On Transmission System Design for Wireless Broadcasting

This thesis considers aspects related to the design and standardisation of transmission systems for wireless broadcasting, comprising terrestrial and mobile reception. The purpose is to identify which factors influence the technical decisions and what issues could be better considered in the design process in order to assess different use cases, service scenarios and end-user quality. Further, the necessity of cross-layer optimisation for efficient data transmission is emphasised and means to take this into consideration are suggested. The work is mainly related terrestrial and mobile digital video broadcasting systems but many of the findings can be generalised also to other transmission systems and design processes. The work has led to three main conclusions. First, it is discovered that there are no sufficiently accurate error criteria for measuring the subjective perceived audiovisual quality that could be utilised in transmission system design. Means for designing new error criteria for mobile TV (television) services are suggested and similar work related to other services is recommended. Second, it is suggested that in addition to commercial requirements there should be technical requirements setting the frame work for the design process of a new transmission system. The technical requirements should include the assessed reception conditions, technical quality of service and service functionalities. Reception conditions comprise radio channel models, receiver types and antenna types. Technical quality of service consists of bandwidth, timeliness and reliability. Of these, the thesis focuses on radio channel models and errorcriteria (reliability) as two of the most important design challenges and provides means to optimise transmission parameters based on these. Third, the thesis argues that the most favourable development for wireless broadcasting would be a single system suitable for all scenarios of wireless broadcasting. It is claimed that there are no major technical obstacles to achieve this and that the recently published second generation digital terrestrial television broadcasting system provides a good basis. The challenges and opportunities of a universal wireless broadcasting system are discussed mainly from technical but briefly also from commercial and regulatory aspectSiirretty Doriast

Motion picture film as a government record: framing films within archival theory and preparing for the digital future

Governments have created and used motion picture films since soon after their invention, but government archivists have an uneasy relationship with films. Historically, the traditional archival literature has overlooked films in favor of a focus on textual records, while the film archive literature is unconcerned with the archival concept of the record. To define the scope of the problem, this thesis demonstrates the paucity of archival literature addressing motion picture film as a government record. Moving forward, motion pictures are examined through a lens of archival theory and set in their rightful place among other formats of government records. It is concluded that while films must be read differently than textual records, they provide evidence, information, memory, and other affordances as found in other record formats. Finally, the thesis explores the properties that must be maintained as a film record is migrated to digital formats in order to ensure that it remains a valid record. It is argued that failing to create an authentic digital record during preservation digitization of a film is the same as deaccessioning the film record from the archival collection. Government archivists have a responsibility to carry out a thorough and documented reappraisal process before such actions may be taken

ECLAP 2012 Conference on Information Technologies for Performing Arts, Media Access and Entertainment

It has been a long history of Information Technology innovations within the Cultural Heritage areas. The Performing arts has also been enforced with a number of new innovations which unveil a range of synergies and possibilities. Most of the technologies and innovations produced for digital libraries, media entertainment and education can be exploited in the field of performing arts, with adaptation and repurposing. Performing arts offer many interesting challenges and opportunities for research and innovations and exploitation of cutting edge research results from interdisciplinary areas. For these reasons, the ECLAP 2012 can be regarded as a continuation of past conferences such as AXMEDIS and WEDELMUSIC (both pressed by IEEE and FUP). ECLAP is an European Commission project to create a social network and media access service for performing arts institutions in Europe, to create the e-library of performing arts, exploiting innovative solutions coming from the ICT