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By: Richard Del Cazzo
Web site: http://www.hdtv-hdtv.com
SAMSUNG Electronics has completed development
of a unique receiver dedicated to terrestrial digital multimedia
broadcasting (DMB), a service integrating broadcasting and
communications. The new product is the first to commercialize
both H.264 digital video and MPEG-4 BSAC digital audio coding
technologies, offering further testimony to SAMSUNG’s
digital technology leadership.
The Korean government has designated DMB as one of the ten
most important next-generation growth drivers. In addition
to government-sponsored research, many domestic DMB-related
companies are working hard on hardware and software solution
development.
Samsung receiver is compatible with the domestic terrestrial
digital multimedia broadcasting transmission and reception
standards instituted at the Next-generation Broadcasting Forum.
It encompasses core technologies for next-generation multimedia
such as H.264. The successful development project boosts SAMSUNG’s
international standardization activities and technology development
effort and offers the possibility of obtaining core intellectual
property rights.
The DMB standards use the terrestrial H.264 and MPEG-4 BSAC
standards decided upon at the Next-generation Broadcasting
Forum held last May. Various multimedia broadcasting services
are offered, and the system supports data broadcasting that
enables interactive dialogue via MPEG-4 BIFS.
During the work on deciding a DMB standard, the experts said
service would be delayed at least until the end of 2004 due
to a lack of commercial H.264 and BSAC solutions, which are
key technology considerations. They now say, however that,
SAMSUNG Electronics’ newly commercialized receiver and
core technology development open the door for Korea to become
the world’s first to offer commercialized terrestrial
DMB service.
A spokesperson at the SAMSUNG Electronics Digital Media R&D
Center says a portable DMB receiver and multifunctional products
that include a DMB receiver are also under development.
Reference Material
Digital Multimedia Broadcasting
The Korea Broadcasting Commission and Ministry of Information
& Communication applied the name “Digital Multimedia
Broadcasting” (“DMB”) to the new service
development model encompassing video services standardized
to launch the new “domestic microwave digital radio
broadcasting” service. This Korean version of the European
Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) adds new functions to DAB
such as video protection algorithm, audio protection algorithm,
multi-channel and external protection.
H.264 (ITU-T Rec. H.264 / ISO/IEC 14496-10 AVC: Advanced
Video Coding for Generic Audiovisual Services)
This new video compression standard was established by ITU-T
and MPEG in 2003 and has been selected as the basic video
codec for the Korean DMB. Since MPEG-2 (H.262), all new video
codec technology has been chosen as a standard shared by both
ITU and MPEG. It is called H.264 by the ITU and MPEG-4 Part
10 by MPEG. No commercial solution exists to date, but the
new technology boasts a far better compression ratio than
the current standard video compression codec.
BSAC (Bit Sliced Arithmetic Coding): ISO/IEC 14496-3
This is one of the MPEG-4 Part 3 audio coding technologies.
Scalable transmission in bit units is possible when sending
data over wireless and wireline networks using the basic MPEG-4
Advanced Audio Coding algorithm.
BIFS (Binary Format for Scene): ISO/TEC 14496-1
Part of the MPEG-4 system, this technology compresses graphics,
data for scene layout and data for audio/video interactivity
in a binary format for broadcasting. Thus, graphics, and interactive
data can be broadcast along with audio and video data.
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