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Invented
in late 19th and early 20th century, the little gadget-TV, which
was originally designed to transmit real-time images to distant
areas, has been widely used in various fields including politics,
economics, military, broadcasting, education and entertainment.
It is now essential to people's daily life. However, great bandwidth
of TV signals, high technical requirements and the popularity of
TV technologies have posed challenges for large capacity communications.
As
China's broadcasting and TV transmission industry develops, Beijing
Communications Corporation has become "the first of China's
telecom companies" in many aspects of broadcasting and TV transmission,
including:
The
first to conduct black and white TV transmission test on the microwave
link;
The
first to conduct color TV transmission test on the microwave link;
The
first to use satellite to transmit color TV signals;
The
first to use optic fibers to transmit color TV signals;
The
first to use CCITT projection to provide tele-conference service;
The
first to use MPEG 2 technologies to transmit color TV signals over
SDH, etc.
For
decades, Beijing Communications Corporation has made full use of
its advantages in human resource, technology and resources to deliver
guaranteed TV transmission services in many major events of the
state and the Party.
1. The 11th Asian Games
In
the late 1980s when China was still in the first stage of reform
and opening up, Beijing Communications Corporation was also about
to take off. The 11th Asia Games held in Beijing served as a catalyst
to Bejing's communications construction. In order to ensure the
Games' smooth proceeding, the Corporation laid single-mode fiber
optic from the local telephone office to the 11 game sites, from
the long-distance call tower to China Central TV Station and from
the long-distance call tower to Beijing's earth station, as was
required by the organization committee. Besides, the Corporation
also undertook the TV transmission from the 11 game sites to the
Information Center and from the International TV and Broadcasting
Center to Asian countries during the Games. However,because the
underdeveloped infrastructure was unable to cover all the game sites,
the transmission of public TV signal were still done by the Central
TV Station on the microwave link. The process is shown in the following
chart:
Although
the communications service level was quite low from today's point
of view, it was really well done at that time under that situation---the
Paris Planning Committee hadn't dissolved, the technological block
by western countries against China hadn't been lifted and even the
import of some simple devices such as the laser devices for optical
communications, fusing machine and intelligent meters was restricted.
In spite of all these difficulties, the Corporation was very successful
in the communications service delivery with the assistance of all
walks of life during the Games. Moreover, the Corporation, for the
first time, used fiber optic for the baseband transmission of TV
signals, and thus got a good knowledge of this technology. A trained
staff also emerged, laying the foundation for the TV transmission
of major events later.
2. the 21st Universiade
After
the Asian Games was held in Beijing in 1990, another major international
sports meet, the 21st Universiade, was held in August,2000 in Beijing
too. Beijing Communications Corporation was again appointed as the
sole fixed and data communications operator, and TV transmission
also occupied a major part of the communications service. However,
the Corporation was no longer what it was in 1990 when the Asian
Games was held in that it had greatly expanded and improved its
infrastructure, boasting of over 2000 switch offices, 10,000 core
km of fiber optic and numerous access points across the city. Furthermore,
after undertaking the TV transmission tasks in a series of events
in the past 11 years such as the World Women's Congress, Hong Kong's
return to the mother land, the 50th anniversary of the founding
of the PRC as well as Macao's return to the motherland and bidding
for the Olympics, the Corporation had greatly improved its facilities
and got a good command of all TV transmission technologies and methods,
be it microwave, fiber optic, satellite or analogue, digital and
high resolution. Consequently, the Corporation undertook all the
TV signal transmission from all game sites. Besides transmitting
signals to CCTV and overseas media, the Corporation also transmitted
closed-circuit TV signals to the information center, the organization
committee of the Universiade and the premises of delegations, with
the transmission channels totaling over 80. In terms of the technologies
used, besides the analogue baseband fiber optic, fruitful technical
attempts were made for the future's large-scale TV transmission
in Olympics, including digital baseband, frequency division multiplexing
and optic power allocation. The following chart shows the process:
3. Outlook for the Olympics
Olympics
are international contests with the largest body of participants
and countries involved during the peacetime. After a dozen years
of effort, IOC, led by Mr.Samaranch, has turned the Olympics from
a pure sports meet to an event of utmost significance in the world.
Olympics play a so important role in building up the international
image of the host country, bettering environment, boosting the infrastructure
construction and contributing to national economic growth that it
has given rise to a unique phenomenon --"Olympics Economy"--
in the host country. That's why many countries have spared no efforts
to win the bid for Olympics. Beijing eventually won the bid for
the 2008 Olympics after 8 years of painstaking efforts in the wake
of its failure in bidding for the 2000 Olympics in 1993. Beijing
Olympics Bidding Committee made a solemn commitment that it will
make the 2008 Olympics the best one in the history.
More than 100 countries and 15,000 athletes will be competing in
over 30 items in the 2008 Olympics, and 199 countries and regions
will broadcast live the games on TV (192 countries and regions broadcast
live the 2000 Olympics held in Sydney). The sales revenue of the
TV rebroadcasting rights will amount to 5.7 billion RMB, 43% of
the total revenue. The huge investment made by the media of all
countries on the rebroadcasting rights implies how hard the task
will be to broadcast the 2008 Olympics in 2008. The characteristics
of the 2008 Olympics, as compared with the 1990 Asian Games and
2001 Universiade, are shown in the following chart: 2008年，
1) Large number of sites. There will be 37 game sites and 59 training
sites in the 2008 Olympics.
2) Wide distribution of game sites. In the 2008 Olympics, there
will be dozens of game sites located across Beijing plus the 5 game
sites outside Beijing.
3) Great amount of channels. 199 countries will broadcast live the
games held simultaneously in dozens of games sites. The total channels
are expected to exceed 500.
4) A variety of technologies used. Aside from the conventional TV
broadcasting technologies, digital technology will gain popularity
while high resolution TV will also be used in addition to the rich
Internet content thanks to the matured broadband technologies (the
IOC, however, will not broadcast live the Olympics on the Internet,
at least not in the 2008 Olympics). It is foreseeable that there
will diversified transmission methods and technologies due to the
large number of game sites, varying transmission distances, differing
technical levels of various countries' media and different areas
TV signal are applied in. All in all, it is beyond the comparison
of any domestic TV transmission.
Beijing Communications Corporation is conducting enterprise transition,
network optimization, service procedure rearrangement and preparation
for the Olympics, in hope of becoming the partner of Beijing Olympics
Organization Committee. To sum up, the Corporation has full confidence
and capability to undertake this mission and create another glory
in the TV transmission history of China's telecom sector.
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Biography:
Zhang
Shiming graduated from Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications
in 1983 and is now working with Beijing Long-distance Telephone
Bureau. He has been in the field of technical management for TV
transmission and conference TV for a long time. Senior engineer.
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