THE EUROPEAN HDTV FORUM A common Standard for Europe EC Workshop on Interoperability Brussels, 21 January 2005 Cecil AmeilSES Global Thomas Wrede SES ASTRA

2 How it started  Since mid 2003 HDTV has (again) become a major topic for infrastructure providers and their customers:  Impressive uptake in the US, Japan, Australia and South Korea  Phenomenal rise of flat screen display sales  Consumers starting to expect a higher broadcast picture quality  Major European broadcasters interested in HDTV distribution  on air since January 1 st,  Others to follow soon via ASTRA and Eutelsat  European industry ready to promote and sell HDTV equipment

3 European HDTV Forum - Scope  Initiated in June 2004 by SES ASTRA at a meeting with customers and industry in Luxembourg who all intend to “start” HDTV now  Non-formal organisation (no fees, no committees,…)  Scope  Coordination of HDTV marketing and promotion activities Promotion- and test transmissions via satellite Co-marketing activities and joint POS education  Ensuring interoperability by defining common standards Agreed set of scan formats (720p and 1080i) Backwards compatibility of new decoders  Definition and industry promotion of HD ready display devices

4 European HDTV Forum - Some Members

5 European HDTV Forum - Achievements  Promotion of HDTV  Agreements with major retailers about HDTV promotions  24h POS demo channel transmitted via ASTRA  Coordination of “HD ready” label for displays with industry (EICTA)  First proposal for ‘HD ready’ specifications based on agreement with customers in June 2004  EICTA public announcement as of January 19 th, 2005 Equipment label Promotional logo

6 Notes on Interoperability  HDTV introduction will start via satellite and with set-top boxes  Operators will aim to use most efficient technology MPEG-4 AVC (H.264) and/or VC-1 (WM9 HD) encoding DVB-S2 on satellite and DVB-C 256-QAM on cable  All HDTV chip sets allow for backwards compatibility All HDTV set-top boxes can receive existing transmissions  Operators in the European HDTV Forum agreed on  720p50 and 1080i25 scan formats (which all STB will support)  Only displays that carry the ‘HD ready” label of EICTA will be fully compatible with the HDTV set-top boxes of the European operators

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