European launch of TANDBERG
Television IP-based cable system
Other Articles:
IPTV Services,
VoIP over WiMAX,
IP Broadcasting Technology,
Home Media Servers
TANDBERG Television
May 31, 2006
ANGA sees first European outings for key new cable solutions
Market leading open on-demand solutions showcased
Southampton, UK -- TANDBERG Television (TAT.OL) is launching its
next generation IP head-end infrastructure - the iSIS 8000 – into
the European cable market at ANGA this week. This complete IP-based
architecture is designed to enable cable operators to leverage IP
technology both at the network core and in last mile TV delivery. It
includes best-in-class MPEG-2, MPEG-4 AVC and SMPTE VC-1 video
encoding and transcoding, new receiver/decoders, the new MX8400 IP
multiplexer, the TANDBERG iPlex transrater and the TANDBERG xQ6800
dense QAM modulator. The iSIS 8000 IP solution has been based on
over five years of IP development at TANDBERG Television, and
brought together under a single control and management system,
nCompass. |
“The needs of European cable operators are diverse and we are coming
to ANGA with the industry’s most comprehensive offering to the cable
industry, designed to help analog operators migrate to digital and
digital operators to launch compelling on-demand and interactive
services,” says Adrian Bell, EMEA and APAC Cable Business Manager at
TANDBERG Television. “IP has growing momentum in the European cable
market and the question from our customers is not why IP, but when?
The launch of our new IP solutions will enable our cable customers
to experience the benefits of IP throughout their central and
regional head-end infrastructures.”
At the heart of the iSIS 8000 system is TANDBERG Television’s
extensive capability in video processing and multiplexing, now
further expanded with the addition of the SkyStream iPlex and
MediaPlex solutions. New for ANGA is the TANDBERG MX8400 IP
Multiplexer, a next generation product designed for central head-end
applications such as primary multiplexing for large cable systems.
This open standards, IP-based product enables the simplification of
systems and with support for up to 4 independent multiplexed outputs
from a single unit, eases future expansion and delivers significant
reduction in infrastructure costs. Moreover, the combination of
ReflexTM statistical multiplexing and advanced multiplexing
architectures ensures maximum usage of available bit-rate. TANDBERG
Television has always led the market in terms of conditional access
integration and has continued this with the iSIS 8000, including a
number of DVB Simulcrypt integrations that are available at launch.
Following the acquisition of SkyStream Networks earlier this year
TANDBERG Television has integrated the iPlex into the iSIS 8000
system. The iPlex is a flexible video processing platforms capable
of MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 AVC SD encoding, MPEG-2 SD transrating, MPEG-2
to MPEG-4 AVC transcoding, multiplexing, de-multiplexing, routing
and streaming. This extremely flexible platform, now integrated with
the TANDBERG nCompass control platform, provides an excellent
solution for regional encoding and re-multiplexing as well as
transrating and transcoding at the central site.
Other new iSIS 8000 system components and features include:
- Dual GigE Encoder output
- This new interface provides dual GigE outputs in the EN5900 and
E5700 encoding ranges for MPEG-2, MPEG-4 AVC and VC-1. The encoder
to multiplexer transport stream data connection has a dedicated
high speed IP output and provides full redundancy protection of
the transport stream data. The transport stream output from the
encoder is transmitted on both outputs simultaneously as a
multicast packet stream and full N+M encoder redundancy is
provided. The dual GigE Encoder output option card also supports
splitting of the encoder multi-program transport stream outputs
into separate multicasts – so for example the EN5930’s MPEG-2,
MPEG-4 AVC and PIP programs can all be multicast on separate
addresses.
- TANDBERG RX1290 - the
world’s first professional multiformat MPEG-2/MPEG-4 AVC SD/HD
decoder will enable network operators and broadcasters to deliver
IP streams of standard definition (SD) and high definition (HD)
content from studio to studio and across networks to regional
head-ends and affiliates.
- TANDBERG RX5130 Descrambler
– the latest generation of the TANDBERG DVB-CA Common Interface
Descrambler features satellite and transport stream input, with
optional IP output, and is a key component in the turnaround of
content into the broadcast head-end. By removing the previous
transmission scrambling the RX5130 enables programming to be
processed, and re-multiplexed for onward broadcast.
Open on-demand
TANDBERG Television will also be presenting the latest open video
on-demand platform (VOD) for the cable market. TANDBERG Television’s
open VOD platform has been designed to provide European cable
operators with the freedom to choose best of breed technologies and
to avoid proprietary architectures with all the associated downsides
of vendor lock-in, non-competitive pricing schedules and higher
support costs.
The TANDBERG Television VOD solution includes the Xport Producer,
OpenStream™ digital services platform and EQ6800 Edge QAM modulator.
Xport Producer provides the ability to easily create package for
onward delivery to the operators VOD platform. Key features of the
system include encoding, metadata creation, editing, validation,
packaging, storing and exporting of the content to the on-demand
platform.
OpenStream allows cable operators to easily deploy on-demand
services using Void servers, applications, billing systems and other
system components of their choice. OpenStream's unique open
architecture extends the cable head-end beyond VOD to support
television's next generation of interactive services. The platform
today delivers on-demand streams to more than 80 U.S. markets
reaching more than 15 million digital subscribers and is currently
being deployed by a major European cable operator. In Shanghai,
China, Oriental Cable Network has recently become the first Asian
operator to deploy OpenStream. The top five U.S. operators to deploy
the platform include Comcast, Charter Communications, Time Warner
Cable and Adelphia.
About TANDBERG Television
Whether it’s advanced compression systems, on-demand or interactive
television, TANDBERG Television delivers the technology and
expertise that is moving digital video forward. The company’s
award-winning solutions are used by the world’s leading network
operators, broadcasters and content owners to deliver new viewer
experiences and advertising opportunities. With a broad suite of
open, standards-based products, TANDBERG Television offers the
highest quality digital TV solutions including IPTV, HDTV,
video-on-demand, advertising on-demand, and interactive TV
applications to customers in the Americas, Asia Pacific, Europe,
Middle East and Africa. For more information, please visit
www.tandbergtv.com. |
