Chapter 3 . Advanced Television Research Program

The present television system was designed nearly 35 years ago. Since then, there have been significant developments in technology which are highly relevant to the television industries. For example, advances in the very large scale integration (VLSI) technology and signal processing theories make it feasible to incorporate frame-store memory and sophisticated signal processing capabilities in a television receiver at a reasonable cost. To exploit this new techology in developing future television systems, Japan and Europe established large laboratories funded by government or industry-wide consortia. The lack of this type of organization in the United States was considered detrimental to the broadcasting and equipment manufacturing industries, and, in 1983, the Advanced Television Research Program (ATRP) was established at MIT by a consortium of U.S. companies.