TANDBERG Television’s New Professional Receivers Smooth the Digital Transition and Improve Programming Distribution Efficiency

* Optimized for HD and SD content distribution over satellite

* Eases the digital transition for cable, satellite and telco operators following the turn-off of analog terrestrial broadcasting


Atlanta.- TANDBERG Television, part of the Ericsson Group, is launching a new professional integrated receiver decoder (IRD) range which will be on display in its booth #SU4210 at the NAB Show (Las Vegas, April 14-17, 2008). Optimized for specific high volume video distribution applications, the new RX8300 series will simplify content acquisition for cable, satellite and telco operators in the all-digital future of TV broadcasting.

Both the RX8310 Distribution Receiver and the RX8320 ATSC Broadcast Receiver include a mixture of standard features to meet the majority of needs in their target applications, with the flexibility to add advanced features should the operator require them. Each variant provides an RF demodulator combined with industry standard ASI transport stream input, for network delivery flexibility. Transport stream output is provided as a standard feature for content turnaround into digital cable, satellite and telco broadcast networks. The RX8300 range has the capability to provide single or multi-service descrambling, as well as multi-format MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 AVC 4:2:0 video decoding. Additionally, high definition (HD) services are down-converted and output as standard definition (SD) video; providing a simple and cost-effective route to video distribution into analog broadcast systems or for service monitoring.

“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. 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,” said Roger Bolton, EVP of Compression Systems at TANDBERG Television. “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.”

Distribution Receiver
The RX8310 Distribution Receiver lets operators take full advantage of the efficiency improvements from DVB-S2 modulation, TANDBERG Prekor’ dynamic pre-correction, and MPEG-4 AVC compression to distribute three times the amount of content through a satellite transponder versus traditional satellite distribution solutions. The RX8310 combines a DVB-S2 capable demodulator with TANDBERG Television’s DirectorV5 secure content delivery and over-air receiver control solution as a standard feature. For high capacity digital turnaround, the RX8310 provides the option to decrypt multiple services; allowing decryption of a complete multiplex of channels with a single unit, if required. Single service decoding options for MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 AVC 4:2:0 SD video, and HD service down-conversion mean the RX8310 can provide a simple and cost effective route to hand-off video into an analog network or for service monitoring.

ATSC Broadcast Receiver
As local terrestrial broadcasters begin to phase out their analog broadcasts, the cable, telco and satellite operators who receive these local channels as content feeds need to deal with the transition to all-digital ATSC broadcasts. The RX8320 ATSC Broadcast Receiver with 8-VSB input is specifically designed to enable a simple, reliable solution to the ATSC broadcast transition for these operators.

The RX8320 provides both ASI and 8-VSB inputs for reception of broadcast services over terrestrial or fiber links with automatic redundancy switchover between the inputs. A transport stream output provides a pass-through capability so that operators can carry the digital signals all the way to a subscriber’s home. To support analog TV delivery, the RX8320 also provides MPEG-2 video decode and Dolby Digital® audio decode capabilities, which includes 5.1 multi-channel to stereo down-mixing to allow an easy interface into the existing infrastructure. Any HDTV digital TV service can be down-converted for analog SD delivery. Automatic picture aspect ratio conversion is performed based on any active format description (AFD) and bar data present on the incoming digital TV service. Legal and regulatory requirements are also fulfilled by the RX8320 for the transition of ATSC broadcast services into analog TV delivery, with the extraction, translation and insertion of closed captions, Nielsen data, TV Guide data, and V-Chip program rating information into the analog video outputs.

TANDBERG Television has a strong track record in the professional receiver market with over 100,000 units deployed in contribution and distribution systems worldwide. The launch of these next generation IRDs draws on the company’s market leadership, critical mass and field proven solutions.