Direct Broadcast Satellite (DBS) and Broadcasting Using Video Compression -- Other Information

Basil Halhed, the author of this article and an HEI founder, has been involved with video compression R&D and applied compressed video including videoconferencing, broadcasting, DBS, MMDS and satellites for more than 35 years. He recalls, “ I remember the days when a codec occupied three eight-foot high racks of equipment and could operate at bit rates as low as 28 Mbps, a 5:1 compression ratio! Don't ask the price. Twenty years ago, codecs had shrunk to the size of a mid-size refrigerator and cost about $US160,000. DBS and the IRD are truly modern technological miracles — and it's all thanks to some mathematical equations.”

If the above has piqued your interest in video compression, you might also like to read Halhed's articles on the video compression for video teleconferencing; the techniques are quite similar, only the degree of processing is greater. An article, called Multipoint Videoconferencing, starting on page 339 in Volume 11 of The Encyclopedia of Microcomputers, is published by Marcel Dekker, Inc., available in most good technical libraries. More articles by Basil Halhed appear in The Encyclopedia of Telecommunications and a supplement to The Encyclopedia of Microcomputers, both also published by Marcel Dekker, Inc.