Broadcast applications of 4:2:2 MPEG

Professional broadcasting applications of digital processing technology have been proceeding well for the last decade. The agreement of the fundamental standard for the so-called “4:2:2” studio signal coding-ITU-R Recommendation 601-began a continuing process of development within studios and in contribution and distribution. During the later 1980´s high performance video and audio compression systems based on the 4:2:2 standard were developed for use in contribution and distribution and some of these were standardised by ITU-T and in Europe by ETSI. These systems were based on high bit rates-typically 140 Mb/s or 34-45 Mb/s-required by the compression algorithms available at the time. Technology has moved on and the MPEG standard can achieve remarkable results at lower bit rates-typically in the range 5 to 20 Mb/s-sufficient to support the needs of contribution and distribution applications