japanese television satellite
What does bandwidth really mean and why was its size a problem in this case?
Can someone explain why it is a problem to have large bandwidth …isn’t all information transmitted in the air by satellite so why would it be a problem?
Several systems were proposed as the new standard for the USA, including the Japanese MUSE system, but all were rejected by the FCC because of their higher bandwidth requirements. At this time, the number of television channels was growing rapidly and bandwidth was already a problem. A new standard had to be more efficient, needing less bandwidth for HDTV than the existing NTSC.
A radio signal does not occupy a point in the radio spectrum but is spread out from one frequency to another. For instance in the United States an AM radio signal occupies 10 kHz. So if a radio station has a frequency of 1000 kHz then its using the radio spectrum between 995 and 1005. It has a bandwidth of 10 kHz.
The bigger the bandwidth the more information can be transmitted. An analogue TV signal has about 4 to 6 MHz (500 times an AM radio signal). That mean that if you have frequencies from say 500 MHz to 1000 Mhz available to transmit television there are only a certain number of stations that can be accommodated.
Digital TV is more efficient but different formats use more or less of the frequencies available.
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