OREANDA-NEWS. April 03, 2012. Fujitsu Laboratories today announced that it has developed the world's first technology to minimize video quality degradation during video relays. Following due-process consideration, the new technology has been adopted as a "Recommended Practice" of the Society of Motion Picture & Television Engineers (SMPTE)(1), an international professional association establishing standards in the motion imaging industries. Going forward, the adoption of video transmission systems that adhere to this Recommended Practice will make possible even higher quality video content.

Conventionally, to broadcast news reports, sports and other events, weather forecasts, and other on-site relays, video is transmitted across multiple relay points. Every time video signal passes through the video encoders installed at each of the relay points, slight degradation occurs in the color component of the image. The accumulation of this degradation has been known to lead to visible color blurring.

The new technology, which is compatible with existing equipment, minimizes the occurrence of color blurring. A paper describing the technology was awarded the SMPTE Motion Imaging Journal Certificate of Merit in 2010. Subsequently the technology was examined by SMPTE due process committees and has been published as SMPTE Recommended Practice RP 2050-1:2012.