Digital Video Broadcast: Systems and Implementations

Abstract

Terrestrial broadcasting has brought entertainment and media information to mass audiences around the world for nearly a century. In the last two decades, the demand for consumption of multimedia services anywhere anytime has increased greatly. Because the spectrum resource is limited, a new spectrum efficient broadcasting technology is required to meet this demand. Digital broadcast technologies, such as the European Digital Video Broadcast – Terrestrial (DVB-T), moved terrestrial broadcast into the digital age. While analog broadcast can only deliver one programme per channel, digital broadcast namely DVB-T allows multiprogramme broadcasting where 2 to 4 standard definition TV (SDTV) programmes can be transmitted with time division multiplexing in a single 8 MHz channel. The bandwidth of DVB-T (from 12 to 24 Mbit/s) can be allocated to offer different TV qualities, such as enhanced definition television (EDTV, requiring about 10 to 12 Mbit/s per programme) or high definition TV (HDTV, requiring about 24 Mbit/s per programme) [1, 2]. In a nutshell, DVB-T has brought a higher quality service to TV program and it helps by reducing the use of spectrum, thus allowing other promising wireless technologies to diversify its applications. This leads to the development of emergence standard, Digital Video Broadcast – Handheld (DVB-H), that takes DVB-T a step further by making mobile reception of digital broadcasting possible with small, handheld devices [3]. The governments of different European countries have made their plans for analog to digital TV switchover and fully deploying DVB-T/H services. United Kingdom, in early 2007, switched off analog TV in one Welsh community as an