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Link to Operating Points document (Word format) |
Proposed revised version of the Operating Points document |
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Link to Operating Points spreadsheet (Excel format) |
Proposed revised version of the Operating Points spreadsheet |
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Link to Operating Points 'flowcharts' (Powerpoint format) |
Proposed revised version of the Operating Points diagrams |
Proposed paper for IBC 2000
Graham Vine et al., Pro-MPEG Forum
Pro-MPEG Wide-Area Network operating-points for maximising interoperability and customer satisfaction.
Wide-area networking is ever important to broadcasters for both production and distribution of programming. The Pro-MPEG Forum has established a working group on Wide Area Networking, involving telcos, manufacturers and broadcasters with the objective of providing guidance on improving product interoperability when implementing MPEG2/WAN solutions.
The MPEG-2 standard has many implementation options; manufacturers have implemented different options, leading to potential interoperability problems. The range of parameter-values which could be selected presents customers with a bewildering choice of options: video coding rate, number and compression-type for audio channels, use of Forward Error Correction, data-mappings etc.
The Pro-MPEG Forum has worked on a set of preferred values - operating points - as an aid to product interoperability, concentrating on the parameters which are most useful to the end users who, for these professional applications, are most likely to be broadcasters. The operating points are based on those factors which have been found to be critical during interoperability tests. The values selected represent the most useful ones for the future as well as building on current best practice.
Similarly, a set of operating points simplifies the parameter-selection process for the broadcaster, giving an understood route to implementing a particular service. With that service comes the benefit of agreed programme quality.
The paper describes and illustrates the work and introduces the operating points which are most likely to be of use when carrying studio-quality television over a Wide Area Network.