Serge Rutman
Director Display & DTV R&D
Home Products Group, Intel
FEATURES
The DTV opportunity
(ARTICULATED 3.5 YEARS AGO)
A discontinuity created by the
imminent analogue to digital transition in the TV market offers
a chance to open a vast new market to Intel microprocessors.
- interactive content
- 500x data delivery
- broadcast SW dist.
reprogrammable
general purpose
intelligence in
(PC) receivers
ATSC standard
digital
transmission,
imbedded MIPS
High Def.
(READABLE!)
analogue colour
transmission s
scheme
Colour
stereo audio
Black & White
video over the air
1940
1950
1960
1970
1980
?
1990
Ongoing efforts:
- Intercast (data over NTSC VBI)
- DVB broadcast
- hybrid app technology
- SW MPEG
2000
2010
 Introduce new (PC) differentiators to the TV market:
- intelligence level (MIPS)
- personalization (learn the user’s habits)
- I/O devices (physical & virtual)
- local filtering (only present what the user wants)
- quantity of digital storage
- object detail capability (3D etc.)
DTV research Program mission:
(2 year old foil)
As DIGITAL TV market develops
the DTV paradigm is redefined from
a passive audio+video delivery mechanism
to a new medium for
non-linear, interactive programming
“experienced BEST” on
Intel inside(TM), DTV receiver-equipped PC
DTV Technical Background
(US, ATSC, terrestrial)
– Geographic coverage same as NTSC
– Video/audio quality substantially improved via use of
DIGITAL Codecs: MPEG2 video, AC3 audio
– Digital, packetized broadcast transmission allows
delivery of ANY kind of bits @ 19Mb/sec
– Several image formats aspect ratios & refresh rates
– Initially broadcasters get an additional 6Mhz channel for
simulcast (concurrent analogue and digital service
– later the analogue service ends, freeing up RF spectrum
What’s changing

Analogue -> Digital
– fidelity improved
– efficiency improved (more channels in same spectrum)
– bits are bits - more choices in content

Receiver Capabilities RAPIDLY increasing
– intelligence - once you have enough computer to decoded
MPEG2 & AC3 you have a decent computer. Not much more
cost to make it reprogrammable
– rendering (eg. 3D)
– storage (use disk as a content “cache”).
– interesting I/O (eg. joystick, camera, stereo displays...)
– multiple concurrent sources of content (eg. TV & Net & DVD)

New media (Internet) encroaching on broadcasting
What’s staying the same





Fundamental strength of the broadcast medium remains
efficient concurrent delivery from “1 to millions”
Mostly a “Couch Potato Medium” - passive, viewed by
several people in living room, has to be easy to use &
bulletproof.
Not much NEW money in the broadcast industry to pay for
aggressive deployment new equipment (head end and
receiver)
Today’s business models are advertising based
Many competing service providers NOT interested in
making access to competitors service easy
More choices at the SMART receiver then size of
display & volume.
Multiple, mixed sources of for data: HYBRID
applications.
today
A
B
C
A
EDIT:
select
1of N
tomorrow
B
C
X1
EDIT:
combine
N
NTSC
decode
B
R
O
A
D
C
A
S
T
A
A
A
CPU
AC+X1+X2
(reprog)
B
X2
Y2
Y 1+Y2
Y1
?
WEB
local storage
hybrid
apps
Some metrics

degree of Video On Demand-ness
– receiver autonomously caches most likely to be requested
content
– carouselling





ability to channel surf fast a.k.a. stream acquisition latency
cool picture/bit
level of Viewer choice
ease of navigation - next generation EPGs
degree of choice at head-end vs. receiver (provider vs. user
interests)
How to validate the vision - Santa
Clara DTV Capability (circa ‘97-98)
FCC
DTV
license
antenna
DTV add-in
RNB
upconvert
Video
Audio
Data
MUX
8VSB mod.
PC server
various
display
PC
Win’95 drivers
AFD MPEG SW
AC3 audio
various data viewers
Center for Datacasting Innovation configuration on
10/25/99
3rd Party
Content
Real Time
Satellite Link
Non-Real Time
FTP, Tape, HD,CD-ROM...
DVS HD
Storage
Panasonic D5
Tape Deck
Philips HD
Camera
Auditorium
where you are now
Sencore
Data file
Server
Intel SW
Tools
Token
MUX
Dolby
AC3
Encoder
C.D.I. SC12 lab
Philips
SD video
Encoder
Intel SC12 Facility
KICU DTV
Transmitter
Data file
Server
Server
Tiernan
1stHD
floor
demo
Philipsarea
video
Encoder
KICU
Transmission
Facility
Micro Wave link
Intel SW Tools
& MUX
SkyStream
DBN-25
Fiber link
Video & audio
Equipment can be
located here, as
appropriate
KICU
8 VSB RF linkCh 36 - Analog
MUX
Ch 52- DTV
Video
C.D.I. KICU lab
Intel
Experimental
DTV
Transmitter
Intel RNB Facility
Audio
KICU Studio Facility
KICU DTV coverage
A hard constraint - Author Once for
Multiple Transports and Platforms
Many of These
Goal:
Do This Once
Content
Creation
Transmission
Facility
Transport
Client
Hardware/
Software
Client
Framework
Some details on Data
Broadcasting






The DTV pipe was designed for the “old TV app”, so…
The DTV standard contained sufficient detail for delivering
digital, compressed Video + Audio…
and a note was made that “other ancillary data” was
feasible
Not a great state of affairs for a “computer guy” with all
sorts of ideas for alternative uses for the medium
For that reason the S13 ATSC technology group was
formed
And the standard will have a robust way to deliver ALL
kinds of data to ALL kinds of receivers
what does DTV “data pipe” look like?

19Mb/sec raw, per channel. MANY channels.
 multiple image encoding formats
 3 profiles of usage:
 guaranteed auxiliary broadcast (dedicate some BW to a stream of digital data),
analogous to current VBI use 1k-5Mbit
 opportunistic (use the “spare bits” during low motion periods, stills, subtitles etc. to
deliver data at variable bit rate). Could carry both program-related and unrelated data
 full BW (utilize a whole channel for very high-speed, bulk data delivery)
19Mb/s


BW
6:00am

12:00pm
6:00pm
12:00am
What changes when TV broadcast goes
digital?
Bits are Bits, not video bits.



Meaning and encoding of information are decoupled
The new medium enables broadcast delivery of ALL TYPES of
digital information, beyond pictures and sound
EVERY receiver contains a computer
– RAM and MIPS at least for decoding of MPEG2 & AC3
– opinions on what kind of computer vary widely :-)
– users get more choices

comparable to transition of audio distribution from LP to CD,
which created a new, interactive medium - the CD ROM
data broadcast applications
taxonomy

The range spans orders of magnitude along
the axes of Bandwidth & number of users.
 Other significant characteristics include:
– reliability of delivery (executable file with 1 bit missing is
worthless (or worse!) while a missing pixel does not
substantially impact image quality
– size and duration of the “atomic object” (pager message
vs. encyclopedia)
– latency (emergency message vs. scheduled morning
news)
– real-time vs. time-shifted use (page vs. science lesson)
some application examples:






watch-pagers (connected anywhere for critical messages)
stock tickers (personalized, valuable real-time data)
“your world news” (personalized news)
“virtual school house” (personalized, interactive education &
information access)*
SW distribution (fresh bits with out disks, shrink-wrap,
trucks, or shelf-space)
“I want to see this ad” (greatly improve targeting adds to
willing potential consumers)
* this is a personal favourite of mine - objectively good for ALL, and a great fit for the PC/ATV
combination. Anyone that wants to help build it please see me!
BW vs. number of users (approx.
log/log)
19
MB/s
“virtual
school house”
BW
“your world”
news
SW
download
stock tickers
10
Kb/s
“ad”
watch-pagers
10
USERS
10M
size of object vs. latency
(approx. log/log)
10GB
“virtual
school house”
size
SW
download
“your world”
news
stock tickers
100
bytes
watch-pagers
minute
“ad”
required max latency
week
What changed since last cs448
(Fall ‘98)








Close to 100 station on air with digital services
100-200k DTV receivers deployed
PC DTV receiver add-ins available from multiple vendors
offered at $200-300 from multiple vendors
ATVEF developed as a voluntary authoring spec for webenhanced DTV content
ATSC’s data broadcasting standard in ratification
Industry acknowledges that NEW $$ likely to come from
data broadcasting & enhanced content
combination of new & old biz models - AOL merges with
Time Warner
data broadcasting and interactive TV startups sprouting
like mushrooms