BROADCAST ENGINEERING B - 2025/6

Module Overview

This module will develop your understanding and awareness of aspects of professional video engineering. You will investigate the source and channel coding systems for broadcast systems and the formats for film recording. You will also explore broadcast communication and methods such as modulation.

Module provider

Music & Media

Module Leader

GILBERT Andrew (Music & Med)

Number of Credits: 15

ECTS Credits: 7.5

Framework: FHEQ Level 5

Module cap (Maximum number of students): N/A

Module Availability

Semester 2

Prerequisites / Co-requisites

FVP2002  - Broadcast Engineering A  

Module content

Indicative content includes:

• Source coding


• Channel coding


• Hamming code and Shanon Coding


• Reed soloman coding


• FEC


• Broadcast transmission


• OFDM


• DAB


• Microwave links


• QAM


• PSK 


• Wireless links in TV production

Assessment pattern

Alternative Assessment

N/A

Assessment Strategy

The academic accreditation regulations published by the Institution of Engineering Technology state the following Guidance note G1.

Where modules include two assessment modes (coursework and examination) that assess different Learning Outcomes, a pass threshold should be adopted for each mode contributing more than 30% to the overall module mark. This pass threshold is no more than 10% below the normal module pass mark. 

In practice, this means that the average mark for all the coursework should be at least 30%, and the average mark on the exams and class tests should be 30% to pass the module.

 

The assessment strategy is designed to allow students to demonstrate their technical skills and theoretical understanding of video in film and TV. They can demonstrate knowledge and critical thinking in video technology by writing and presenting an essay.

Thus, the summative assessment for this module consists of:

• Coursework - (addresses learning outcomes 1-5)


• Seminar Presentation 1  (addresses learning outcomes 1-5)


• Seminar Presentation 2  (addresses learning outcomes 1-5)


• Exam - 1 1/2 hours - (addresses learning outcomes 1-6)

Formative assessment

Formative assessment and feedback will be provided in lectures as required, during in-class exercises, and in the form of regular revision questions in lectures.

Feedback

Students receive written feedback on their coursework and verbal feedback on their practical work throughout the module.

Module aims

• expand understanding of professional video systems
• introduce lossy and lossless compression in channel coding and transmission
• reinforce channel propagation types
• explore media formats for film and television

Learning outcomes

Methods of Teaching / Learning

The learning and teaching strategy is designed further to develop theory and practice film and broadcast technology; using lecturers, the students will expand their knowledge of the video distribution process and understand the compression format required for the channel coding.  The students will also explore the necessary compression to film set filming and production review, and editing.

The learning and teaching methods include:

• Lectures per week 


• Revision lecture 

Indicated Lecture Hours (which may also include seminars, tutorials, workshops and other contact time) are approximate and may include in-class tests where one or more of these are an assessment on the module. In-class tests are scheduled/organised separately to taught content and will be published on to student personal timetables, where they apply to taken modules, as soon as they are finalised by central administration. This will usually be after the initial publication of the teaching timetable for the relevant semester.

Reading list

https://readinglists.surrey.ac.uk
Upon accessing the reading list, please search for the module using the module code: FVP2005

Other information

The Department of Music and Media is committed to developing graduates with attributes encompassing employability, digital skills, global and cultural awareness, sustainability as it relates to media production and broadcast engineering and, finally, resourcefulness and resilience.

This module provides opportunities to engage deeply with these in several ways, including:

Sustainability:  The module teaches you how to design modulation schemes from both Bandwidth and Power / Energy Efficiency perspectives.

Global and cultural intelligence: Digital Communications are used globally; hence, the know-how you develop in this module can be anywhere in the world. 

Digital capabilities:  In this module, you will learn about how communication systems and digital networks work, and you will make use of digital capabilities in terms of electronic voting for in-class discussions. Furthermore, all the learning resources are made available in a digital virtual learning environment (i.e. SurreyLearn), so you will use the VLE.

Employability: You will gain essential knowledge and learning (related to Digital Communications) that is needed for working in the broadcast industry in particular. 

Resourcefulness and resilience: One-third of the module is dedicated to error control coding, which you learn to use to correct errors in digital communications from the transmitter to the receiver, and this intrinsically provides resilience in operation in noisy environments. Thus, you will get accustomed to thinking about how to design resilient systems. You will also explore source/modulation/coding schemes considering the trade-offs between precious resources such as bandwidth and power. Your resourcefulness capability is further developed by tutorial problems discussed in class. 

Programmes this module appears in

Please note that the information detailed within this record is accurate at the time of publishing and may be subject to change. This record contains information for the most up to date version of the programme / module for the 2025/6 academic year.