WASHINGTON, D.C., July 20, 2004 - The Advanced Television Systems Committee, Inc. (ATSC) has approved an amendment to the A/53C DTV Standard that adds a new optional mode of transmission called Enhanced VSB (E-VSB). Services transmitted in the E-VSB mode have additional forward error correction coding layers that allow reception under weaker signal conditions.

"E-VSB was developed in response to the desire of broadcasters to add more flexibility to the DTV Standard," said Mark Richer, ATSC president. "E-VSB was chosen from among multiple technologies after a rigorous evaluation process that included laboratory and field tests." E-VSB provides optional modes of operation that allow broadcasters to trade-off data rate for a lower carrier-to-noise threshold for some services. Examples of potential applications for EVSB include delivery of "fall back" audio, programming services targeted at small DTV receivers with indoor antennas, non-real time transmissions of file-based information to handheld and pedestrian receivers, and robust data broadcasting to devices such as desktop and laptop computers.

The ATSC has previously published a number of related Candidate Standards that support the E-VSB System. CS/T3-608 and CS/T3-609 provide transport specifications, and CS/T3-606 provides enhancements to the ATSC PSIP Standard (A/65). Enhancements to AC-3 audio (E-AC-3) are contained in documents CS/T3-613 and CS/T3-614. ATSC Standards and Candidate Standards are available at www.atsc.org/standards.html.

The Advanced Television Systems Committee, Inc. is an international, non-profit organization developing voluntary standards for digital television. The ATSC member organizations represent the broadcast, broadcast equipment, motion picture, consumer electronics, computer, cable, satellite, and semiconductor industries.