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| Title | Conversion to Digital Broadcasting | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Date | 2009-03-29 | Read | 48128 |
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Digital broadcasting refers to broadcasting services that transmit image and sound signals that were emitted in an analog form in a digital form. By eliminating insignificant information and noise from analog broadcasting waves and compressing and transmitting them, digital broadcasting supports high-definition programs and additional channels, using the same frequency band as analog broadcasting. Moreover, digitalization of contents facilitates storage, copy, and transfer of broadcast programs. In addition, a wide variety of broadcasting and communications convergence services as well as two-way services such as data broadcasting and EPG (Electronic Program Guide) are enabled. Beginning in 1998, Korea reviewed the conversion to digital broadcasting, and in 2001, terrestrial broadcasting stations such as KBS, MBC, SBS, and EBS commenced providing digital TV broadcasting. Currently, terrestrial TV broadcasting stations provide both analog and digital broadcasting, and the Korean government is devising the conversion of terrestrial TV to digital broadcasting through a special law regarding digital conversion. Digital terrestrial broadcasting is largely divided into the American ATSC mode, the European DVB-T mode, and the Japanese ISDB-T mode. The ATSC mode, developed by the United States' ATSC in 1982, is known to be more suitable for HDTV. On the other hand,the DVB-T mode was developed by the DVB Group, established in 1993, according to pan-European standards. It utilizes a COFDM (Coded Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing) transmission method, and is shown to be advantageous in mobility. Japan has devised the ISDB-T mode, its own standards, by modifying and correcting the European standard mode. Of the above 3 modes, Korea has adopted the American ATSC mode and is now the nation with the most digital-TV-related patents in the world, owning approximately 33% of all digital-TV-related patents. In addition, the following is a comparative analysis of the advantages and disadvantages of the technologies of ASTC and DVB-T. Korea commenced digital terrestrial TV broadcasting in 2001, and is scheduled to complete its digital conversion with the termination of current analog TV broadcasting in 2012. In other words, the actions of the Korean government mean that analog terrestrial TV viewing will unavailable after December 31, 2012. Such designation of an analog broadcasting termination date is because digital conversion of terrestrial TV broadcasting is being pursued by the Korean government to increase the use of wireless frequency, which is public property unlike cable broadcasting, The main details of the development of digital conversion of each type of broadcasting (terrestrial TV, cable TV, satellite TV, terrestrial radio) are as follows. Commencement of digital broadcasting by broadcasting stations in Seoul (KBS, MBC, SBS) at the end of 2001 Digital broadcasting conversion in metropolitan cities outside of Seoul (July 2004) Digital broadcasting emission to provincial locations (June 2005) Digital broadcasting conversion in counties (June 2006) Analog terrestrial TV termination reviewed (scheduled for end of December 2012) CJ Hellovision commences digital cable TV in Yangcheon-gu, Seoul (February 2005) Subscrption by 1 million households to digital cable TV reached (February 2008) Provision of digital satellite broadcasting services commenced (March 2002) DVB-MHP-based two-way data broadcasting commenced for the first time in the world (May 2003) HD-exclusive channels operated, satellite HDTV broadcasting commenced (September 2003) Digital conversion of radio is scheduled to be pursued by utilizing the frequency remaining after the digital conversion of terrestrial TV Conversion to digital broadcasting provides the following benefits to customers. Because digital TV uses error-correction techniques and noise-reduction functions that can reduce the thermalization and distortion that can arise during the transmission of images, it is able to provide picture quality that is far superior to analog broadcasting. Digital broadcasting displays vivid grains in images that could not be seen in analog broadcasting, and screen distortion and overlapping are no longer an issue. The poor sound quality of analog broadcasting has also been brought to attention in the past. In contrast, digital HD broadcasting supports multi-channel, high-quality sounds that previously could only be experience in movie theaters. In addition, customers can use a home theater system to experience 3-dimensional sounds even for general TV programs as well as DVDs. With the advancement of technologies, the importance of an efficient utilization of restricted broadcasting frequency bands is being recognized with respect to resource maintenance and utilization. A digital broadcasting system has the advantage of being able to broadcast 1 to 2 HDTV channels and 3 to 4 SDTV channels within the frequency band width of 6MHz allotted for an analog broadcasting system, and provide a wide range of value-added information services. If TV viewing has always been a passive endeavor until now, the digitalization of broadcasting will overcome such issue and support the viewers in choosing the service they want in channels and engage in two-way interaction. In other words, with the commencement of the era of digital broadcasting, users have not only become able to access various Internet services on a TV, but also become able to access a wide range of multimedia services such as TV banking, shopping, and games. |
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