Fiber Optics and Video: A Background

The television industry has been slower to use fiber optics as a replacement for wire-based transmission systems than have the telephone companies. By 1984, fiber optics was into its third generation in the telecommunications markets. Its declining cost, coupled with its lower weight, smaller size, noise immunity, and longer repeaterless transmission, have allowed fiber optics to compete against traditional copper-wire and microwave transmission methods on a cost/performance basis. The continuing improvements of optical transmission components, along with developments in digital video signal processing, present an opportunity for the television industry to reexamine the use of fiber optics. To provide new users and designers with a background and a basis for comparison, this article reviews the status of some of the individual optical components used with fiber-optic transmission systems.

Print ISSN

0036-1682

Published

1988-07

Content type

Original Research

DOI

10.5594/J02921