Television Signal Transmission: Another Technology in Transition

C. Robert Paulson

The National Television Standards Committee (NTSC), working in the early 1950s, could not anticipate the technological innovations in analog and digital signal generation, transmission, processing, and recording that are now required to produce television programs that will attract viewers. These practices unfortunately produce undesirable artifacts (NTSC footprints) in the NTSC signal as it proceeds through generations of rerecording and transmission. As a result of the proliferation of the products of these technologies, standards setting for both transmission and recording of television signals has become an alphanumeric soup. Technical committees around the world have perforce become rubber stampers of de facto standards. Users' needs for compatible, cost-justifiable products and systems for signal transmission have become lost in the chaos that has marked the transition from the transmission system capabilities of the 1970s to those of the 1990s. This article describes the transition and focuses on fiber-optic transmission technology as the possible great ameliorator of the 1990s.

Print ISSN
Published
1989-05
Content type
Original Research
DOI
10.5594/J02759