Recommendation 601—one world standard; Digital video and the world digital studio standard

In strictly chronological terms the developments covered in this chapter came before the development of MAC, but it seemed better to deal with all the various current transmission standards together before moving on to this vitally important standard, which is known throughout the world as ‘Rec 601’. This is, of course, a colloquialism used as shorthand for CCIR Recommendation 601-1, which is entitled Encoding Parameters of Digital Television for Studios (ref. 1).