ENENSYS to showcase end-to-end mobile TV solution

ENENSYS Technologies is featuring at IBC2009 its turnkey mobile TV solution for delivery networks, a complete headend system from content transcoding and distribution to transmission and conditional access management. The package includes:

• Transcaster, an H264 mobile TV transcoder

• Cryptocaster, a ISMACryp encryption server

• MobiMux, a DVB-H IP encapsulator

• MIP Inserter, an SFN adapter

• FastCaster, an MPEG-2-over-IP gateway

• LabMod, a DVB-H modulator

• RFBooster, a 1W amplifier

• DiviCatch RF-T/H, a DVB-H pocket analyzer

In addition, the solutions also include integrated DVB IPDC and OMA-BCAST ESG servers and DVB-H IPDC handsets from ENENSYS partners. Components of ENENSYS' mobile TV system were introduced at NAB2008.

In July, French operator TDF launched a mobile TV trial in Paris using ENENSYS equipment, including the MobiMux DVB-H IP encapsulator.

Russia approves mobile TV

Russia has taken a huge step towards the launch of mobile TV services in its capital, Moscow.
Kommersant reports that the country’s State Commission for Radio Frequencies (GKRCH) has given the go-ahead for subsidiaries of three operators – Sistema, Vimpelcom and Skartela – to launch DVB-H services in Moscow by the end of the year.

Until the end of the year, they will operate on a trial basis and offer eight channels free of charge. These have already been selected, according to an earlier Presidential Decree, as the main TV channels currently available in Russia, plus new youths and children’s channels.

More will subsequently be added, with operators having to obtain permission in each case, though DVB-H is as yet not regulated by Russian law.

All three operators appear to have the necessary infrastructure in place, and Sistema’s subsidiary TSTV has in fact already undertaken trials.

However, Kommersant points out that there are some doubts as to Sistema’s future mobile plans: disagreements led to the resignation of TSTV’s director only last week, and the company has stated a preference for using 3G rather than DVB-H for a future mobile TV service.

South Africa to get 3 DTT muxes

South Africa will have three national digital multiplexes for television, according to The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA), which has just published the Digital Terrestrial Television regulations for final public consultation.

 

The first multiplex will be used for public broadcasting, including the SABC and Eastern Cape community station Trinity Broadcasting Network. A public value test will be applied to any channels wishing to broadcast on this multiplex. The SABC will have to include two regional channels as part of this multiplex.

In the second multiplex, commercial free-to-air services will be included. E.tv will be allocated 60 percent of the multiplex, with additional capacity to be allocated to new broadcasters.

 

Of the third multiplex, 50 percent will be reserved for pay-TV operator M-Net, conditional on its ability to switch all its subscribers from its current analogue decoders to digital decoders within a year.

 

Complete analogue switch-off is planned on November 1, 2011. ICASA wants to introduce competition with the end of the dual illumination period, allow for trials by other interested persons, enable for the provision of mobile services such as DVB-H), provide for M-Net to conduct a hard switch over within a period of 12 months, thus allowing an early release of the digital dividend.