Canada’s House of Commons recently invited the Communications Research Centre Canada (CRC) to lend its expertise in the area of broadcasting technologies.

On May 10, 2007, two executives from the CRC made a presentation to the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage for the House of Commons. Dr. Veena Rawat, President of CRC, along with Bernard Caron, Vice-President of CRC’s Broadcast Technology branch, participated in a panel discussion to investigate the role of the public broadcaster in the 21st century. The panel’s other participants included professors from the University of Ottawa and McMaster University, as well as a representative from the National Film Board of Canada.

CRC’s role in the discussion was to present its expertise on various technological developments that may impact the way broadcasters operate in the future, particularly in the case of over-the-air transmissions. CRC represenaddressed a number of specific broadcast technologies, including High Definition Television (HDTV) and Digital TV (DTV), which offers the potential for mobile transmission capabilities in environments such as cars, buses or trains. In addition, he spoke about Digital Radio as well as Emergency Broadcasting and distributed transmitter networks for regional coverage.

The CRC representatives left the panel with the message that these emerging broadcasting technologies have the potential to provide Canadians with an increased number of services, as well as higher-quality services. Despite the value of digital broadcasting systems and their increasing implementation worldwide, the technology world is not yet ready to abandon terrestrial broadcasting for satellite or the Internet.

CRC representatives also fielded questions related to Canada’s broadcasting infrastructure, and supplied suggestions as to how we might make upgrades while remaining cost effective. For example, old analog transmitter towers stationed in Quebec City could be converted to digital towers capable of transmitting HDTV programs free of charge. As the digital towers are smaller and use less power, in the end the total cost should be lower.

As the federal government’s primary research laboratory in advanced communications technologies, CRC has the only laboratories dedicated to the evaluation of advanced digital broadcasting technologies in Canada. For many years, the CRC has been collaborating with the broadcasting industry, including the CBC, to develop and evaluate various technologies. Canadian broadcasters can use these technologies to address some of the challenges in today’s environment, including rapidly-changing telecommunications technologies, new delivery mechanisms and the high demand for consumer interactivity.

The mandate of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage is to play a central role in supporting cultural, artistic and civic activity in Canada, and to preserve and protect Canada’s cultural and natural heritage and shared history. The Committee studies and reports on matters referred to it by the House of Commons or on topics that the Committee itself chooses to examine.

The meeting was televised on CPAC. For more information, read CRC's oral presentation and corresponding PowerPoint Presentation.