Joint VSB terrestrial digital TV indoor reception project

The reliability and efficacy of indoor reception of 8VSB digital terrestrial television (DTV) in four major U.S. cities was studied in an initial field measurement survey program and a subsequent data capture and processing program. Measurements from the initial survey identified problem sites for reliable DTV reception using currently available 2nd generation DTV receivers. Subsequent field dual channel data captures made at the identified problem sites provided data for testing and verification of new antenna diversity receiver algorithms destined for future generation DTV receivers. From data captures at selected problem sites of sufficient signal strength, but where currently available 2nd generation DTV receivers failed, it was found that in 70% of the cases DTV reception performance was satisfactory when using new antenna diversity receiver algorithms. These measurements and data captures corroborate the claim that the VSB DTV indoor reception problem may be less severe than implied from surveys using less advanced current 2nd generation receivers with a single antenna. For sites with severe multipath, 8VSB DTV reception could be potentially superior to NTSC, which would experience an unwatchable picture.