ABSTRACT
The European Launching Group (ELG) was formed in 1991 to set a digital TV broadcasting standard following the growing realisation that analogue HDTV would not be a commercially successful proposition. ELG, in turn, created the Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB) Project in September 1993. DVB specifications originally only applied to European
broadcasters, but have now become de facto standards in many other parts of the world. Interoperability between equipment from different vendors was uncertain in the early days of digital compression (1995-1997), but a DVB-S modulator was virtually guaranteed to work with a DVB-S receiver, especially after the Intelsat Satellite Operators Group (ISOG) sponsored a series of interoperability tests. DVB also defined baseband interfaces so that Conditional Access systems, encoders, multiplexers and modulators from different vendors could be connected together in complex systems. The DVB Project now comprises over 260 organisations from
more than 30 countries (including non-European countries).Members include public and private broadcasters, telcos, cable TV operators, consumer electronics and computer companies. Learning from the experience of the fragmentation of the European MAC system1 into several incompatible variants, DVB standards are produced in a timely, market-led manner. The DVB Project attempts to draft future-proof standards which can be implemented (at least partially) within months of their publication date. The General Assembly meets every year to present progress
reports on all themodules, budgets and othermatters. Every second year it holds the elections of members of the Steering Board. The Steering Board controls the activities of the four mod-
ules beneath it. The Commercial Module is the usual starting point for the
standards process. If enough members are in favour of starting a new standard, a subgroup is formed to create draft Commercial Requirements. When these have been approved by the Commercial Module they are passed to the Technical Module. The Technical Module forms a subgroup of specialists to
create Technical Specifications (and, sometimes, Implementation Guidelines) which are then passed back to the Commercial Module for approval.
