptop. Onecould even see the transfer of cut sto-ries via FTP directly to the media li-brary, complete with metadata con-taining the script, graphics require-ments, length and other pertinent in-formation, over modest bandwidthswhen time is not critical. (Cell phonetransfers? Maybe so!) BE

John Luff is vice president of businessdevelopment for AZCAR.

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INTEGRATED CAMCORDERQuantel's i0. integrated with Panasonic's variable -frame -rate HD camcorder: load tapes from the variable -frame -rate HD camcorder into i0. to produce slow- or fast -motion24 fps clips; ill uses all of the information from thecamcorder and speed changes are automatic; uniqueresolution allows the 720p clips from the camcorder to beused in HD or SD projects without any preprocessing.

+44 (0) 1635 48222; Fax: +44 (0) 1635 815815

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SAMPLINGDIGITALREVERBSony DRES777: the

reverb processor derives its sound fromactual impulse response samples of realacoustic spaces rather than from artificiallygenerated algorithms; up to seven reverbprograms can be provided on a single CD-ROM software disk and stored internally forfurther use; features include 24 -bit A/D, D/A

converters, four -channel surround capability and 96sampling frequency support.

800 -686 -SONY; 201-930-1000; Fax: 201-930-4752

www.sony.com/professional

NONLINEAR EDITING SYSTEMPanasonic newsBYTE50 DVCPRO50/DVCPRO: features abuilt-in 50 Mbits/s newsBYTE system; switch between 50Mbits/s DVCPRO50 and 25 Mbits/s DVCPRO operation;upload and download video faster than real-time speed;shorten system input and preparation work; intuitiveinterlace features real-time transition effects, directdigitizing to the timeline, eight channels of digital audio,built-in character generator, key learn, real-time videomodifications, external VTR control, manual and batchdigitize of DVCPRO50 and DVCPRO tapes and additionalshortcut keys.

800-528-8601; www.panasonic.com

NONLINEAR EDITORLeitch dpsVelocity: mid -tower and rack -mount turnkeysystems are built around a dual -processor mainboard;configured with one or two processors; has up to agigabyte of memory; includes a custom removable drivebay subsystem that allows easy interchange of videohard drives when working on large projects or transport-ing work to another dpsVelocity system; features asystem and audio hard drive, a CD-RW drive, a dual -VGAdisplay card and a rugged chassis.

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A Broadcasters' Guide to PSIP

It is recommended that broadcast-ers set up a minimal set of three daysof tables. The recommended tablecycle times result in a minimal de-mand on overall system bandwidth.

Most common mistakesExperience has shown that certain

errors are common in many PSIPimplementations. Typically, theseproblems include the following:

Missing tables, specifically theSTT and EIT.

Major channel number set to theDTV RF channel number, rather thanthe associated (legacy) NTSC chan-nel number.

TSID set to 0 or 1, the NTSC TSID,or to another station's TSID; or it is notthe same in the three required places.

System time missing or set to00:00:00 on 1/6/1980

Some receivers react to these errorsby not tuning to that station.

About the VCTBroadcaster must input essential sta-

tion -specific VCT information to allowviewers to tune programs properly.

Because the VCT also allows each mi-nor channel to be assigned a perma-nent short name and channel name,and since each minor channel will keepthe same TSID, carrier frequency (zeroor not), and modulation mode overtime, the PSIP encoder -system softwareshould allow the user to create a locallook -up table that associates each mi-nor -channel number with these fixedvalues. This allows the user to createnew VCTs simply by entering the num-ber of the minor channel he or shewants to include in the new VCT. ThePIDs for each minor channel shouldnot be changed unless the nature of thevirtual channel changes, because it willlikely increase the time it takes for thereceiver to tune to the station.

Even though the station can perma-nently assign the TSID and other pa-rameters for each virtual channel, theminor channels that the station is usingmay change over time. When a programon a new virtual channel is announcedin the EIT, the PSIP standard requiresthat the VCT contain EIT VCT informa-tion, and vice versa. Because of this, it is

recommended that broadcasters updatethe VCT first to reflect a change in thechannel lineup and then use the appro-priate source_id to construct the EITs.

A broadcaster can transmit a newVCT containing updated informa-tion at any time by increasing theversion_number by one. However,since a VCT normally describes thechannels in the same transportstream, if virtual channels are addedto the VCT at arbitrary times they willnot be detected by the receiver untilit is tuned to that particular transportstream. For this reason, it is highlyrecommended that broadcasters addchannels in advance (with theprogram_number set to 0) to give re-ceivers the opportunity to scan thefrequencies and detect the channelpresence. This is one reason for pro-gramming three days of EITs fortransmission. The system design as-sumes the receivers scan all RF chan-nels at least once just after being

turned off. For sets that are neverturned off or that experience ex-tended power outages, filling threedays worth of EITs once a day shouldreduce the risk of not having infor-mation at the time of tuning.

Moving forwardTo underscore the PSIP implemen-

tation challenge facing broadcasters,WHD-TV - the model stationproject sponsored jointly by CEA,NAB and MSTV - has released a re-port on current PSIP implementationissues. The report, dated Nov. 14, 2001,can be obtained from the MSTV Website at www.mstv.org. BE

Jerry Whitaker is technical director of theAdvanced Television Systems Committee,Washington, DC. The author wishes toacknowledge the work of the ATSCSpecialist Group on Data Multiplex/Transport, which developed the draftRecommended Practice upon which thisarticle is based.

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AIn xBroadcast Engineering is not responsiblefor errors in the Advertisers Index. ffic

Page AdvertiserHotline

WebsiteAddress

WESTDuane Hefner5236 Colodny Ave., Suite 108

AJA Video 85 530-274-2048 aja.com Agoura Hills, CA 91 3 01(8 1 8) 7 07-647 6; Fax: (8 1 8) 7 07-2 3 1 3

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Banbury, Oxon 0X16 8YJ U.K.Henry Engineering. 87 800-4HARRIS henryeng.com +44 (0) 1295 27 840 7IDX Technologies 64 310-891-28-- idxtek.com Fax: +44 (0) 1295 2 7 8408

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The Valuethat is Left BehindBY PAUL MCGOLDRICK

The importance of employeestock option programs inthe world of electronics has

never been questioned by those com-panies that want to attract and retainthe best talent available in the field.The fact that such options have be-come almost ubiquitous for startingenterprises is a measure of both thesuccess of such programs and their ef-fectiveness as a control on the initialcosts of getting a new business on itsfeet. Options are still not as widelyadopted, or as generous, on the east-ern seaboard of the United States, andI have been continually surprised bythe near -naivete of many supposedleaders from that coast.

Not, of course, that options are al-ways a real benefit. For example, weall probably know some people whoexercised options in the year 2000(when, if you remember, the marketswere soaring), only to end up payingtaxes on money they no longer had atthe year's end: Tax traps abound in thisarea. And many people can look at theoptions they are holding today and seethat the values are totally "upsidedown," making them similar to theposition you will find yourself in if youtry to get out of a 36 -month car leaseafter only six months. Some compa-nies have been recognizing that situa-tion and, even with recruiting becom-ing a good deal easier, they have beenre-evaluating their option programsfor both new and existing staff to re-tain the best in their industries. Theyhave also been revising stock purchaseplans to take into account the long-term values that might have to be ex-hibited in today's economy.

Given the whole purpose of stock op-tions (the chance for key, or sometimesall, employees to share in the wealth thatthey are helping to develop), it would

seem to be rather pointless to deliber-ately shaft those employees at a laterstage. But that seems to be happeningmore and more frequently as compa-nies get close to the endgame strat-egy that has been devised, leaving thereputation of some of the executivesinvolved in the garbage can while

as Enron, which got itself into the de-livery of broadband data instead ofsticking to its core energy business, tosee corporate decisions - and delu-sions - that left its many employeesout of work The decisions tore aparttheir lives by reducing their 401(k) plansto junk status and made their company -

Some companies have been revising stock pur-

chase plans to take into account the long-termvalues exhibited in today's economy.

they recycle themselves into theirnext "opportunities."

A lot of this employee shafting hap-pens using corporate restructuring,changing the type of company in a le-gal sense, and like methods. Often ithappens with many employees beingtotally unaware that anything at all hastaken place. The victims - and thatis the only possible descriptor - areoften unaware until after the companygoes to IPO or the whole enterprise issold or merged, and then there is nocheck in the mail.

In one classic case, an operation inthe East Bay of San Francisco was re-structured before its sale in a way thatdenied the engineers a penny of itssuccess. The principal stockholder wasalready extremely wealthy so the fewextra millions he gained hardly madea difference to his fortune; but it madeone heck of a difference to his reputa-tion. In California, at least, some re-structuring has to be approved by astate commissioner, but his power isminiscule when it comes to the pro-tection of employees. Even when hear-ings prove that the executives involvedare totally illogical, the commissionerhas the power to embarrass, but notmuch more.

We can look too at a company such

assisted stock purchases give them re-turns that you wouldn't even toleratefrom a casino slot machine. Nevermind the fact that those who master-minded the demise of such a giant ofa company walked away with fortunesin their pockets.

Yes, 2001 sure showed a lot of em-ployees that loyalty is expected by theemployer, but that the employeeshould not expect much return forthat loyalty, certainly not when itcomes to the remuneration that thesenior executives or corporate inves-tors want to walk away with.

When you are looking for your nextopportunity, make it a point to checkout the management's history in theseareas. Were any of them at startupsthat moved forward in another guise?Were there any at operations that didmore than one round of mergers? Ipersonally could have one wall in myhouse papered with options that areas worthless as many of the stock cer-tificates that have been issued over theyears for fictitious gold mines, whichI guess is exactly the same thing. BE

Paul McGoldrick is an industry consultantbased on the West Coast.


[email protected]


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