SBS upgrades digital TV technology

The new centralised head-end will generate DVB-T transport streams for 12 separate regions.

The upgrade is also said to include the first deployment worldwide of dense SFN adaptation as part of the Tandberg MX8400 IP multiplexer.

Tandberg claims its compression head-ends are now used for four of the country’s five national digital terrestrial television (DTT) networks.

“SBS Television is watched by more than seven million Australians every week and an increasing number of them choose to view in digital,” said Paul Broderick, Director, Technology & Distribution at SBS.

“We are committed to expanding digital broadcasting to our diverse audience and we are upgrading our DTT network to take advantage of the latest generation head-end technology.”

SBS is using Tandberg E5710 MPEG-2 SD and E5780 MPEG-2 HD encoders and the MX8400 IP multiplexer to output MPEG-2 Transport Streams, with SFN adaptation.

Tandberg said in a statement that SFN processing is an important addition to the MX8400 IP multiplexer, which can support up to 16 transport streams in IP with SFN adaptation in a 2RU enclosure.

“Whilst fully supportive of ASI-based head-end systems, we are embracing IP throughout the DTT solution, all the way to the transmission site as part of our next-generation digital terrestrial television architecture,” added Simon Frost, Business Development Director at Tandberg Television.