Broadcast Engineer's Reference Book

C K P Clarke Senior Engineer, BBC Research Department

Revised by Chris Dale MIIE Previously BBC Broadcast Networks Engineer

2.4 Colour Encoding and Decoding Systems

 

 

 

2.4.1 Introduction

The signals produced by colour television cameras are in the form of red, green and blue (RGB) colour signals. Cathode ray tube colour displays also operate with RGB. Although RGB signals can be of high quality, the three channels required represent an inefficient use of bandwidth and circuitry. Furthermore, impairments can arise if the three channels are not accurately matched. More efficient and rugged methods of colour encoding are therefore required at other points in the signal chain, such as for studio processing, recording, distribution and broadcast ...