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Test Your Knowledge of Broadcast Technologies

Remember RoomGuard? Mediaroom? Have fun. Match the broadcast technology to its description.

Test Your Knowledge of Broadcast Technologies

Remember RoomGuard? Mediaroom? Have fun. Match the broadcast technology to its description.

Match the Broadcast Technology to its Description

1. RadioGuard

2. Mediaroom

3. A-VSB, MPH, ATSC-M/H

4. Television

5. H.264, MPEG-4 part 10, MPEG-4 AVC

A. The current standard for transmitting digital television, developed by the Advanced Television Systems Committee, doesn’t work well if the DTV receiver is moving at vehicular speeds. So various groups have floated new standards and technologies to enable mobile DTV. One is from Samsung, another from LG and Harris Corp., and yet a third is working its way through the ATSC itself.

B. Considered a “conditional access solution” for HD radio, it could allow radio operators to offer opt-in or paid programming in the future. iBiquity Digital, the developer of HD Radio technology, has chosen the technology for conditional access, and the Federal Com Communications mmunications Com Commission is considering it. Given the green light light,, new HD radios (which have nothing to do with high definition) would come eq equipped with an embedded decoder chip that broadcasters could address with encrypted content. Radios could be individually targeted, opening up whole new markets for adve advertising, programming, etc.

C. Not to be confused with Microsoft Media Center, this little-know known, behind-the-curtain software platform is licensed to service prov providers worldwide for offering Internet Protocol television services. So far, only AT&T and nTelos use the platform in the United States, according Microsoft. But overseas adoption has been more rapid. The software supports digital video recording, HDTV, video on demand, and multiple picture-in-picture windows.

D. In a joint effort, the ITU-T Video Coding Experts Group and the ISO/IEC Moving Picture Experts Group developed a new standard for video compression in order to deliver high-quality video at a considerably lower data rates than even today’s most commonly used video codecs. Called by various names depending on the groups’ naming conventions, the standard has been adapted in various video technologies, from Apple QuickTime and Adobe Flash platforms to end-to-end videoconferencing solutions. It’s been approved in Europe for use in high-definition TV broadcasting. In the U.S. it’s under consideration by the ATSC. (For more, see “It’s a Visual World,” page 52.)

E. We’ll tell you what it isn’t. It isn’t the best way for Americans to get their news, according to Americans themselves. In a February poll conducted by We Media/Zogby Interactive, just 29 percent of respondents called it their top source for news. Nearly half the respondents (48 percent) said the Internet was their top source.

Answers: 1, B; 2, C; 3, A; 4, E; 5, D.

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