Skilled industry observers, who have seen this line doubler in action with top quality feature film video projection, have agreed that it rivals the image quality of 35mm film displays. As a result of the first demonstration of this line doubling system in Washington, D.C., the Sarnoff Research Center has ordered two of these units, and plans to incorporate them into their own ACTV demonstrations. Faroudja Laboratories currently plan to build and market line doublers for various ATV applications in the future, both for SuperNTSC applications and for outside services. Visitors to the SuperNTSC demonstrations in Tokyo will have the opportunity of seeing the full system in operation under conditions which represent practical and fully compatible circumstances that satisfy all the present home NTSC receivers, while providing highly improved images to the new and emerging TV sets which incorporate line doubling and other advanced signal processing techniques. Mr. Faroudja believes that SuperNTSC is the bridge that will extend the life of the NTSC system until the end of this century, at which time perhaps an all-digital system will take over public broadcasting. For further information, call Yves Faroudja (408) 245 1492 or Joe Roizen (415) 326 6103. TELE-COMMUNICATIONS, INC. GENERAL OFFICES DENVER, COLORADO NEWS FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, June 6, 1988 Faroudja Lab Tests HDTV on TCI's Cable Systems Faroudja Laboratories will test its version of High Definition Television, SuperNTSCTM on two of TCI's cable systems under the auspices of NCTA's Technical Advisory Committee on High Definition Television, it was announced today by Yves Faroudja, President of Faroudja Labs, and John J. Sie, Senior Vice President, Tele-Communications, Inc. The SuperNTSC is a new television system which combines pre-processing at the transmitter and post processing at the receiver which leads to HDTV quality while maintaining full compatibility with NTSC on a single 6MHz channel. transmission system uses no additional subcarriers and no extra bandwidth. The signal can be received by standard TV sets without resolution enhancement but is void of any of the annoying "wiggles and movements" of cross colors and luminance distortions or "artifacts" of the regular NTSC transmissions due to the special pre-processing. The system has been demonstrated at the recent NAB convention in Las Vegas and to the members of NCTA's HDTV Advisory Committee at Faroudja Labs in Sunnyvale, California. Last week the Super NTSC was demonstrated to the Denver cable community hosted by TCI. The next step in the development is to conduct field tests in an actual cable TV environment. The system will be tested on two of TCI's operating systems in Pacifica and Sunnyvale, California. They represent both a modern 54 channel and a more traditional 32 channel cable system respectively. The transmission test will be completed by this August and the findings will be reported to the NCTA's HDTV Advisory Committee. "We have developed a system that provides high definition television that is fully compatible with existing cable and broadcasting transmission media. We want to test the system in an actual cable environment. We appreciate TCI's encouragement by providing two operating systems to us for such test," said Paroudja. Sie stated, "We are in full support of Yves' approach toward HDTV: remove artifacts, double the resolution, eliminate raster lines, keep the 4:3 aspect ratio, make fully compatible with existing TV sets, and use 6MHz. Cable transmission system is a complex undertaking with each cable channel placed contiguously to the next in a "picket fence" fashion. We must be sure that the Paroudja system is compatible with cable system operations." Sie adds, "The SuperNTSC system could be a very cost effective way of introducing HDTV to the American public without changing the standards of the existing television distribution systems." FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT John J. Sie (Phone 303/721-5401) PRESS RELEASE August 10, 1988 FAROUDJA LAUNCHES SUPERNTSC RESEARCH CENTER Yves Faroudja, Founder and President of Faroudja Laboratories, has announced the formation of a new and separate company devoted solely to the research and development of the SuperNTSC (tm) system. The new company is called Faroudja Research Enterprises, Inc. and is located in an entirely new 11,000 sq. ft. at 675 Palomar Avenue in in Sunnyvale, a short distance from the present Faroudja Laboratories. According to Mr. Faroudja, the strong television industry response to recent demonstrations of SuperNTSC at the NAB, NCTA and ITS has prompted this move. "Major broadcast network and cable TV company executives, after seeing the results of current SuperNTSC technology, have encouraged us to set up a fully equipped research facility to develop a complement of SuperNTSC components so as to offer a full system," Faroudja said, "and we have assurances from some of them that they will also help with technical advice and funding for this new activity." In the past decade, R&D work done at Faroudja Laboratories has led to a patent portfolio of more than 20 significant patents in the video processing field. These patents have been licensed to many well known Japanese and American video equipment manufacturers in both the professional and consumer markets. One prominent example is that all S-VHS manufacturers use Faroudja technology, under license, in their Faroudja Launches SuperNTSC Research Center Page 2 VCRs. Faroudja Laboratories also manufacturers a variety of proprietary broadcast products using their own patented circuits. With the advent of SuperNTSC, and with the Faroudja proposal to the ATSC that it be considered as a future standard for an Advanced Television System to be used for public broadcasting in the USA, Mr. Faroudja decided that this R&D activity should be carried on independently of their regular commercial work. After confirmation that one major network (ABC) and one major cable TV company (TCI) were very interested in a fully developed SuperNTSC system, Faroudja went ahead with plans to set up Faroudja Research Enterprises. The current plan for FRE is to employ a staff of 10 highly skilled engineers and technicians, who will follow a fully detailed development program, with appropriate progress milestones along the way. The goal of FRE is to produce a completely compatible SuperNTSC system that meets the performance characteristics outlined in the ATSC proposal. In Mr. Faroudja's opinion, this SuperNTSC system could well serve the American television audiences and, in fact, televiewers in NTSC countries all over the world to the end of this century. For further information, please call Yves Faroudja at (408) 245 1492 or Joe Roizen at (415) 326 6103. REPORT OF THE FCC ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON ADVANCED TELEVISION SERVICE Executive Summary The U.S. consumer electronics industry has undergone a radical transformation over the past two decades. Large Japanese, Korean and European companies have replaced most domestic producers as the major suppliers of television receivers and other consumer electronics equipment to the American market. However, while considerable television set manufacturing remains in the United States, forecasted to contribute some $4.4 billion to our economy this year, it is conducted at plants principally owned by foreign companies. ATV offers the prospects for substantial growth in U.S.owned television receiver manufacture, perhaps as early as in the late 1990s. American electronics firms, particularly semiconductor manufacturers, perceive ATV as a major potential source of future business if the technology utilized in this market is based upon proprietary U.S. technology. Regardless of who owns or develops the technology, however, it is likely that a substantial share of ATV receiver manufacture will occur in the United States because of the size of the receivers and the associated transport costs. There are a number of competitiveness problems faced by U.S. manufacturers in general and the consumer electronics industry in particular. Among these are insufficient incentives for research and development, long lead times for new technology, and high interest rates. Clearly, Congress |