HDTV and the Transition to Digital Broadcasting bridges the gap between non-technical personnel (management and creative) and technical by giving you a working knowledge of digital television technology, a clear understanding of the challenges of HDTV and digital broadcasting, and a scope of the ramifications of HDTV in the consumer space. Topics include methodologies and issues in HD production and distribution, as well as HDTV's impact on the future of the media business. This book contains sidebars and system diagrams that illustrate examples of broadcaster implementation of HD and HD equipment. Additionally, future trends including the integration of broadcast engineering and IT, control and descriptive metadata, DTV interactivity and personalization are explored.
Plain-talking intro to television's newest technology. Digital Television Fundamentals, Second Edition, by Michael Robin and Michel Poulin, is the ideal guide for everyone who deals with digital video production or equipment design - or who just wants to know how this new phenomenon works. Fully detailed and heavily illustrated, this easy-reading reference covers it all--from video and audio fundamentals...to bit-serial distribution and ancillary data multiplexing...to digital signal compression and distribution methods of coding and decoding. In this edition you'll find: multimedia television treatment covering technologies, hardware, systems, workstations, A/V signal processing, disk storage, servers, cameras, VCRs, CD-ROM, DVI--plus interconnections, multimedia software, systems, and applications and standardization activities; late-breaking information on the DTV standard and how it affects broadcasting equipment and operations; a focus on the importance of relevant SMPTE and CCIR-ITU standards; details on digital/analog equipment compatibility issues; much more!
In the last ten years, television has reinvented itself in numerous ways. The demise of the U.S. three-network system, the rise of multi-channel cable and global satellite delivery, changes in regulation policies and ownership rules, technological innovations in screen design, and the development of digital systems like TiVo have combined to transform the practice we call watching tv. If tv refers to the technologies, program forms, government policies, and practices of looking associated with the medium in its classic public service and three-network age, it appears that we are now entering a new phase of television. Exploring these changes, the essays in this collection consider the future of television in the United States and Europe and the scholarship and activism focused on it. With historical, critical, and speculative essays by some of the leading television and media scholars, Television after TV examines both commercial and public service traditions and evaluates their dual (and some say merging) fates in our global, digital culture of convergence. The essays explore a broad range of topics, including contemporary programming and advertising strategies, the use of television and the Internet among diasporic and minority populations, the innovations of new technologies like TiVo, the rise of program forms from reality tv to lifestyle programs, television’s changing role in public places and at home, the Internet’s use as a means of social activism, and television’s role in education and the arts. In dialogue with previous media theorists and historians, the contributors collectively rethink the goals of media scholarship, pointing toward new ways of accounting for television’s past, present, and future. Contributors. William Boddy, Charlotte Brunsdon, John T. Caldwell, Michael Curtin, Julie D’Acci, Anna Everett, Jostein Gripsrud, John Hartley, Anna McCarthy, David Morley, Jan Olsson, Priscilla Peña Ovalle, Lisa Parks, Jeffrey Sconce, Lynn Spigel, William Uricchio
This book examines the economic, political, and technological forces that are shaping the future of broadcasting in advanced industrialized nations by comparing the transition from analog to digital TV in the US and Britain. Digital TV involves a major reordering of the broadcast sector that requires governments to rethink governance tools for the digital media era. By looking at how the transition is unfolding in these nations, the book uncovers the political underpinnings of the emerging governance regime for digital communications and explores the implications of the transition for the development of the Information Society in the US and Europe. The findings challenge much conventional wisdom about media deregulation and the globalization of communications. The transition to digital TV has not weakened but rather reinforced government control over broadcasting. Moreover, contrary to what many globalization theories would predict, it has reinforced preexisting differences in the organization of media across nations.
The first comprehensive, single source reference on what engineers and managers need to know to migrate successfully from analog to digital TV systems. Well-known industry consultant Gerald Collins describes all major digital TV transmission standards and provides practical guidance on the implementation, operation, and performance of the major transmission systems in current use worldwide.
Focusing on the growing power of transnational media corporations in an increasingly globalized environment for distribution of television content, and on the effects of mergers and acquisitions involving local and independent television production companies, this book examines how current and recent re-structurings in ownership across the television industry reflect changing business models, how they affect creativity and diversity of television output, and to what extent they call for new approaches to regulation and policy. Based on a major study of the UK production sector as a case study, it offers a unique analysis of wider transformations in ownership affecting the television production industry worldwide and of their economic, socio-cultural and policy implications.
