Convergence seems an unusual name for a revolution. To converge, after all, means to come together, to approach a single point. But this single point marks the beginning of a worldwide network for multimedia information. It stands for accelerating technological change that is fundamentally altering the way people work, play and think.
In this context, convergence defines a coming together of communication, computer and video technologies to provide information of any kind to any location. It describes the movement toward delivery of any or all information types–audio, data, images and video–through diverse transmission and switching systems and into new reception devices dictated by customers.
This coming together is breaking barriers and unleashing possibilities. A few years ago, the information industries felt safe following established patterns and pursuing time-honored goals. Broadcasters broadcasted, computers computed and telephones rang.
Now content providers, network operators and telecommunications and broadcast giants are being swept into a convergence of technologies. All the old rules about who delivers what to whom are shattering as once-separate technologies merge on an expanding network of information superhighways.
Successfully negotiating these changes will bring enormous rewards. Failure may bring extinction. Information itself is the new currency. Mergers and alliances dominate the news as global businesses scramble to diversify their knowledge and increase their technological prowess.
Convergence is being driven by technological evolution and market development. Historically, video and audio signals were too complex and demanded too much bandwidth to be economically merged with other data types within monolithic switching and transmission networks. The high cost of bandwidth prevented market growth and kept consumer demand pent up. Now, this is changing dramatically.
New digital compression standards greatly reduce the amount of bandwidth required. Information providers are rapidly taking innovative programs into the marketplace. Network operators are expanding into customized services.
As a result, information consumers are discovering they can explore options and make decisions faster than ever before. This compound rate of change shows little sign of abating soon.
To access these new markets, businesses that create, carry or consume information are constructing a new digital infrastructure of wired and wireless networks. The success of these networks will be determined by their quality and reliability.
If a signal or its transmission path becomes compromised between source and destination, the consumer receives distorted and unacceptable information. Network participants must learn how to enable quality delivery throughout these expanding systems.
Convergence is a simple idea with a complex implementation: Many separate steps and parts make up the whole. Each element is as essential as the last, and quality and reliability are critical along the entire signal path.
From the origination of content in the video domain through a newly commissioned broadband switching network made up of both wired and wireless carriers and finally to the customer premises, the problems are not trivial. The digital infrastructure of television, telephony and computer communication can reach critical business-sustaining mass only when system quality and reliability can be taken for granted–when the information highway’s video “dial tone” is as reliable and functional as today’s best phone system.
How can the fidelity of complex audio and video signals be maintained at every step along a bewildering path of switching and transmission technologies–all the way from information creator to information consumer?
Intelligent and thorough testing is necessary to ensure this consistent quality. Service providers must test not only the integrity of their signals, but also the signal transmission path itself. Maintaining quality will require specialized processing and equipment that is effective, affordable and easy to use. The marketplace will accept nothing less.
Dan Terpack
President
Measurement Business Division
Tektronix, Inc.
Beaverton, OR
Copyright 1995 Nelson Publishing Inc.
November 1995