Enhanced VSB system

Enhancements to the existing ATSC (Advanced Television Systems Committee) VSB (vestigial sideband) digital television standard (A/53) were developed independently at the authors´ companies. Each company´s private tests showed its system to be backward compatible with existing ATSC receivers and to offer improvements in flexibility and signal robustness to meet broadcasters´ needs. When both systems were submitted to the ATSC committee on enhancements, the two companies found their proposals to be very complementary, resulting in the formation of a joint proposal for enhancement of the VSB digital TV broadcasting system. The combined proposal is described along with its technical benefits.