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CRC Celebrates 40 Years at the Cutting Edge of Communications
| When the Communications Research Centre (CRC) was established in 1969, the world was a very different place. Telephones sat wired to a desk or wall. There was no voice mail, caller ID, or text message service. Business documents travelled by post, overland or by air, with delays of days or weeks depending on the destination. And computers were monstrous affairs found only in select universities, research institutes and government departments. The kids at home could choose between three, or maybe four, television channels depending on the size of the TV antenna. That is, unless they lived in rural areas or the North. There, they were lucky to have reliable radio, never mind TV. But Canada was on the cusp of change. In 1962, the Defence Research Telecommunications Establishment - the forerunner of CRC - built and designed Alouette 1, and with its astounding success proved to the world that, properly constructed, complex, delicate instruments could be sent into space and relay information for years. Then, in 1967, John Chapman, who had led the Alouette project, released his pivotal report on the future of Canada in space science. Rather than going down the same path as the U.S. and U.S.S.R., with their focus on military applications in space, Chapman urged the Government to develop a domestic satellite communications system. It would, he argued, truly serve the Canadian people and be vital to the growth, prosperity and unity of our country. In retrospect, they were prophetic words, and ones the Government heeded. They created CRC two years later. |
CRC Firsts over 40 years, also posted on CRC's website at: www.crc.gc.ca/first |
As we now know, in the 40 years of CRC's existence communications technologies have transformed our lives. They have changed the way we work, how we play, how we interact with family, friends and co-workers nationally and internationally. They have altered how we learn, how we access information and even, researchers are telling us, how our brains are wired to think. And as the technologies transform our lives we, in turn, transform the technologies by demanding faster, smaller, more efficient technology. So much so, that the traditional domains that CRC was originally tasked to oversee - satellite, telephony and broadcasting technologies - are blending and converging in unexpected ways.
For 40 years, CRC has been at the forefront of this telecommunications revolution, foreseeing and creating the technologies that have helped make Canada, and Canadian industry, leaders in communications technology. CRC has even been honoured with two Emmy awards for outstanding contributions to satellite and television technology. Here are just a few highlights from CRC's 40-year journey.
Emmy Award-Winning Hermes Satellite
CRC's experimental Hermes satellite was designed to test a new and novel concept. Rather than sending the communications signals to large receiving stations, the researchers wanted to know if an orbiting satellite with a higher-powered and higher frequency signal could create a signal strong enough to be received by small, independent, movable dishes. This, they reasoned, might eventually lead to some kind of direct-to-home satellite services. Given the number of small satellite dishes on the roofs of so many houses today, it should come as no surprise that the experiment was a success. The Hermes satellite was used from 1976 to 1979, to demonstrate numerous applications including telemedicine, distance learning, and direct-to-home broadcasting. In 1978, for example, Hermes established a clear and stable telephone link to demonstrate telemedicine via satellite to northern Canadians when an x-ray of a patient was relayed from the Moose Factory General Hospital, Cochrane District, to the University Hospital in London, Ontario. The same year, Hermes also gave the world its first direct-to-home satellite television broadcast, when diplomats stationed in the garden of the Canadian Trade Counsellor in Peru watched a broadcast of the Stanley Cup playoff game being played in Montreal between the Canadiens and the Boston Bruins.
ARPANET
Although it is hard to imagine today, there was a time when the Internet hardly existed: when the Internet was called ARPANET, and was made up of only a few mainframe computers, mainly in the United States, linked together as an experiment. The goal of the research was to develop a system that would allow computers to communicate with each other. In 1985, CRC created the first international connection via terrestrial cable to the fledging Internet. The connection jump-started Canadian research, giving scientists and engineers the tools to experiment in areas such as network protocols, wired and wireless network infrastructure, and network applications. As a result, both researchers and Canadian companies have been at the forefront in the development of IP-based products and services. For example, CRC and CBC partnered to create the first website in the world to offer radio over the Internet.
Broadband HDTV Heart Surgery Workshop
On Friday evening, January 30th, 1998, the potential of high definition television (HDTV) to aid in patient treatment and diagnosis was on display at the CRC. In a Canadian and Japanese first, through a satellite-linked high definition teleconference, surgeons in Japan demonstrated the modified Batista procedure for surgically reducing an enlarged heart. Surgeons from the Heart Institute in Ottawa demonstrated a new technique for minimally invasive cardiac bypass surgery. Both procedures were pre-taped in HD video, and through the high definition teleconference link, surgeons on both sides of the Pacific were able to view, examine and discuss, in real time, minute details of the surgical procedures.
For more information on CRC accomplishments contact media@crc.gc.ca.
