By Graham S. Stubbs and Tony Wechselberger, TV/COM Intemational
Standardization to achieve interoperability of digital video compression technology will require more than finalizing ISO MPEG-2 and resolving concerns about security.
Interoperability goals encompass the seamless transmission of digital programming across equipment,market, and national boundaries, and include availability of equipment from multiple vendors to work on the same programs. The layered structure of digital video compression lends itself to consideration of standardization issues at the levels of compression encoding,multiplex assembly, conditional access and encryption, and processing for transmission.
This paper discusses the urgent need for the cable industry to take charge of the process of assuming that its long-term interoperability requirements will be met.