Annual Report

1997 Annual Report

Technical Quality, Service Planning and Research

Technical Quality and Reliability

Technical Performance Codes issued by the ITC require Channel 3, 4 and 5 licensees as well as digital terrestrial television operators to deliver high standards of technical quality and reliability. A Handbook of Technical Standards for Television Programme Production supplements these Codes by giving practical advice about how high standards can be achieved and maintained in production.

An important issue in 1997 concerned the use of flashing images in television commercials or promotions which carries the risk of causing disturbance to viewers with epilepsy. A small number of television commercials and one television promotion had to be removed at the ITC's intervention since they clearly breached the ITC's guidelines on this subject. In order to facilitate the checking of material against the ITC's guidelines, ITC Engineering staff prepared a comprehensive technical manual explaining how to identify sequences which might breach the guidelines. It is hoped that this will lead to fewer difficulties in this area in the future. The importance of guidelines of this nature became apparent when a series of flashing images shown on Japanese television resulted in nearly 700 children being admitted to hospital with seizures or nausea. If ITC guidelines had been in force, this distressing incident would have been avoided. Our guidelines have been in great demand from Japanese policy makers and broadcasters anxious to avoid a repetition.

SERVICE PLANNING

The coverage of the four analogue terrestrial television services was again extended during 1997 by the provision of a further five new relay transmitters. These were planned under the direction of the ITC and BBC, with the practical share of the work for the independent sector being carried out NTL, the transmission operator. The national programme of analogue UHF relay provision has now ended, although the programme of smaller self-funded relays called Self-Help systems continues.

The coverage of Channel 5 was also extended during the year to approach 80 per cent of the UK population, by the planning of 10 further transmission sites in addition to the 33 available at launch. A small number of further potential sites were identified which are now under discussion with Channel 5.

Engineering Research

The ITC has considerable experience and expertise in engineering research. The ITC's engineering research programme is, as required by legislation, carried out through external contracts. During 1997 there were 10 projects performed in association with a wide range of contractors, as shown in the table (on page 48). These projects are co-ordinated by ITC Project Managers, with television research activities, throughout Europe to ensure that they remain targeted on technology of relevance to the UK broadcasting industry and that they will contribute usefully to future international standards. Examples of the ITC's projects were publicly demonstrated at the International Television Symposium in Montreux in June and at the Royal Television Society Convention in Cambridge in September and at a DVB conference in London in November.

The first three entries in the table are all European collaborative projects under the EC ACTS (Advanced Communications Technology and Services) programme involving consortia which are lead by the ITC. MIRAGE is exploring technologies and working practices in emerging television media such as virtual studios, virtual production methods, stereoscopic television, computer-generated characters, and immersive programmes made entirely in computer-created worlds. TAPESTRIES is investigating the influence of new media technologies on viewers, with the intention of optimising their design. The new media of interest include immersive (head-mounted stereoscopic) displays, multimedia services, high definition television, and the perception of virtual studios in conventional television programmes. INTERACT is examining the technical possibilities for the establishment of return channel signalling from homes served by digital satellite, terrestrial and cable, back to the service provider. The ITC contractor ERA Technology is constructing experimental hardware for the exploration of the return channel possibilities in digital terrestrial television.

Interactive TV Assessment

This project grew out of the now completed Interactive TV trial operated in Cambridge by Acorn Online Media using the Age and Cognitive Performance Research Centre of the University of Manchester. It is identifying and understanding difficulties for the elderly in using interactive services.

Spectre III

The SPECTRE project is believed to be the world's longest running and most diverse study of digital terrestrial television. Now in its third and final phase, it is carrying out a series of field trials in the London area on the internationally agreed digital terrestrial television specification (DVT-T). The work is being carried out for the ITC by NTL using equipment from Digi-Media Vision.

Comµte

The Community Microwave Television Experiment (Comµte) is examining the practicalities of extending cable television delivery to rural communities using experimental digital microwave transmissions. The project will also explore the possibility of using MVDS (microwave video distribution system) to extend coverage for digital terrestrial television.

Electronic Programme Guides (EPGs)

Working with a team at ERA Technology, the ITC has been seeking to develop novel digital picture compression techniques to address some of the issues associated with electronic programme guides. EPGs will be of vital significance with the increased number of channels offered by digital television.

TV-MIX

This project is now complete, having provided an HDTV version of MPEG-2 coder/decoder equipment for use in a range of experimental digital transmission trials.

Animated Signing

This is a major initiative started in December 1996 which has only just become technically feasible at affordable costs. The objective of the work is to create a synthetic character on a computer screen, which can automatically sign from received teletext subtitles. If required, the computer animation could then be inserted into a normal television picture using the commonly available 'picture-in-picture' facility. The ITC has brought together two organisations to perform this ambitious work: TeleVirtual has experience in computer animations and the University of East Anglia has the required expertise in linguistic processing and lip reading technology.

The PIT (Platform for Immersive Television)

This new project began in July and is aiming to produce an isolating environment in which a person sits in an enclosure that has a wide-angle display, a surround-sound audio system, and a sub-sonic loudspeaker system. This is necessary for performing experiments that study the impact of potential future immersive television systems. Typical broadcast immersive applications might vary from the most trivial of a roller coaster ride, through drama performances, to immersive educational television.

Channel 5 Retuning and Digital Television

ITC Engineering staff were heavily involved during 1997 in the monitoring and enforcement of the Channel 5 licence conditions on the retuning issue. Particular emphasis was placed on the reliability of the statistical evidence which the licensee needed to provide to show that at least 90 per cent of the retuning task had been completed in key areas before the service was able to start broadcasting. This figure was reached some two weeks before the start of the Channel 5 services in the areas affected at launch, and acted as the trigger for the commencement of the service in other areas that were added during the year.

The ITC continued to monitor Channel 5 performance in responding to complaints about the statutory interference.

Given the scale of the task, we believe that the licensee performed creditably; only a tiny proportion of retuning visits gave rise to complaints. We were able to help some complainants achieve a satisfactory resolution of their concerns with Channel 5 and we fully supported the Channel's arrangements for an independent ombudsman, in the case of a dispute.

Frequency planning for future digital terrestrial television services continued via a contract with NTL, as part of a joint project with the BBC. The 81 site transmission plan prepared during 1996 was refined, with substantial support being given to the Radiocommunications Agency for the process of international frequency co-ordination. Further practical fieldwork resulted in more accurate predictions of the likely impact of digital transmissions on existing analogue television reception.

The ITC's assessment of the applications received for multiplex service licences raised issues in the area of open standards for digital television sets and inter-operability between digital terrestrial and digital satellite set-top boxes. The ITC's strong support for open standards is expressed in licence conditions that apply to the providers of digital services.

ITC ENGINEERING PROJECTS IN 1997

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