MPEG-1

Video Kiosk

The video kiosks or information kiosks, are a new opportunity for the use of video. Shops, car dealerships and banks are finding that automated information kiosks are a way to increase sales. Theses came about due to the addition of professional quality video found in MPEG-1.

Information that was once laboriously displayed as slides can be brought to life with video. Using MPEG-1 and a standard hard-disc or CD-ROM, the developer can easily update their kiosk information on a regular basis.

Video on Demand

Video on Demand (VOD) envelopes nearly all video based applications. However, the most common application of VOD is movies on demand. Initially in hotels and hospitals and eventually in our homes.

All of us will have an interactive television set from which we can order movies on demand, at any given time.

The missing ingredient for home use is low prices, interactive decoders (CD-I was one attempt). Given that this application is also considering the MPEG-2 standard, VOD to the home appears years away from a large scale implementation.

Video Dial Tone

The telephone and cable companies are preparing systems that will allow us to order our movies through the existing telephone infrastructure. Given the limited bandwidth of today's telephone lines. MPEG-1 becomes the ideal choice. Numerous pilot schemes are set up in early 1994 and are still being trial-ed.

This application also has ramifications to the telecommunications industry and the corporate presentation market since very high quality presentations can now be produced and distributed afford-ably across standard telephone lines.

Training

The training market has historically used laser disc players to deliver high quality video. MPEG-1 is an ideal replacement for the analogue laser disc player. The advantages of MPEG are lower costs, ease of delivery, ease of updating and networking capability. The training market is a large user of video equipment and MPEG is considered a main stream product for this application.

Corporate Presentations

The presentation market evolved from 35mm slides to overheads to computer generated slide shows. As presentation software packages evolve, they are now beginning to support video. MPEG is a natural choice due to small file size, extremely high quality and ease of integration into existing presentation programs.

Video Library

Organizations storing massive quantities of video cassettes for occasional playback, can benefit by encoding their existing and new material. Storing the MPEG files on a digital library video server allows long-term storage and multiple playback without any quality degradation, fast random access retrieval and multi-point playback.

Museums, large libraries, government agencies and news agencies using video footage, are now converting to digital video.

MPEG-2

CATV (Cable Television)

CATV will use MPEG as the standard for compressing and decompressing video for distribution and for broadcasting. The need is perfect-quality video and the bandwidth is available to handle high bit rates.

Because of this the industry has settled on MPEG-2 video although some are still using MPEG-1 on the interior.

DBS (Direct Broadcast Satellite)

This will use MPEG-2 audio and video for direct broadcast. DBS is a scheme of anywhere, anytime broadcasting.

HDTV (High Definition Television)

A U.S consortium has already agreed to use MPEG-2. Refer to the related articles for further information.

Other Applications

Other applications include: Digital video tape; High Density CD; Video Conferencing and Digital Camcorders.