The Leitch Digital Turnaround Processor (DTP) is the second generation of the company’s all-MPEG-2 processing products that leverage the AgileVision product line. Multiple U.S. patents have been issued and are pending for this technology.
With the DTP, a remotely encoded DTV signal can be localized with such applications as motion logo overlays, Emergency Alert Systems, crawls, advertisement tag overlays, clock overlays, stock information, and local weather and news. This allows broadcasters to derive additional revenue from national content by making it more relevant to local audiences.
The Leitch DTP uses MPEG-2 compression to handle multicast DTV transmission to the home; at prices equivalent to one HD real-time encoder, according to the company, drastically reducing the cost of deployment where various master control and compression functions are needed. Ongoing transmission costs can also be reduced by distributing streams to local stations at lower bit rates, owing to the DTP’s ability to process the streams without having to decode and re-encode. This successfully avoids MPEG-2 generational losses associated with repeated encoding operations and allows pristine video quality, one of the main benefits of HDTV.
The DTP is built on general-purpose computing platforms with optimized software performing real-time compressed stream processing. This allows DTP customers to gain the benefit of video and application innovations in a software-only, non-intrusive manner. Reliable, high-performance operation is enabled by the DTP’s use of the QNX Neutrino real-time operating system and transforms the platform used into a high-performance compressed video appliance.
The DTP integrates seamlessly with broadcast automation systems (using industry-standard protocols that mimic multichannel master control switchers) to enable smoother upgrades to new services by leveraging existing equipment and extending operating procedures rather than replacing them.
In addition, the DTP product has been integrated with MicroFirst’s Digital Automation System (D.A.S.) to decrease conversion time for stations wishing to launch new DTV services. The MicroFirst D.A.S. is on-air at a number of stations, automating AgileVision products and performing such MPEG-2 operations as HD logo overlays and switching (splicing in MPEG-2). MicroFirst automation is based on the MPC-1600 real-time processing platform.
At NAB Leitch will demonstrate QNX Neutrino powering the DTP, as well as the MicroFirst D.A.S. system automating the DTP with various master control functions.
For more information visit www.leitch.com.
