done and done, got to love FPGA for long term usability and keeping oyur kit upto date.
Imagine for a moment that it's January 2008 and that DVB (The Digital Video Broadcasting Project) is currently drafting a specification called DVB-T2 for the next generation of digital terrestrial television transmission (DTT) systems.
So... back to that day in January 2008.
Remember it's January 2008 and at this point we have... nothing.
On the day that the specification was approved by DVB (26 June 2008), we issued a press release to tell the world that we had begun the world's first experimental DVB-T2 transmissions.
"Sneals2000 said: 09-25-2008, 06:07 AM
The BBC are currently running the first proper live tests of DVB-T2 from a real transmitter (using BBC designed modulators and demodulators) in Guildford.
It is carrying 3x11Mbs H264 1080/50i HD video streams (using a new Thomson encoder - and delivering higher quality video than the 16.5Mbs BBC HD on DSat...) in a 36Mbs DVB-T2 mux (32k carriers and 256QAM rather than 2k/8k carriers and 16/64QAM as used by DVB-T)
No production silicon exists for DVB-T2 receivers yet - but the Beeb / Ofcom are hoping that manufacturers will have chipsets available in time for the launch when Granada has DSO in late 2009, which is also when other DSO regions will switch from the 6xDVB-T to 5xDVB-T 1xDVB-T2 model... (Mux B - the second BBC Mux - becomes PSB Mux 3 and switches from DVB-T to DVB-T2, and carries 3 HD streams - one from the BBC and two from ITV/C4/Five - TBA I think who gets the licenses for that)
(At the same time Muxes 1 - and possibly C and D - should switch to 8k 64QAM 24Mbs from 2k 16QAM 18Mbs, and Mux 2 and A should switch from 2k 64QAM 24Mbs to 8k 64QAM 24Mbs - rendering a lot of early receivers obsolete in those regions...)
It is also possible to squeeze functionality such as HDTV decoding into CAMs, and could also provide one solution for upgrading Freeview-standard IDTVs from the existing DVB-T standard to DVB-T2 (see our previous post on Ofcom’s plans for DVB-T2). IDTVs are now outstripping sales of set-top boxes in the UK, and either CI or CI+ could provide one of the tools required to address what is already being dubbed a ‘second switchover’.
And what of ‘CI Version Two’? Well, Ocean Blue’s CEO Ken Helps tells me, the intention is to hand the CI+ spec over to the DVB, and to ask them to adopt it in its place. So, CIV2 and C+ could become one and the same thing….
YEAH, finally some real end users STBs kit might get a fully long term upgradeable FPGA chip abble to be in home flashed to fix and problems instead of binning it and buying new kit.
FPGA chipsets rule EVERY SINGLE OEM should be usingthem Today in ALL the UK STB/TV abd related kit instead of the slightly cheaper and far more limited fixed DSPs your Virgin media and sky and mostly all the freeview kit has used to date.
"IBC World Congress: ENENSYS, NXP Semiconductors (News - Alert) and Pace plc are proud to present tomorrow's enhanced terrestrial TV by showcasing the first end-to-end DVB-T2 demonstration of this brand new standard.
At this year's IBC in Amsterdam, ENENSYS will demonstrate for the first time an end-to-end DVB-T2 chain including a modulator and a demodulator, thanks to a strong partnership with NXP Semiconductors and Pace.
ENENSYS is proud to showcase its FPGA-based modulator natively designed to handle any kind of standard (already available in DVB-T, DVB-H and DTMB). This powerful platform has been reused to embed the DVB-T2 modulation core. The prototype show-cased on DVB booth at IBC is the first working step in the DVB-T2 modulator development, presenting a live on-air end-to-end solution. This new ENENSYS product will allow transmitter manufacturer, chipset manufacturers and R&D teams to perform live signal broadcast, factory tests and measurements, demonstrations or roadshows.