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digiDELIVERY—
According to ABI Research, the digital terrestrial television receiver market will reach 350 million units by 2013. This is a huge jump in numbers, considering as of 2007 the worldwide DTT (Digital Terrestrial Television) was 65 million units. The increase from 65 million to 350 million calculates out to a compound annual growth rate of 32 percent. Approximately 85 percent of 2007’s units support digital television and digital set-top box markets, while 15 percent comprises other consumer electronics or PC applications, according to a recent report by ABI Research on digital terrestrial silicon receivers. Breaking the stats down to regional numbers where DTT infrastructure was first established; in Japan (ISDB) is about 23 percent; and Korea (T-DMB) penetration of DTT receivers is 34 percent. Forecasts indicate that by 2013, the DMB-T/H system in China will have about 100 million users. China’s national DVB standard GB20600-2006, also known as DMB-T/H, supports both fixed and mobile television applications. Digital video broadcast has come just in time for the 2008 Summer Olympics in China with service to 30 cities—Oyster Bay, New York
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digiBIZ—
Even the FCC underestimated the demand for 700 MHz. Originally expected to raise between $10 billion and $15 billion, total current bids exceed $18.9 billion. Bidding on the sought-after C block also surpasses the FCC requirements ($4.6 billion) and now has a PWB (Provisional Winning Bid) of $4.7 billion. ABI Research notes that demand for 700 MHz is so great, not even the pending recession impacts the bidding process. This auction may be the last opportunity for new participants to gain ground in the wireless realm, which is dominated by incumbent carriers. Moreover, incumbent operators absolutely want to strengthen 4G deployments; and 700 MHz will improve rural and in-building coverage at a lower cost than existing frequencies. One surprise is the nationwide D block, set aside by the FCC for public safety. Frontline Wireless—the expected front-runner—was disqualified due to its inability to pay the minimum bid. And there has been only one bid, which failed to meet the reserve bid price of $519 million. The D block price is set at $1.3 billion. ABI Research’s recent report, Global Wireless Spectrum Issues: Market Opportunities and Implications, explores all major spectrum initiatives, highlighting implications for vendors, regulators, and operators. It addresses spectrum trading, mobile liberalization, technology neutrality, and the latest developments in the satellite bands, and covers globally harmonized bands for WiMAX as well.
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There’s a new Manufacturing Engineer for Echolab Corporation, a provider of pro video production switchers and broadcast tools. He is Kris Kite and he’ll be responsible for the planning, direction and coordination of the company’s manufacturing processes to meet the needs of the broadcast market. Prior to joining Echolab, Kite was the manufacturing engineer at National Engineering Service Corporation where he provided Lean Manufacturing and Six Sigma expertise to a variety of manufacturing organizations—Billerica, Massachusetts
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digiDELIVERY—
Collaboration usually is a win-win situation. Such is especially true when Effnet AB and RMI Corporation decided to pool their talents. Effnet AB provides header compression solutions—RMI Corporation (RMI) supplies processor based solutions for networking, communications and consumer applications. Now both companies have collaborated to create a joint solution with Effnet ROHC on RMI’s XLR and XLS Processors. The actual process involves Effnet ROHC software solution that is ported to RMI’s XLR and XLS Processors, which optimizes the performance on this multi-core, multi-threaded architecture. Enhanced performance results via the use of RMI’s XLR and XLS hardware threading, which acts as individual accelerators or virtual CPUs. Effnet ROHC helps customers to improve capacity and reduce costs of their networks. Effnet ROHC is a highly portable solution with a well-defined programming interface that facilitates easy and speedy integration for customers, and serves as a solution for wireless networks including satellite networks having links with high delay.
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digiDELIVERY—
When it comes to DVR systems, one of the leading sources for such is Fast Forward Video (FFV). With solutions for HD and SD broadcasting, FFV’s product line includes DVRs for discreet on-body recording; portable, lightweight location recording systems; rugged and miniature sports recorders; and board-level DVRs for OEMs. At the upcoming NAB show, FFV is going to be demo’ing a number of their DVR offerings, including Omega HD, which also happens to be the selection of a national sports organization. This HD version of the company’s flagship high-end Omega DVR can record in either SD or HD video with high-quality JPEG2K compression of up to 100 Mbits/sec. The recorder allows users to simultaneously record, play, and store multiple video files as well as create video clips, loops and playlists using the simple-touch front panel controls. The Omega HD uses standard, removable SATA drives and offers accurate frame control via RS-422 or Ethernet, using standard control protocols. Then there’s their Recon DVR, which is used in video recording systems for space missions. This is an ultra-compact, board-level DVR delivering extraordinary image quality with a “go anywhere” design. This offers enormous flexibility to manufacturers of OEM products that can work in stand-alone or portable apps without sacrificing performance or quality. Recon DVR provides 720×486 pixel image resolution and scalable compress with high quality video inputs and outputs to maximize image quality. With a choice of either pre-assigned GPI inputs, or an extensive menu of control options such as serial digital interface (SDI) and USB 2.0 download ports, Recon DVR meets the DVR app needs for many diverse markets. Other products on display will include FieldPro, Outrider DVR, Mini DVR Pro, the NDT200 portable DVR (used in law enforcement and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security) and the Xi Series—Irvine, California
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digiBIZ—A new product license agreement has been signed ‘tween Front Porch Digital and Avid Technology. The agreement brings into play the former’s DIVArchive technology with Avid’s workflow asset management systems, Interplay, and the original Workgroup 4 Media Manager product line. Front Porch Digital offers full integration with Avid Interplay as well as Workgroup 4-based systems as an option to the DIVArchive CSM system. The DIVArchive Avid interface provides SD and HD content storage expansion, material exchange, transcoding, and long-term archiving. As DIVArchive provides a central storage system serving multiple post-production, newsroom, and on-air systems, customers need only a single investment in storage equipment. With its in-path transcoding support, DIVArchive allows for tapeless content sharing and exchange between different workflow “silos” in a broadcast environment—Louisville, Colorado
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digiDELIVERY—
Harris Corporation revealed IRIS Networks of Nashville has installed a Harris IPTV headend featuring NetVX MPEG-4/H.264 video encoding for the delivery of standard and high-definition terrestrial TV channels to rural independent telecommunications companies. IRIS Networks is a member-owned organization comprising 11 independent telephone companies in Tennessee, southern Kentucky and Virginia. The organization’s Nashville point-of-presence (POP) serves as a centralized distribution point for the delivery of 16 channels of local off-air station programming from Nashville and Knoxville, Tennessee, to participating telecommunications companies, all of which provide TV services to rural areas underserved by traditional cable TV service providers. The Harris IPTV headend installed at IRIS Networks’ POP in Nashville includes Harris Videotek® DDM-800 ATSC demodulators and NetVX MPEG-2 decoders to receive and decode the TV signals from off-air antennas; and NetVX ENC-A21 MPEG-4/H.264 encoders to compress and transport the multiple standard and high-definition TV channels over a fiber-based IP backbone to the rural telephone companies that deliver the channels to subscribers at home and elsewhere—Cincinnati, Ohio
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digiCREATION—Extreme slow motion plays an important role in content creation within live sports and TV programming, commercials, docs, feature flicks and scientific R&D. I-Movix has just debuted their SprintCam Live, the first, true Extreme Live Slow-Motion solution that offers up to 8000 fps and instant replay. To be shown at the NAB show, SprintCam Live supports both SD and HD (720p and 1080i) and offers real-time control of image quality settings, including gamma, knee, white and black balance, and so on. This product can be easily integrated into a mobile broadcast setup and can be used as a standalone solution. The offering is comprised of a camera, camera control unit (CCU), an operator control panel (OCP) and a slow motion remote control. Virtually no training is required—Mons, Belgium & San Jose, California
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digiDELIVERY—Providing software solutions for managing and broadcasting TV and radio content is NETIA and the firm will be demo’ing some of the products at CABSAT 2008. They include the Radio-Assist 7.5 range of digital audio software programs for radio station operations. From production to broadcast is covered, which means a single app can record, edit, or prep a playlist. Plus, both 5.1 and 7.1 multichannel audio is supported by Radio-Assist 7.5, from recording to editing using the company’s Snippet tool, and then broadcast finished media through the Air-Cartstack app that’s included. There’s also NETIA’s Feed-In mode for day-to-day scheduling of all automatic recordings of external programs, and they’ll also demo their U-Share network management system for automating the exchange of content over the latest transmission platforms, no matter if IP transport or DVB video transport. Additional content exchanges can be organized according to priority with flexible options for setting and modifying transmission schedules.
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digiDELIVERY—
Wohler Technologies‘ video products division, PANORAMAdtv, has provided in-rack audio and video monitoring solutions for the broadcast, motion picture, and professional audio/visual markets since 1987. These are the new Wohler products to be shown at the 2008 NAB Show. Wohler Plus is a line of audio products represent state-of-the-art processing and monitoring tailored to the needs of digital broadcasting, whether for terrestrial broadcasting, video over IP, cable, or satellite. The innovative system offers a new approach to processing and monitoring and provides a variety of DSP options so that each unit can be configured for the specific functions required by a facility. This flexibility eliminates the need for all-or-nothing boxes and helps broadcasters lower operational costs. The modular system features flexible inputs (16 channels or 8 AES pairs) and outputs, alarms, monitoring, and metering, along with multiple channel synchronizing and shuffling of channels for 5.1 or 7.1 signal confidence. Optional inputs include AES and multirate serial digital embedded audio with Dolby encoding. The 2-RU Wohler Plus features a high-resolution TFT screen and on-board menu system for control, as well as Ethernet, RS-232, and GPIO interfaces. Also on display will be the latest additions to Wohler’s modular openGear line, with the new system using a standard card and your choice of IP core applications including an HD format dual-channel logo keyer, and an HDVANC data inserter/extractor, as well as the HDCC-200A HD/SD-SDI dual-channel closed-caption encoder/decoder bridge, a compact and flexible solution that simplifies closed-caption encoding of two independent SD and/or HD sources, in any international standard. Plus, Wohler’s new Touch-it Digital will be present, offering multichannel video monitoring functionality in a 3-RU system. The features include dual, 7-inch, high-resolution color LCD displays. The left monitor is a touch screen that displays from four to 16 thumbnail images. When one of these images is touched, that video source appears on the right monitor at full size and its HD/SD-SDI source signal is sent to an unbalanced output and to a VGA output for monitoring on an external display—Hayward, California
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