The World Broadcasting Unions International Satellite Operations Group (WBU-ISOG) released the results of an 18-month interoperability testing program, with participation by 12 leading HD encoder/decoder vendors, to ensure that HD video feeds are transmitted seamlessly.  The test results were announced by Tom Gibbon, WBU-ISOG Chair of the project, at the SATCON satellite conference in New York City.  The 12 vendors participating in the tests were:  ADTEC, ATEME S.E., Cisco, Comtech TV, Evertz Microsystems Inc., Fujitsu, Harmonic, Inc., International Datacasting, NTT Electronics Corporation, Sencore, Inc., Tandberg Television, and Thomson Grass Valley.

According to Mr. Gibbon, the tests showed that HD equipment vendors have made great strides in permitting HD feeds to be transmitted globally using encoders and decoders of different vendors.  “The WBU-ISOG test program”, he said, “has undoubtedly made it easier to transmit live HD video news and sports around the world, especially from remote locations.”  Mr. Gibbon works for NHK Japan Broadcasting Corporation, the national broadcaster of Japan. The test results showed that most MPEG-4 HD encoders could be used with most MPEG-4 HD decoders. MPEG-4 is the compression standard that permits HD video transmissions to be more efficient and use less bandwidth.  Although the results were generally positive, Mr. Gibbon said that the tests showed that there was still much work to do.

The MPEG-4 Interoperability Program is sponsored by WBU-ISOG, an organization of international broadcasters whose goal is to examine and resolve technical issues concerning international video transmissions.  The tests were hosted in Ottawa by Telesat, the fourth largest fixed satellite services operator.  The Communications Research Centre (CRC), the Canadian government’s primary laboratory for R&D in advanced telecommunications, provided support to Telesat and the manufacturers throughout the testing. The detailed results of the tests may be viewed at http://www.nabanet.com/wbuarea/library/documents.asp#sub_interoperability.