TIME-MULTIPLEXED ANALOG TRANSMISSION OF THREE BROADCAST-QUALITY TELEVISION CHANNELS THROUGH ONE SATELLITE TRANSPONDER.

A TV signal compression scheme that the authors believe may become a common practice for analog video transmission and broadcast via satellite by the year 2000 is described. The technique uses two-dimensional interfield processing to reduce the video bandwidth with minimum degradation in subjective quality, and an time-multiplexed with analog-multiplexing technique for transmission in component format. Computer simulations of the processing technique on the test slides, and analysis of subjective quality and S/N expected over a typical satellite link, are reported. A proof-of-concept prototype being developed at COMSAT laboratories is also outlined.