Tandberg TV is launching two new integrated receiver decoders (IRD) for reception of terrestrial DTV signals. The RX8310 distribution receiver and the RX8320 ATSC receiver provide an RF demodulator (DVB-S2 and ATSC respectively) and industry standard ASI transport stream input. A transport stream ASI output is also available. RX8300 series IRDs can also provide single or multi-service descrambling, as well as multi-format MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 AC 4:2:0 video decoding. HD services can be down-converted and output as standard definition video, which Tandberg notes provides a simple and cost-effective way to distribute video into analog broadcast systems or for service monitoring.
The combination of ASI and 8-VSB inputs on the RX8320 allows cable operators to use the IRD to decode ASI fiber feeds from the TV station while providing an off-air backup. To allow conversion of HD content to standard-definition video, the RX8320 includes Dolby 5.1 multichannel audio to stereo down-mixing capability and automatic picture aspect ratio conversion based on any active format description (AFD) and bar data present on the incoming DTV signal. It also extracts and translates closed captioning, Nielsen data, TV Guide data, and V-Chip programming rating information into the analog video outputs.
“These new receivers deliver the high quality and reliability on which broadcasters and service operators alike depend, and have come to know and trust, from Tandberg Television compression products,” said Roger Bolton, executive vice president for compression systems at Tandberg Television. “They build on our field proven compression product portfolio, and our in-depth knowledge and experience of the widest range of broadcast applications, to deliver affordable solutions for content distribution to cable, telco and satellite head-ends. The RX8300 series enables highly efficient content distribution systems, and a simple transition solution, for operators to provide ongoing service delivery for analog television subscribers while supporting the increasing move to digital HDTV content distribution.”
