Technology Developments Around 1990

At the end of the 1980s, an effort in ISO to develop a standard for ‘video and associated audio on digital storage media’ was undertaken, whereby the concept of digital storage media includes communication channels and networks. This effort is known by the name of the group of experts that started it in 1988: the Moving Picture Expert Group (MPEG). This chapter highlights the technology developments that took place around 1990 in relation to the MPEG for the telecommunication, computer, semiconductor and consumer electronics industries. The consumer electronics industry wanted to define a system for playback of movies from compact disc. Opportunities for cost‐effective integrated silicon solutions also became evident, in particular when it became clear that MPEG‐2 would offer a very challenging business case to introduce digital broadcast services.