Comutel enables ETV's DVB-T2 transmissions in Serbia

Thursday, April 12th, 2012

Comutel Enables the First DVB-T2 Project in the Region

BELGRADE, Serbia — COMUTEL, a regional leader in video and content delivery solutions and service infrastructure for live TV and video on demand (VOD), announced today that Emisiona tehnika i veze (ETV) – a national broadcasting agency in Serbia, started broadcasting its services on March 21st using DVB-T2 technology, first in the region.

DVB-T2 is the second generation of digital terrestrial television and will open new opportunities in high definition and standard definition TV via antenna. It is the most advanced digital terrestrial system (DTT) and is 50% more efficient than any other DTT system in the world. DVB-T2 also supports single frequency network (SFN) operation, where neighboring transmitters can use the same channels, thus covering the planned areas with a network of low-powered, synchronized SFN transmitters.

The engineering team of the Comutel, a Serbian company – part of the Telelink group, introduced the first DVB-T2 digital signal in Serbia and the region as well. The result is a reliable HD & SD coverage, achieved in less than eight months from the planning stage to implementation of the service. Special feature is reliable and failure-proof IP-only video network design which will provide seamless switchover in the network and provide high availability of the service. All critical functional components of the system are redundant, and a combination of a network and video high-availability techniques provides a robust and reliable system.

“This network is big step forward for us and represents a masterpiece of engineering that will enable reliable and high quality digital signal distribution to more than 40% of population in Serbia in this initial phase, which so far was able to receive only analog TV signals, sometimes with interference and low quality”, said Vladimir Homan, general manager of ETV, national broadcasting agency in Serbia, which will operate DVB-T2 network.

“It is once in a lifetime opportunity for a company to take over national DVB-T2 headend design and commissioning, and we are very happy that our customer, ETV,is satisfied with work that we performed in this project”, said Miodrag Radulovic, general manager of Comutel.

Successful implementation of these cutting edge technologies confirms once again Comutel as a region leader in deploying video services and shows high level of expertise of a Comutel’s engineering team.