TANDBERG EN8100 MPEG-2 Broadcast Encoder Deployed by Arqiva

TANDBERG Television has announced that Arqiva has deployed its new MPEG-2 video compression solution to update its UK digital terrestrial transmission infrastructure or DTT. The recent deployment of TANDBERG EN8100 high density MPEG-2 broadcast encoder is critical to the agreement between Arqiva (News - Alert) and TANDBERG.

Arqiva will be able to add two more channels per 16QAM multiplex besides improving the quality of pictures by using the TANDBERG Television (News - Alert) compression system. The new channels offer more choice to subscribers to the Freeview DTT service in the UK – as well as incremental revenue for Arqiva.

In a release, Michael Finchen, director of digital platforms for Arqiva, said “We are delighted with the performance of the new TANDBERG MPEG-2 platform, it has delivered results beyond our expectations. TANDBERG Television’s commitment to MPEG-2, the close relationship we have with their engineering and commercial teams and the unprecedented performance of the EN8100 were critical factors in our selection of the company, and key contributors to the success of this project.”

Roger Bolton, EVP of compression systems at TANDBERG Television, added that he was pleased that the technology from his company has helped Arqiva launch new services with better quality. Broadcasters and operators prefer the MPEG-2 platform and the company’s business model enabling solutions, he emphasized.

The EN8100’s ability to support legacy MPEG-2 set-top-boxes suits digital terrestrial operators like Arqiva.

“We are fully committed to the DTT market and to MPEG-2. We recognize the importance of gaining efficiency in existing MPEG-2 multiplexes, especially given the big push from operators wanting to deploy HD using DVB-T2,” said Simon Frost, business development director at TANDBERG Television.

TANDBERG Television is a part of the Ericsson Group and it delivers multimedia technology. Its advanced compression systems and content distribution solutions are preferred by broadcasters, operators and programmers for enabling better viewer experiences and advertising opportunities. The TANDBERG suite of open standards-based products enables it to offer Digital TV, HDTV, VOD and IPTV (News - Alert).