The DAVIC Standards Group
DAVIC stands for Digital Audio-Visual Council, which is
an international effort to make digital
communications compatible and cohesive.
It aims at achieving end-to-end standardization of system interfaces.
DAVIC plans to not only to define standards, but also to test
all elements in the complex hierarchy of digital distribution this summer. It attempts to
coordinate standard activities and to avoid duplication, especially where DAVIC
members are also members in these other bodies.
A set of specifications for
end-to-end distribution for many different multi-media applications is expected to be
submitted to the
International Standards Organization (ISO) and other standards bodies by
December 1995.
Aspect to be covered under DAVIC include
the three key elements of the distribution chain
- the server,
- the network and
- the subscriber terminal unit.
This includes operating systems, application program interfaces, user
interfaces, program access protocols (means of tuning to particular
services), data transport protocols, modulation techniques and much more.
It addresses delivery of all the applications over
virtually any type of network, including one-way broadcast and satellite,
hybrid fiber/coax, fiber-to-the-curb, wireless and twisted-pair copper. The
delivery platform even includes CDI, the interactive CD format developed by
Philips.
Insiders expect that killer multi-media applications will be movies-on-demand, home shopping, near movies-on-demand,
delayed broadcast TV, multimedia retrieval service, broadcast TV and radio, and tele-work.
DAVIC members come from major cable,
telecommunications and computer hardware and software manufacturing
companies worldwide, as well as significant portions of the cable and
telephone operating communities.
The council is modelled on the MPEG ad hoc standards group.
