ATSC DTV Standard Wins R&D 100 Award; 'Grand Alliance' of Seven Organizations Shares Honor

CHICAGO, - The new digital and high definition television (DTV, HDTV) system for the United States has won a prestigious "R&D 100 Award" from R&D Magazine as one of the most significant technologies of 1998. The award -to be presented tonight at a black-tie gala awards ceremony at the Museum of Science and Industry - is shared jointly by members of the Digital HDTV Grand Alliance, seven organizations that cooperated in the development of the new system. The Grand Alliance includes General Instrument Corporation, Horsham, Penn.; Lucent Technologies, Murray Hill, N.J.; Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass.; Philips Electronics North America Corporation, New York; Sarnoff Corporation, Princeton, N.J.; Thomson Consumer Electronics, Indianapolis; and Zenith Electronics Corp., Glenview, Ill.

DTV will eventually replace the 50-year-old analog TV standard in the U.S. DTV gives viewers access to ultra-sharp HDTV and multicast digital programming. HDTV provides spectacularly clear wide-screen pictures with the impact of full digital surround sound. Multicasting allows up to four standard-resolution programs to be broadcast on one channel. DTV also enables the transmission of high-speed data along with TV programming, supplementing program content or supporting completely different purposes, such as advertising, business or education. "The key criterion of winning this award is technological significance. We often say that we're looking for major breakthroughs," said Tim Studt, Editor-in-Chief at R&D Magazine. "This new DTV standard will change the quality and nature of television. It offers vastly increased visual impact, broader programming options, and the ability to use TV as an information appliance instead of just for passive entertainment."

About DTV and HDTV
The Federal Communications Commission adopted the ATSC (Advanced Television Systems Committee) DTV Standard, which was based on the Grand Alliance system. HDTV is the high-resolution format in the ATSC DTV standard. It delivers wide-screen pictures with movie-like clarity and impact plus CD-quality six-channel surround sound. HDTV can display five times the picture information of today's analog pictures. A broadcaster also can choose to "multicast," broadcasting up to four digital programs on a standard TV channel. These programs offer resolution similar to that of today's analog system, but without the snow and ghosts that can affect analog broadcasts. Since it uses computer-like techniques to transmit information, the Grand Alliance system also makes it possible to send high-speed data to receivers along with pictures and sound. Digital TVs can work with or incorporate computers, and the standard provides for cable and satellite transmission as well as terrestrial broadcasts.

Grand Alliance technology will debut when commercial DTV broadcasting begins in the 10 largest U.S. markets in November. HDTV pictures will also be available from at least one direct satellite provider. By 2002 all commercial stations will provide a digital signal, and by 2003 all public stations will also be broadcasting in digital. The current analog TV broadcast system is expected to phase out beginning in 2006. The ATSC DTV standard, based on the Grand Alliance System, has also been formally adopted in Canada, South Korea, and Taiwan. It is actively being considered for adoption in Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Singapore and China.

About the Grand Alliance
The Digital HDTV Grand Alliance was formed in May 1993 when developers of digital HDTV systems agreed to combine their technologies into a best-of-the- best digital television (DTV) system for North America. Over the next two years, the technology developed by the Grand Alliance was integrated and tested extensively in independent laboratory and field tests conducted for the FCC Advisory Committee for Advanced Television Service. The advisory committee unanimously recommended adoption of the standard in November 1995 and the FCC adopted the ATSC DTV standard in December 1996. Core elements of the Grand Alliance system include multiple video transmission formats, multi-channel digital audio, MPEG-2 video compression, the MPEG-2 packetized data transport structure, and the vestigial sideband digital modulation and transmission system.

A Brief History of the R&D 100 Awards
The R&D 100 Awards were established in 1963. They were originally known as the I-R 100s, in keeping with the original name of the magazine, Industrial Research. Over the years, the R&D 100s have recognized winning products with such household names as Polacolor film (1963), the flashcube (1965), the automated teller machine (1973), the halogen lamp (1974), the fax machine (1975), the liquid crystal display (1980), stereo TV (1985), the touch-sensitive screen and color graphics printer (1986), the Kodak Photo CD (1991), the Nicoderm antismoking patch (1992), the digital compact cassette (1993), Taxol anticancer drug (1993), and the Power Beat automotive battery (1994).