With 1 billion MPEG-2 set-top boxes still in play, MPEG-2 technology isn't going anywhere soon, and TANDBERG Television has a solution.
At NAB 2009, the company showed me its new EN8100 MPEG-2 SD encoder. The system has been designed to deliver revolutionary encoding performance in a high density, low power (six channels in 1RU) chassis. It cuts MPEG-2 SD bandwidth requirements by at least 15 percent, even in legacy set-top box operations, and delivers a step change in performance.
According to Screen Digest research from March 2009, there are close to 1 billion MPEG-2 SD STBs and integrated digital TVs expected to be deployed worldwide by the end of 2009. The EN8100 opens up new opportunities for legacy service providers. It enables operators to achieve higher picture quality in the same bit rate, which is ideal for making SD MPEG-2 look acceptable on large flat-panel TVs, and to profit from additional revenue from their existing infrastructure.
The bandwidth savings are achieved while maintaining full compatibility with all previous generation STBs to maximize limited and expensive network and bandwidth space. As a result, operators can cost-effectively launch new services and save one in every five frequencies/transponders used for MPEG-2 broadcast.
The EN8100 has up to six channels per 1RU, dual PSU options, interchassis card level system redundancy and hot-swap encoder cards. It requires less space and air-conditioning, and consumes 50 percent less power and generates less heat than previous models, with power consumption as low as 47W per channel. The unit is fully interoperable with existing deployed STBs, saving operators the need to accelerate STB swap-out and cutting billions of dollars in potential global device upgrade costs.
View this video demo about the EN8100.
