Fundamentals and Evolution of MPEG-2 Systems: Paving the MPEG Road

8The Development of MPEG-2 Systems

Why broadcast, telecommunication and optical media drove the development of MPEG-2 systems. The requirements and objectives for the initial MPEG-2 systems development. The establishment of a future-proof MPEG-2 systems based infrastructure for the production, distribution and delivery of audiovisual content. The need for support of new content formats within this infrastructure, in particular the extension of the transport capabilities within MPEG-2 system streams. The evolutionary role of the MPEG-2 systems standard on the standardization efforts undertaken by MPEG after MPEG-2 and the produced amendments to MPEG-2 systems.

8.1 Driving Forces

When the momentum of the MPEG-1 activity steadily increased, the awareness of the MPEG activity on the market place improved significantly. In particular, applications not addressed by MPEG-1 considered the suitability of MPEG technology for exploitation in their business models. Until that time, in the TV broadcast area the main focus was on introducing HDTV and wide-screen services based on analogue broadcast technology. For example, in Japan the MUSE [1] system was developed and in Europe the HDMAC [2] and PAL-plus [3] systems. While some of these systems found usage at the market place, none of them was a major success.

Already at the end of the 1980s, a digital TV system [4] was demonstrated in the United States, but the focus was solely on HDTV, and a very challenging business model was not identified ...