Science & Technical Research Laboratories Will Maintain their Lead in 21st Century Broadcasting Technology

Osamu YAMADA,
Director-General, NHK Science & Technical Research Laboratories


A Happy New Year! The 21st century has arrived. I feel that the past century was a material era, represented by mass production and mass consumption. The coming 21st century is expected to be an information era, in which new value is added to the material. As the IT revolution advances, the borders between the broadcasting and communications fields will continue to blur. The role of broadcasting, with its capability of large-capacity transmission into homes, will no doubt increase in importance. The Science & Technical Research Laboratories will continue to pursue research and development to realize new broadcasting services for digital broadcasting and beyond, always taking into consideration the benefits of our viewers.

In December of last year, digital BS broadcasting began; the first step of ISDB (Integrated Services Digital Broadcasting). This has made various new data broadcasting services possible along with Hi-Vision broadcasting of high-quality picture and sound. These new services have been built on the research that we have constantly promoted since the early 1980s, and they bring us much joy as research engineers. Following the start of digital BS broadcasting, we will next prepare for the launch of digital terrestrial sound broadcasting in 2002, and digital terrestrial television broadcasting in 2003.

By the end of last year, two of the most significant research themes, basic digital broadcasting and PDP, had almost ended. We are in the same situation as our predecessors who experienced difficulties in establishing new, post color TV research themes and yet eventually initiated the research and development of HDTV as a high-quality medium, and data broadcasting as a multi-information medium. In the 21st century, as the digital broadcasting era, I think we should focus our minds on program contents. We are now discussing new research strategies for the 21st century.

To further enhance the quality of broadcasting programs, we are going to promote research and development on various items of Hi-Vision compliant equipment, including an ultrahigh sensitivity super-HARP HDTV camera and an optical disk camera. Furthermore, our work will not be limited to conventional broadcasting; working for the advancement of ISDB, we will also research new broadcasting services which allow anybody to view the programs they wish to see anytime and anywhere, and with barrier-free broadcasting. These services will be based on technologies such as portable terminals with large capacity storage, home servers (In-home storage), upstream connections from receivers, and especially, the additional spectrum required for these new services. Research will continue on the ultrahigh definition TV with some 4000 scanning lines and 3-D TV that does not require special glasses for viewing. Much energy will be devoted to the basic studies on materials and devices to realize these new services.

As globalization and the acceleration of technological development advance, it will be important for us to adopt the latest global technology as well as making our technology available to the world.

In October of this year, the long history of the STRL will reach a new landmark with the completion of our new laboratory building. With your help, a research environment suitable for the 21st century will be established. We are determined to continue to lead the world and contribute greatly toward the advancement and development of broadcasting technology.