NHK honoured for direct broadcast satellite contributions
Friday 18 Nov 2011
NHK-Japan has been awarded an IEEE Milestone in recognition of its contribution in starting the world’s first direct broadcast satellite service in 1984.
In a ceremony held at the NHK Science & Technology Research Laboratories in Tokyo, NHK’s Executive Vice President Naoji Ono received the plaque from David E Burger of the IEEE History Committee.
Mr Ono said: “In our corporate plan, we have pledged to develop and offer new services using the latest technology created by the convergence of broadcast and telecommunication”.
The IEEE Milestone honours technological achievements in the field of engineering and computing that have received international appraisal for at least 25 years after first being applied.
NHK’s R&D won recognition for overcoming reception difficulties in mountainous regions and remote islands, creating a foundation for broadcast satellite services that is now enjoyed across the globe. Its contributions include:
- Receivers for home use with low-noise down converter mounted on a small parabolic reflector antenna
- The broadcasting satellite with onboard shaped reflector antenna to deliver power efficiently across Japan and the satellite control technology
- Research on radio propagation characteristics for the 12GHz band satellite broadcasting
- Research on satellite broadcasting services
These measures brought stability to the operation of broadcast satellites, which led to the development of HDTV and ISDB (Integrated Services Digital Broadcasting) which were subsequently applied to digital terrestrial and satellite broadcasts.
IEEE is a non-profit organisation for the advancement of technology. It has more than 400,000 members in over 160 countries.