DIPOL Weekly Review - TV and SAT TV, CCTV, WLAN

The King is dead! Long live the King! - a new era of television.

• Super HD 4K TV, also called "Quad Full HD" technology, is a next-generation of HDTV. The resolution of a 4K image is at least four times the resolution of Full HD television (3840 x 2160 pixels or 4096 x 2160 pixels). During IBC, the satellite operator SES Astra and Sony Corp presented live transmission of 4K video content. The content was played and uplinked from the SES office in Betzdorf, Luxembourg, in Quad Full HD format via the Astra 3B satellite (23.5E) as DVB-S2 MPEG-4 (H.264), at 50 Mbps. The stream was received with a 90 cm dish and transmitted via optical fiber to the booths at IBC equipped with Sony Bravia 84" 4K displays with a pixel resolution of 3840 x 2160.
One may have heard some optimistic opinions that the first super-HD services might be available in 2014.

• HEVC, High Efficiency Video Coding, also known as H.265, is to be adopted as a final standard in 2013. In a few years, the new video compression method will probably supersede the today's most popular H.264/AVC, as being two times more efficient. The double increase in compression efficiency is possible due to advanced algorithms requiring several times more processing power. The standard also provides parallel image processing tools, which will be especially important for encoding and decoding high-resolution video. HEVC, also referred to as H.265 or MPEG-H Part 2, will be capable of carrying Ultra High Definition Television (UHDTV) up to a resolution of 7680 × 4320 pixels (8K, 4320p), i.e. with 16 times the number of pixels of 1080p HDTV.

• MPEG-DASH - Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP has been adopted since the end of 2011. This standard of video streaming optimizes image quality for available data tranfer rates to ensure best possible experience for the viewer (Quality of Experience - QoE) and unifies various currently popular technologies such as: Smooth Streaming from Microsoft, HTTP Dynamic Streaming from Adobe, and HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) from Apple.

• JPEG2000 is another compression standard, approved by ISO in 2008. The codec can be used in two modes, with lossy or lossless compression. In the latter case it is possible to retrieve the original information, which is essential for archiving data on hard drives/servers. This issue becomes very important when we realize that the bit rate of uncompressed digital video from a single 3G HD-SDI camera can reach several Gbps. JPEG2000 allows for approximately six-fold reduction of the rate.

• DVB-T2 Lite. This version of the DVB-T2 standard has been developed in view of the growing demand for mobile services based on ​​broadcasting technology. The "Light" profile uses lower bit rates and modes for simpler implementations in mobile devices, which also allow better reception in fringe areas.
The presented DVB-T2 modulator generated two streams in different profiles, one of them at data rate of 33.36 Mbps (three HD channels) and the second, "Lite" stream with a total bandwidth of 1 Mbps (four channels for mobile devices). The presentation was made with the use of Sony module connected to a laptop.

• Glassesfree 3D TV. Manufacturers are developing devices to eliminate one of the main problems of three-dimensional television - the need for dedicated glasses. The visitors had the opportunity to see how the glass-free 3D TV really works and they did not show delight. Time will tell whether this direction of development is right.

• SAT > IP. Satellite operator SES has developed a universal mechanism to provide satellite signals to various end devices such as STB, TVs, tablets, smartphones, etc. The key is demodulation and conversion of the signals into specially crafted IP packets. This conversion is performed just after the LNB by satellite receiver/IP server (SAT>IP server). It means that the reception method is the same (via satellite dishes and, in shared antenna systems, multiswitches). After conversion to IP, the most important thing is that the distribution of the programming can be done with the use of various media - fiber optics, Ethernet, Powerline Ethernet, Wi-Fi ... - it's definitely a wider range than coaxial cable.

• Inverse StatMux 3G/4G/LTE mobile uplink solution, something for broadcasters. This concept of transmitting high-quality video content has been developed for use by reporters working in the field. StatMux Inverse technique multiplexes the signal across multiple channels transmitted simultaneously over available networks (using e.g. several 3G/4G wireless data cards, Wi-Fi, WiMAX, Ethernet), with continuous monitoring of each channel capacity. The signal is then re-aggregated at the receiving end. The device presented by TVU Networks can be easily put into a backpack and directly connected to compatible camcorder. Probably soon, instead of big OB vans with giant satellite antennas, we will see reporters with cameras and backpacks.

"Engagingly about Antennas" - 11th edition.

Optical fiber termination in subscribers' premises.

How to protect outdoor connections in antenna installations?

Video surveillance of remote sites - media converters.

Titan supports PTZ cameras.

2.4 GHz and 5 GHz at the same time.

• direct line-of-sight between the antennas - this is the most important factor that determines the range and efficiency of data transmission. Any obstacles, such as trees, buildings, etc. adversely affect the operation and reliability of the transmission;
• standard, band and channel - in the case of long links the channel should be free from interference which may be caused by other WiFi networks... more