The Digital Video Broadcasting Project (DVB) is an industry-led consortium of over 250 broadcasters, manufacturers, network operators, software developers, regulatory bodies and others committed to designing global standards for the delivery of digital television and data services. DVB standards cover all aspects of digital television from transmission through interfacing, conditional access and interactivity for digital video, audio and data.

The DVB Project background

The consortium came together in 1993 to create unity in the move towards global standardization, interoperability and future proofing. DVB dominates the digital broadcasting environment with thousands of broadcast services around the world using DVB's open standards. There are hundreds of manufacturers offering DVB compliant equipment. To date there are over half a billion DVB receivers deployed worldwide. DVB standards are also widely used for other non-broadcasting applications such as data on the move and high-bandwidth Internet over the air.

World's first live transmission for DVB second-generation cable standard

The DVB Project announced a major milestone with the success of the first live transmission employing DVB-C2, the new second-generation baseline transmission system for digital television via cable networks. The significance of the live transmission demonstrates that DVB-C2 is now ready for implementation and will provide real opportunities for MSOs to introduce new tiers of HDTV, Video-on-Demand and interactive TV services.

DVB-C2 employs the latest modulation and coding techniques to enable highly efficient use of cable networks. It offers a range of modes and options that can be optimized for the different network characteristics and the requirements of the different services lined for delivery to cable customers. It offers greater than 30% higher spectrum efficiency under the same conditions as today's DVB-C deployments. After analogue switch-off the cable networks can be optimized for digital transmission. This will result in a capacity increase of about 60% for DVB-C2 as compared to DVB-C.

DVB shifts to top gear for 3D TV

The DVB Project is tackling 3DTV, one of the hottest subjects in the media world today. Many alternative systems have been developed for what is called ‘First Generation 3DTV'. Broadcasters in different parts of the world have announced their intention to start 3DTV broadcasting this year (2010). There are test broadcasts currently available, or soon to be available, by satellite, and among other events, certain football matches in the 2010 World Cup were shot in 3DTV.

The current plan is that the first phase of the 3DTV system (the Phase 1 system) will be agreed this year. The DVB Project has established two groups of specialists. The first is currently preparing the commercial requirements for 3DTV. The second will respond with a technology that will meet the requirements. The technical system, once agreed by all concerned, will be submitted to the ETSI and ITU.

Phase 1 will allow viewers to keep and use their existing set-top box for 3D broadcasts, though they will require a new television display. Current 3DTV displays all call for the viewer to use special glasses to obtain the stereoscopic effect, but this is a familiar requirement for those who enjoy 3D at the cinema today.

The DVB commercial experts are also discussing a Phase 2 system which may be needed to meet other requirements. There may be the need for existing receivers to have available a 2D version of the same programme as part of the 3DTV channel, or the need for viewers to be able to adjust the picture depth for maximum 'eye comfort' (older people seem to prefer less depth in the picture than younger people, etc).

The specialist groups are led by David Wood and David Daniels. Graham Mills (BT), Chair of the Commercial Module said, "DVB has been very successful in the past because its technical specifications are based upon, and are checked against, genuine commercial needs rather than engineers' wish lists. Weare following this pattern here with 3DTV".

DVB-T2 gathers momentum

Following on from the successful commercial deployment of DVB-T2 in the United Kingdom, DVB demonstrated the first live transmission in the United States of its second generation terrestrial transmission system. This first ever showing included commercially available DVB-T2 set-top boxes. Visitors could see HD broadcasts of H.264 encoded content delivered over an end-to-end DTT system using DVB-T2 technology. Building on the foundations of the successful DVB-T system, the second-generation DVB-T2 can deliver more than 50 percent increase in capacity compared with equivalent reception conditions with DVB-T. Broadcasters deploying DVB-T2 are able to roll out new multiplexes to offer multichannel HDTV services and create innovative new datacasting opportunities.

DVB-T2 coverage is anticipated to reach 60 percent by the end of this year and 90 percent in time for London's 2012 Olympics. There is already a variety of consumer DVB-T2 set-top boxes and IDTVs available in the market from Sony, Panasonic, Humax, Bush and Pace. More are imminently expected from Philips, LG and Samsung to name a few.