Technical Development Toward Implementation of Ultra High-Definition TV System

摘要

An extremely high-resolution image system called the Ultra High Definition TV (UHDTV) system, with more than 4000 scanning lines is being developed by the Japan Broadcasting Corp. (NHK). This system provides audio and video with an acute sense of reality so that viewers feel as if they are actually at the site of the filming. UHDTV cameras, projectors, disk recorders, and three-dimensional sound systems have already been developed. UHDTV programs were demonstrated at the 2005 World Exposition, Aichi, Japan, and the system worked successfully there during the six-month run. This paper presents two aspects of the newly developed UHDTV transmission systems: an optical transmission system with dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) technology for contribution, and a codec system based on MPEG-2 for program distribution. A live transmission of uncompressed material with a 260-km single-mode fiber was also performed. For program distribution, some experiments were conducted at bit rates of 200 to 640 Mbits/sec via experimental satellite transponders or IP networks. These transmission experiments demonstrate the feasibility of using UHDTV in future broadcasting.