Convergence in Broadcast and Communications Media offers concise and accurate information for engineers and technicians tackling products and systems combining audio, video, data processing and communications. Without adequate fundamental knowledge of the core technologies, products could be flawed or even fail. John Watkinson has provided a definitive professional guide, designed as a standard point of reference for engineers, whether you are from an audio, video, computer or communications background.
Without assuming any background and starting from first principles, the four core technologies of image reproduction, sound reproduction, data processing and communications are described. Covering everything from digital fundamentals to conversion methods, sound and image technologies, compression techniques, digital coding principles, storage devices and the latest communications systems, the book shows how these technologies operate together and the necessary conversions that take place between them. Acronyms and buzzwords are introduced only after their purpose has been described in plain English - as the book serves to give a reliable grasp of the fundamentals. The criteria involved in determining image and sound quality are based on a thorough treatment of the human senses, a unique description of how motion portrayal works in managing systems.
John Watkinson is an international consultant in audio video and data recording. He is a Fellow of the AES, a member of the British Computer Society and a chartered information systems practitioner. He presents lectures, seminars, conference papers and training courses worldwide and writes for many industry magazines. His other books for Focal Press are widely acknowledged as standard reference works and industry `bibles'. John is author of MPEG2, The Art of Digital Video and the Art of Digital Audio, An Introduction to Digital Video, An Introduction to Digital Audio, The Art of Sound Reproduction, Television Fundamentals, Co-author of The Digital Interface Handbook and Contributor to The Loudspeaker and Headphone Handbook.
What this book is about, Why binary?, Conversion, Integrated circuits, Storage technology, Noise and probability, Time compression and expansion, Error correction and concealment, Channel coding, Compression; JPEG and MPEG, Convergence and commercial television, Electronic cinema.
2. Digital Processing Principles:
Introduction, Logic elements, Storage elements, Binary coding, Gain control, Floating-point coding, Modulo-[i] n [r] arithmetic, The Galois Filed, The phase- locked loop, Timebase correction, Programmers, The Computer, The processor, Interrupts, Programmable timers, Memory management, The human interface, DSP, Multiplexing principles, Packets, Statistical multiplexing, Networks.
3. Filters and transforms:
Introduction, Transforms, Convolution, FIR and IIR filters, FIR filters, Sampling-rate conversion, Transforms and duality, The Fourier transform, The discrete cosine transform (DCT), The wavelet transform, References.
4. Sampling:
Introduction, Sampling, Reconstruction, Aperture effect, Sampling clock jitter, Quantizing, Quantizing error, Introduction to dither, Requantizing and digital dither, Dither techniques, Basic digital-to-analog conversion, Basic analog-to-digital conversion, References.
5. Sound:
Introduction, The deciBel, Audio level metering, The ear, Level and loudness, Frequency discrimination, Music and the ear, The physics of sound, How sound is radiated, Acoustics, Directionality in hearing, Microphone principles, Microphone, mechanisms, Stereo and surround sound, Stereo and surround microphones, M-S stereo, Digitising audio, Audio convertors, Oversampling in audio, Noise shaping, References.
6. Light:
Introduction, What is Light? Sources of light, Optical principles, Photometric units, MTF, contrast and sharpness, The human visual system, The eye, Gamma, Motion portrayal and dynamic resolution, Background strobing and frame rate, Colour, Colour vision, Colorimity, The CIE chromaticity diagram, Whites, Colour matching functions, Choice of primaries, References.
7. Image portrayal:
Introduction, Film, Spatial sampling, Spatial aperture effect, Spatial oversampling, Temporal aperture effects, Analog video, Synchronizing, Bandwidth and definition, Interlace, Colour television, Constant luminance, Analog colour television signals, Digital colour signals, Digital colour space, Telecine, Conversion between television and computer formats, The importance of motion compensation, Motion-estimation techniques, Motion-compensated picture rate conversion, Motion-compensated telecine system, Camera shake compensation, Motion-compensated de-interlacing, Aspect ratios, References.
8. Displays and Loudspeakers:
Display principles, The monochrome CRT, The colour CRT, The projection CRT, Plasma displays, Scanning lasers, Micromirror projectors, Temporal effects, Display processors, Optical filtering, Loudspeaker principles, Loudspeaker mechanisms, Directivity, The moving-coil speaker, Low-frequency reproduction, Crossover networks, Enclosures, Active loudspeakers, Loudspeaker criteria for stereo and surround sound, References.
9. Compression:
Introduction to compression, Compression standards, Profiles levels and layers, Spatial and temporal redundancy in MPEG, [i] I[r] and [I] P [r] coding, Bidirectional coding, Coding applications, Spatial compression, Scanning and run-length/variable-length coding, A bidirectional coder, Slices, Handling interlaced pictures, An MPEG-2 coder, Coding artifacts, Processing MPEG-2 and concatenation, Audio compression, Sound quality measurement, Audio compression tools, Sub-band coding, Compression formats, MPEG audio compression, MPEG Layer I, MPEG Layer II, MPEG Layer III, MPEG-2 AAC, Dolby AC-3, References.
10. Digital coding principles:
Introduction, Types of communication channel, Transmission lines, Types of recording medium, Magnetic recording, Azimuth recording and rotary heads, Optical and magneto-optical disks, Equalization and data separation, Slicing and jitter rejection, Channel coding, Simple codes, Group codes, Randomizing and encryption, Partial response, Synchronizing, Basic error correction, Concealment by interoperation, Parity, Block and convolutional codes, Cyclic codes, Introduction to the Reed-Soloman codes, Correction by erasure, Interleaving, Product codes, References.
11. Storage devices:
Introduction, Disk storage, Magnetic disks, Accessing the blocks, Servo-surface disks, Winchester technology, The disc controller, Defect handling, RAID arrays, Disk servers, Optical disk principles, Focus and tracking systems, Structure of a DVD player, Digital video tape, The rotary head tape transport, Digital video cassettes, DVTR block diagram, Picture in shuttle, DV and DVCPRO.
12. Communication systems:
Introduction, Production-related interfaces, SDI, SDTI, ASI, AES/EBU, Telephone based systems, Digital television broadcasting, MPEG packets and time stamps, Program Specific Information (PSI), Transport stream multiplexing, Remultiplexing, Broadcast modulation techniques, OFDM, Error correction in digital television broadcasting, DVB, The DVB receiver, ATSC, Networks, Network arbitration, FireWire, Broadband networks and ATM, ATM AALs, References.
Biography
John Watkinson is an independent international consultant in advanced applications of electronics to audiovisual and avionics systems. He is a Fellow of the AES, a member of the Society of Expert Witnesses, and the British Computer Society and is a chartered information systems practitioner. He presents lectures, seminars and training courses worldwide. He is the author of many other Elsevier books, including The Art of DigitalVideo, An Introduction to Digital Video, Convergence in Broadcast and Communications Media, Television Fundamentals and The Art of the Helicopter.
'With the communications world almost totally digital in its approach and the various disciplines not so much converged as collided, there is great need for a volume such as this which embraces each area and neatly joins them as though they had always been one. This is also a book you can dip into and just tease out the information you require, so no matter what your interest is you will be able to see clearly how it relates and merges, indeed converges with the other sectors of the industry.
Anyone working in the communications industry should have a copy of this book on his or her reference shelf.'
Peter H. Bartlett, Technical Manager, University of Dundee
Journal of Educational Media, Vol. 26, No. 2
