55-663: The Marconi Radio Awards are presented annually by the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) to the top radio stations and on-air personalities in the United States . The awards are named in honor of Guglielmo Marconi , the man generally credited as the "father of wireless telegraphy ". NAB member stations submit nominations. A task force determines the finalists and the Marconi Radio Award Selection Academy votes on
110-552: A 16:9 aspect ratio. HDTV cannot be transmitted over analog television channels because of channel capacity issues. SDTV, by comparison, may use one of several different formats taking the form of various aspect ratios depending on the technology used in the country of broadcast. NTSC can deliver a 640 × 480 resolution in 4:3 and 854 × 480 in 16:9 , while PAL can give 768 × 576 in 4:3 and 1024 × 576 in 16:9 . However, broadcasters may choose to reduce these resolutions to reduce bit rate (e.g., many DVB-T channels in
165-502: A 1990 FIFA World Cup broadcast in March 1990. An American company, General Instrument , also demonstrated the feasibility of a digital television signal in 1990. This led to the FCC being persuaded to delay its decision on an advanced television (ATV) standard until a digitally based standard could be developed. When it became evident that a digital standard might be achieved in March 1990,
220-642: A commercial radio system in the United States. The system was set up in August 1928 with the establishment of General Order 40—a radio reallocation scheme by the Federal Radio Commission which awarded the choicest frequencies and broadcast times to the then-emerging commercial radio industry. In the wake of General Order 40, a loose coalition of educators, nonprofit broadcasters, labor unions , and religious groups coalesced to oppose
275-402: A scattering effect as the digital processing dithers and is unable to consistently allocate a value of either absolute black or the next step up the greyscale. Changes in signal reception from factors such as degrading antenna connections or changing weather conditions may gradually reduce the quality of analog TV. The nature of digital TV results in a perfectly decodable video initially, until
330-429: A subwoofer bass channel, producing broadcasts similar in quality to movie theaters and DVDs. Digital TV signals require less transmission power than analog TV signals to be broadcast and received satisfactorily. DTV images have some picture defects that are not present on analog television or motion picture cinema, because of present-day limitations of bit rate and compression algorithms such as MPEG-2 . This defect
385-490: A television set with digital capabilities, using integrated circuit chips such as a microprocessor to convert analog television broadcast signals to digital video signals, enabling features such as freezing pictures and showing two channels at once . In 1986, Sony and NEC Home Electronics announced their own similar TV sets with digital video capabilities. However, they still relied on analog TV broadcast signals, with true digital TV broadcasts not yet being available at
440-900: A Congressional threat appeared, advocating viewers to defeat a cable-TV lobby. NAB's annual spring convention is the NAB Show . It typically draws over 100,000 industry professionals. NAB also manages the NAB Radio Show which is held each autumn and draws over 3,000 radio professionals. At the 2010 and 2011 NAB shows, popular technology included stereoscopic video and editing software—a demand inspired by James Cameron's Avatar ; point-of-view cameras, and DSLR cameras boasting shallow Depth of Field. Other strides in nonlinear editing technology included archival film restoration, digital audio mixing improvements, motion stabilization of hand-held footage and rotoscoping with one click. The annual NAB Show returned to Las Vegas April 23-27, 2022, after
495-540: A TV set in the following year. The digital television transition, migration to high-definition television receivers and the replacement of CRTs with flat screens are all factors in the increasing number of discarded analog CRT-based television receivers. In 2009, an estimated 99 million analog TV receivers were sitting unused in homes in the US alone and, while some obsolete receivers are being retrofitted with converters, many more are simply dumped in landfills where they represent
550-436: A more efficient means of converting filmed programming into digital formats. For their part, the consumer electronics industry and broadcasters argued that interlaced scanning was the only technology that could transmit the highest quality pictures then (and currently) feasible, i.e., 1,080 lines per picture and 1,920 pixels per line. Broadcasters also favored interlaced scanning because their vast archive of interlaced programming
605-467: A single HDTV feed or multiple lower-resolution feeds is often referred to as distributing one's bit budget or multicasting. This can sometimes be arranged automatically, using a statistical multiplexer . With some implementations, image resolution may be less directly limited by bandwidth; for example in DVB-T , broadcasters can choose from several different modulation schemes, giving them the option to reduce
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#1732786742855660-410: A single frame often results in black boxes in several subsequent frames, making viewing difficult. For remote locations, distant channels that, as analog signals, were previously usable in a snowy and degraded state may, as digital signals, be perfectly decodable or may become completely unavailable. The use of higher frequencies add to these problems, especially in cases where a clear line-of-sight from
715-400: A standard-definition (SDTV) digital signal instead of an HDTV signal, because current convention allows the bandwidth of a DTV channel (or " multiplex ") to be subdivided into multiple digital subchannels , (similar to what most FM radio stations offer with HD Radio ), providing multiple feeds of entirely different television programming on the same channel. This ability to provide either
770-502: A terrestrial transmitter in range of their antenna. Other delivery methods include digital cable and digital satellite . In some countries where transmissions of TV signals are normally achieved by microwaves , digital multichannel multipoint distribution service is used. Other standards, such as digital multimedia broadcasting (DMB) and digital video broadcasting - handheld (DVB-H), have been devised to allow handheld devices such as mobile phones to receive TV signals. Another way
825-594: A two-year absence due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Preliminary attendance figures indicated the show attracted more than 50,000 visitors from 155 countries. In 1952, the NAB created the Code of Practices for Television Broadcasters , which banned profanity, the negative portrayal of family life, irreverence for God and religion, illicit sex, drunkenness and biochemical addiction, presentation of cruelty, detailed techniques of crime,
880-512: Is Internet Protocol television (IPTV), which is the delivery of TV over a computer network. Finally, an alternative way is to receive digital TV signals via the open Internet ( Internet television ), whether from a central streaming service or a P2P (peer-to-peer) system. Some signals are protected by encryption and backed up with the force of law under the WIPO Copyright Treaty and national legislation implementing it, such as
935-440: Is a crucial regulatory tool for controlling the placement and power levels of stations. Digital TV is more tolerant of interference than analog TV. People can interact with a DTV system in various ways. One can, for example, browse the electronic program guide . Modern DTV systems sometimes use a return path providing feedback from the end user to the broadcaster. This is possible over cable TV or through an Internet connection but
990-498: Is not possible with a standard antenna alone. Some of these systems support video on demand using a communication channel localized to a neighborhood rather than a city (terrestrial) or an even larger area (satellite). 1seg (1-segment) is a special form of ISDB . Each channel is further divided into 13 segments. Twelve are allocated for HDTV and the other for narrow-band receivers such as mobile televisions and cell phones . DTV has several advantages over analog television ,
1045-634: Is not readily compatible with a progressive format. DirecTV in the US launched the first commercial digital satellite platform in May 1994, using the Digital Satellite System (DSS) standard. Digital cable broadcasts were tested and launched in the US in 1996 by TCI and Time Warner . The first digital terrestrial platform was launched in November 1998 as ONdigital in the UK, using
1100-507: Is sometimes referred to as mosquito noise . Because of the way the human visual system works, defects in an image that are localized to particular features of the image or that come and go are more perceptible than defects that are uniform and constant. However, the DTV system is designed to take advantage of other limitations of the human visual system to help mask these flaws, e.g., by allowing more compression artifacts during fast motion where
1155-496: Is the format used in computers, scans lines in sequences, from top to bottom. The computer industry argued that progressive scanning is superior because it does not flicker in the manner of interlaced scanning. It also argued that progressive scanning enables easier connections with the Internet and is more cheaply converted to interlaced formats than vice versa. The film industry also supported progressive scanning because it offers
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#17327867428551210-588: Is used in the Netflix VMAF video quality monitoring system. Quantising effects can create contours—rather than smooth gradations—on areas with small graduations in amplitude. Typically, a very flat scene, such as a cloudless sky, will exhibit visible steps across its expanse, often appearing as concentric circles or ellipses. This is known as color banding . Similar effects can be seen in very dark scenes, where true black backgrounds are overlaid by dark gray areas. These transitions may be smooth, or may show
1265-780: The DVB-T standard. Digital television supports many different picture formats defined by the broadcast television systems which are a combination of size and aspect ratio (width to height ratio). With digital terrestrial television (DTT) broadcasting, the range of formats can be broadly divided into two categories: high-definition television (HDTV) for the transmission of high-definition video and standard-definition television (SDTV). These terms by themselves are not very precise and many subtle intermediate cases exist. One of several different HDTV formats that can be transmitted over DTV is: 1280 × 720 pixels in progressive scan mode (abbreviated 720p ) or 1920 × 1080 pixels in interlaced video mode ( 1080i ). Each of these uses
1320-567: The Drake Hotel in Chicago . The association's founder and first president was Eugene F. McDonald Jr. , who also launched the Zenith corporation . In 1951 it changed its name to the National Association of Radio and Television Broadcasters ( NARTB ) to include the television industry. In 1958 it adopted its current name, "National Association of Broadcasters". The NAB worked to establish
1375-663: The Illinois Broadcasters Association (IBA), in Illinois. In Canada , the Canadian Association of Broadcasters (CAB) has a similar role. Digital television Digital television ( DTV ) is the transmission of television signals using digital encoding, in contrast to the earlier analog television technology which used analog signals . At the time of its development it was considered an innovative advancement and represented
1430-473: The FCC took several important actions. First, the Commission declared that the new TV standard must be more than an enhanced analog signal , but be able to provide a genuine HDTV signal with at least twice the resolution of existing television images. Then, to ensure that viewers who did not wish to buy a new digital television set could continue to receive conventional television broadcasts, it dictated that
1485-605: The FCC's approval of both satellite radio services in the United States— XM and Sirius —and furthermore criticized the 2008 merger of the two companies , calling the merged company a "potential monopoly ". In 2005, the NAB, together with the Association for Maximum Service Television Stations, Inc. (MSTV), commenced development of a prototype high quality, low cost digital-to-analog converter box for terrestrial digital television reception. The result of this project
1540-454: The FCC's final standard. This outcome resulted from a dispute between the consumer electronics industry (joined by some broadcasters) and the computer industry (joined by the film industry and some public interest groups) over which of the two scanning processes— interlaced or progressive —is superior. Interlaced scanning, which is used in televisions worldwide, scans even-numbered lines first, then odd-numbered ones. Progressive scanning, which
1595-544: The Federal Communications Commission at levels far stronger than that being advocated for in policy circles have not supported such claims. Indeed, the FCC has recommended the use of white spaces for broadband and other digital use. In 2011 the NAB funded an advertising campaign titled "The Future of TV", advocating for the private ownership of the spectrum, framed as a threat to free television. In mid-2014, an NAB advertising campaign against
1650-541: The NAB and the commercial radio industry, the non-profit coalition eventually lost the fight with the passage of the Communications Act of 1934 . The National Independent Broadcasters were formed in 1939 as part of the NAB, to represent stations that were not associated with any network, but the group split off in 1941. Many satellite radio enthusiasts have criticized the NAB for lobbying against legislation approvals for those services. The NAB protested
1705-461: The NAB and their allies through the 1920s and 1930s, and to develop a public, nonprofit, license-funded radio system without commercials (similar to what happened with the BBC). The coalition claimed that the commercial industry would only promote profitable programming, thereby reducing the quality and future potential of radio broadcasting. Not having the political connections, resources, or publicity of
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1760-646: The UK use a horizontal resolution of 544 or 704 pixels per line). Each commercial broadcasting terrestrial television DTV channel in North America is allocated enough bandwidth to broadcast up to 19 megabits per second. However, the broadcaster does not need to use this entire bandwidth for just one broadcast channel. Instead, the broadcast can use Program and System Information Protocol and subdivide across several video subchannels (a.k.a. feeds) of varying quality and compression rates, including non-video datacasting services. A broadcaster may opt to use
1815-594: The US Digital Millennium Copyright Act . Access to encrypted channels can be controlled by a removable card, for example via the Common Interface or CableCard . Digital television signals must not interfere with each other and they must also coexist with analog television until it is phased out. The following table gives allowable signal-to-noise and signal-to-interference ratios for various interference scenarios. This table
1870-414: The digital signals. In the United States, a government-sponsored coupon was available to offset the cost of an external converter box. The digital television transition began around the late 1990s and has been completed on a country-by-country basis in most parts of the world. Prior to the conversion to digital TV, analog television broadcast audio for TV channels on a separate FM carrier signal from
1925-525: The early 1990s. In the mid-1980s, as Japanese consumer electronics firms forged ahead with the development of HDTV technology, and as the MUSE analog format was proposed by Japan's public broadcaster NHK as a worldwide standard. Japanese advancements were seen as pacesetters that threatened to eclipse US electronics companies. Until June 1990, the Japanese MUSE standard—based on an analog system—was
1980-482: The eye cannot track and resolve them as easily and, conversely, minimizing artifacts in still backgrounds that, because time allows, may be closely examined in a scene. Broadcast, cable, satellite and Internet DTV operators control the picture quality of television signal encoders using sophisticated, neuroscience-based algorithms, such as the structural similarity index measure (SSIM) video quality measurement tool. Another tool called visual information fidelity (VIF),
2035-440: The first significant evolution in television technology since color television in the 1950s. Modern digital television is transmitted in high-definition television (HDTV) with greater resolution than analog TV. It typically uses a widescreen aspect ratio (commonly 16:9 ) in contrast to the narrower format ( 4:3 ) of analog TV. It makes more economical use of scarce radio spectrum space; it can transmit up to seven channels in
2090-526: The front-runner among the more than 23 different technical concepts under consideration. Between 1988 and 1991, several European organizations were working on DCT -based digital video coding standards for both SDTV and HDTV. The EU 256 project by the CMTT and ETSI , along with research by Italian broadcaster RAI , developed a DCT video codec that broadcast SDTV at 34 Mbit/s and near-studio-quality HDTV at about 70–140 Mbit/s . RAI demonstrated this with
2145-425: The image and sound, although the program material may still be watchable. With digital television, because of the cliff effect , reception of the digital signal must be very nearly complete; otherwise, neither audio nor video will be usable. Analog TV began with monophonic sound and later developed multichannel television sound with two independent audio signal channels. DTV allows up to 5 audio signal channels plus
2200-455: The interests of commercial and non-commercial over-the-air radio and television broadcasters in the United States . The NAB represents more than 8,300 terrestrial radio and television stations as well as broadcast networks . As of 2022, the president and CEO of the NAB is Curtis LeGeyt. The NAB was founded as the National Association of Radio Broadcasters ( NARB ) in April 1923 at
2255-488: The most significant being that digital channels take up less bandwidth and the bandwidth allocations are flexible depending on the level of compression and resolution of the transmitted image. This means that digital broadcasters can provide more digital channels in the same space, provide high-definition television service, or provide other non-television services such as multimedia or interactivity. DTV also permits special services such as multiplexing (more than one program on
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2310-408: The new ATV standard must be capable of being simulcast on different channels. The new ATV standard also allowed the new DTV signal to be based on entirely new design principles. Although incompatible with the existing NTSC standard, the new DTV standard would be able to incorporate many improvements. A universal standard for scanning formats, aspect ratios, or lines of resolution was not produced by
2365-418: The problem of large numbers of analog receivers being discarded. One superintendent of public works was quoted in 2009 saying; "some of the studies I’ve read in the trade magazines say up to a quarter of American households could be throwing a TV out in the next two years following the regulation change." In Michigan in 2009, one recycler estimated that as many as one household in four would dispose of or recycle
2420-422: The receiving antenna to the transmitter is not available, because usually higher frequency signals can't pass through obstacles as easily. Television sets with only analog tuners cannot decode digital transmissions. When analog broadcasting over the air ceases, users of sets with analog-only tuners may use other sources of programming (e.g., cable, recorded media) or may purchase set-top converter boxes to tune in
2475-445: The receiving equipment starts picking up interference that overpowers the desired signal or if the signal is too weak to decode. Some equipment will show a garbled picture with significant damage, while other devices may go directly from perfectly decodable video to no video at all or lock up. This phenomenon is known as the digital cliff effect. Block errors may occur when transmission is done with compressed images. A block error in
2530-433: The same bandwidth as a single analog channel, and provides many new features that analog television cannot. A transition from analog to digital broadcasting began around 2000. Different digital television broadcasting standards have been adopted in different parts of the world; below are the more widely used standards: Digital television's roots are tied to the availability of inexpensive, high-performance computers . It
2585-403: The same channel), electronic program guides and additional languages (spoken or subtitled). The sale of non-television services may provide an additional revenue source to broadcasters. Digital and analog signals react to interference differently. For example, common problems with analog television include ghosting of images, noise from weak signals and other problems that degrade the quality of
2640-621: The selection of material relating to violence, drug abuse, and sex. On March 1, 2022 the NAB called "on broadcasters to cease carrying any state-sponsored programming with ties to the Russian government" in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine the week prior. The NAB presents several annual awards: Organizations similar to the NAB exist in individual U.S. states , including Georgia Association of Broadcasters (GAB) in Georgia , and
2695-542: The time. A digital TV broadcast service was proposed in 1986 by Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT) and the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunication (MPT) in Japan, where there were plans to develop an "Integrated Network System" service. However, it was not possible to practically implement such a digital TV service until the adoption of motion-compensated DCT video compression formats such as MPEG made it possible in
2750-435: The transmission bit rate and make reception easier for more distant or mobile viewers. There are several different ways to receive digital television. One of the oldest means of receiving DTV (and TV in general) is from terrestrial transmitters using an antenna (known as an aerial in some countries). This delivery method is known as digital terrestrial television (DTT). With DTT, viewers are limited to channels that have
2805-478: The use of horror for its own sake, and the negative portrayal of law enforcement officials, among others. It was enforced by a committee appointed by President of the NAB. After the courts struck down the Code as unconstitutional in 1983, the NAB board of directors issued a brief "Statement of Principles of Radio and Television Broadcasters" that encourages broadcasters to "exercise responsible and careful judgment" in
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#17327867428552860-451: The video signal. This FM audio signal could be heard using standard radios equipped with the appropriate tuning circuits. However, after the digital television transition , no portable radio manufacturer has yet developed an alternative method for portable radios to play just the audio signal of digital TV channels; DTV radio is not the same thing. The adoption of a broadcast standard incompatible with existing analog receivers has created
2915-418: The winners, who receive their awards in the fall. Hosted by Laura Ingraham , the awards show included a live performance by Brian McKnight , host of "The Brian McKnight Show" and a renowned R&B singer. Hosted by Billy Bush . Hosted by Glenn Beck . National Association of Broadcasters The National Association of Broadcasters ( NAB ) is a trade association and lobby group representing
2970-699: Was a specification for the converter box, which was then adopted by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration as a technical requirement for eligible converter boxes for the Administration's Digital-to-Analog Converter Box Coupon Program . The NAB has lobbied against the use of white spaces , unused broadcast spectrum lying between broadcast channels, for wireless broadband internet and other digital use. The NAB has claimed that use of white space will interfere with existing broadcast spectrum, even though tests by
3025-408: Was not until the 1990s that digital TV became a real possibility. Digital television was previously not practically feasible due to the impractically high bandwidth requirements of uncompressed video , requiring around 200 Mbit/s for a standard-definition television (SDTV) signal, and over 1 Gbit/s for high-definition television (HDTV). In the mid-1980s, Toshiba released
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