Enhanced VSB system

The authors´ companies independently developed enhancements to the existing ATSC (Advanced Television Systems Committee) VSB (vestigial sideband) digital television standard (A/53). Each company´s private tests showed its system to be backward compatible with existing ATSC receivers and to offer improvements in flexibility and signal robustness to meet broadcasters´ needs. When both systems were submitted to the ATSC committee on enhancements, the two companies found their proposals to be very complementary, resulting in the formation of a joint proposal for enhancement of the VSB digital TV broadcasting system. The combined proposal is described along with its technical benefits. Transmission and receiving hardware for the combined system exists and was tested by the VSB Enhancement Testing Consortium (VETC), an industry group led by MSTV and NAB.