6:30-7:30 PM refreshments, social hour, and equipment demonstrations;
7:30-9:30 PM program, followed by more demos and KPIX DTV tour
Bill Zou of General Instrument will explain the heart of the (H)DTVprocess, the ATSC-compliant encode/decode systems. We'll look at the digitalvideo and audio streams as they leave the network or other source, maketheir way through the local affiliate's plant and transmitter, and getto the home DTV decoder.
For the first time in history, audio and video signals reaching consumerTV sets will theoretically suffer no degradation after leaving the originatingstudio. Some of the DSP silicon in home sets is even the same as that usedin studio gear. Bill will show us different DTV encoding solutions andarchitectures, and will discuss performance and interface challenges.
Roy Trumbull will regale us with tales of both the dark and light sidesof how KRON is getting their digital signal into Bay Area living rooms.Will Washington from our host, KPIX, will share some of their experiences,both similar and different to KRON's, including monitoring the AC-3 digitalaudio path.
No two call letters in the Bay Area are approaching DTV engineeringexactly the same way. For example, KRON uses the General Instrument encodersystem; KPIX uses Mitsubishi gear; other call letters use different vendors.
Our two-hour time slot limits the formal participation of engineersfrom all of the Bay Area TV stations. However, people from several othercall letters, equipment companies, and even consumer-HDTV set owners (ifwe can find them!) will be invited to informally participate in the Question& Answer portion of the meeting. We're also planning a follow-on (H)DTVevent later this year for a progress report by some of the other stationsand equipment manufacturers.
The event will include a General Instrument encoder demo, a productline that provides a multi-stage, flexible approach to migrate from NTSCto standard- definition digital to high-definition. You'll also see someof the latest Panasonic (H)DTV VTRs and monitors, and we'll get a tourof KPIX's digital broadcast installation.
As KPIX and other Bay Area broadcasters celebrate their 50th anniversariesin television, we're reminded how significant for the next half centurythis year may turn out to be. The FCC's DTV implementation timetable isbearing down on all of us. Be an eyewitness to television history in themaking!
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