 utilization. What is required to carry a digitized stream to today's TVs? In the North Amer- ican system, a 6MHz NTSC channel requires approximately 160Mbps; a digitized PAL stream, used throughout Europe, requires about 190Mbps (the PAL system uses an 8MHz channel); and HDTV requires 1.5Gbps. Videoconferencing needs much less bandwidth than TV, but it still requires a substantial amount; the H.323 standard from the ITU allows videoconferencing to be carried at bandwidths rang- ing from 384Kbps to 1.5Mbps. Streaming video requirements vary, depending on the quality: Low quality requires 3Mbps, medium quality requires 5Mbps, and high quality requires 7Mbps. Chapter 10 Next-Generation Networks An important driver behind broadband access is content, and much of the con- tent for which people are willing to pay is entertainment oriented. The television industry is now beginning to undergo the revolution that digital technology has caused in other communications-related industries, and it is now starting to capi- talize on the potential new revenue-generating services that personal digital manipulation may allow. One example is digital video recording (DVR), also called personal video recording (PVR), in which television programs are digitally recorded onto a hard disk, letting viewers pause live TV, watch programs on their own schedule, and even skip commercials. With the introduction of DTV and the man- date by spectrum management agencies to phase out or decommission analog broadcasting, we will need a much greater amount of bandwidth in our homes to feed the new generations of televisions. In terms of information transfer, television has generally been associated with the concept of broadcast, terrestrial or satellite, or cable delivery of someone else's pro- gramming on someone else's timetable. Video is associated with the ability to record, edit, or view programming on demand, according to your own timetable and needs. Multimedia promises to expand the role of video-enabled communications, ulti- mately effecti