Looking to improve the performance of existing MPEG-2 platforms that use compression technology and serve the roughly 1 billion SD set-top boxes and integrated digital TVs predicted to be deployed worldwide by the end of this year, TANDBERG Television is unveiling the EN8100 MPEG-2 SD encoder at NAB 2009 (booth SU5108). The new encoder is targeted at for DTH satellite, cable and terrestrial operators, as well as content aggregators and distributors.
Several years in development, the EN8100 is the company’s next-generation MPEG-2 encoder, based on technologies and encoding algorithms developed in-house.
Residing at the headend, the EN8100 enables operators to reduce satellite capacity requirements (saving one in every five frequencies/transponders used for MPEG-2 broadcast) and minimize operating costs associated with their SD services and also launch HD services with no additional transponder space. The encoder also provides higher picture quality in the same bit rate as current MPEG-2 systems, which is ideal for making SD MPEG-2 look acceptable on large flat-panel TVs.
In a number of field trials, improvements in performance, low-power consumption, channel density (six channels in 1RU) and maintenance have been reported. It also cuts MPEG-2 SD bandwidth requirements by at least 15 percent, even in legacy operations, while maintaining full compatibility with all previous generation set-top boxes.
