Market Ready For Launch Of DVB-T2 Services

AMSTERDAM — In the run up to the launch of DVB-T2 services, manufacturers and the broadcast industry have risen to the challenge with the unveiling of market ready DVB-T2 products at this year’s IBC. The launch of DVB-T2 HD services is on schedule to take place later this year in the United Kingdom, with further launches expected in several other European countries including Finland and Serbia. Numerous other countries are in the process of testing and evaluating the second generation Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) transmission system for future use.

The DVB-T2 equipment making its debut at the exhibition includes video encoding, signal generators, transmitters, modulators/demodulators and set-top boxes. The live HD DVB-T2 transmission and interoperability demonstrations on the DVB stand features H.264 encoded content provided by the BBC and broadcast from the Alticom TV tower in Amsterdam on Channel 43, Frequency 650MHz. The demo is supported by equipment from Albis Technologies, Arqiva, DekTec, Enensys, Harris, Pace, Rohde & Schwarz, Tandberg, and TeamCast.

Other manufacturers with planned launches of DVB-T2 equipment include CellMetric, Cisco Systems, Digital TV Labs, Humax, NXP Semiconductors, Panasonic, ProTelevision Technologies, Screen Service, SIDSA, Sony, STMicroelectronics and T-VIPS to name a few.

The significance of the strength of market support for the new transmission system is not to be underestimated as the DVB-T2 specification was only ratified by the DVB Steering Board in June 2008 and has just been formally approved as ETSI EN 302 755 by the European Telecommunication Standards Institute.

“We are delighted by the support for DVB-T2 and astounded at the speed at which manufacturers have been able to develop and bring to market their products for this second generation digital terrestrial television transmission system. The deployment of DVB-T2 will enable broadcasters to provide an extended multichannel HD service environment as well as see the innovation of new and exciting datacasting opportunities,” commented Peter Siebert, Executive Director, DVB Project.

T2 ready

Building on the foundations of the successful DVB-T system, DVB-T2 delivers almost 100% increase in capacity compared to equivalent reception conditions with DVB-T. Broadcasters deploying DVB-T2 will be able to roll out new multiplexes that could offer multichannel HDTV services and create innovative new datacasting opportunities.

DVB-T2 uses OFDM (orthogonal frequency division multiplex) modulation to deliver a robust signal and offers a range of different modes making it highly flexible. It employs the same LDPC (Low Density Parity Check) error correcting codes used in DVB-S2 for excellent performance in the presence of high noise levels and interference. A significant number of highly innovative features such as Physical Layer Pipes, support of Multiple-Input-Single-Output (MISO) and Rotated Constellations are also included. DVB-T2 has been defined so that the standard can be enhanced in the future in a backwards compatible manner through the use of Future Extension Frames.