(20 March 2008 2:00 pm)

MUMBAI: Tandberg Television has just launched the RX8300 series professional integrated receiver decoder (IRD), optimised for specific high volume video distribution applications that 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.

The 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 analogue broadcast systems or for service monitoring.

Tandberg Television executive VP, compression systems, Roger Bolton says, "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."

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.

The RX8320 provides both ASI and 8-VSB inputs for reception of broadcast services over terrestrial or fibre links with automatic redundancy switchover between the inputs.

To support analogue 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 analogue SD delivery.

Automatic picture aspect ratio conversion is performed based on any active format description (AFD) and bars 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 analogue 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.

The series will be on display in Tandeberg's booth #SU4210 at the Nab Show in Las Vegas from 14-17 April, 2008.