Scopus Network Technologies has supplied Rogers Television, a division of Rogers Cable Communications, Inc., with encoder/decoder pairs that will serve as bi-directional links between the company's Mississauga and Richmond Hill studios and its centralized master control facility in Toronto. The Scopus CODICO E-1000 encoders and IRD-2900 receiver/decoders will enable Rogers Television's remote facilities to deliver high-quality, contribution-level feeds to master control with virtually no delay.
"We recently completed digital rebuilds of both our Mississauga and Richmond Hill control rooms, and we needed a system that would allow us to deliver high-quality SDI feeds to our Toronto facility in near-real time," said Pierre Fortin, national manager of production engineering at Rogers Television.
"Of all the encoders we tested, only the Scopus products met this standard," continued Fortin. "Other systems made transmission over about a 15-mile distance look like a long-distance satellite hop. The Scopus CODICO product line provides high-quality video output at modest bit rates and, more importantly, offers the ultra-low latency essential in video contribution for live two-way transmission."
Rogers Television has put the Scopus encoders and IRD systems through rigorous engineering testing and plans to complete network provisioning by the end of the first quarter. The new systems allow the group of local stations to work with SDI video in the 4:2:2 color space and therefore provide cable subscribers in the greater Toronto area with exceptional image quality.
The CODICO E-1000 encoder from Scopus is a professional-grade encoder that applies a state-of-the-art video pre-processor to provide efficient bit rate and buffering control, delivering flexible encoding capabilities and high-quality pictures at any given bit rate. Housed in a 1-RU rack-mount enclosure, the E-1000 combines a variety of interfaces with a high-performance core, high-speed data processing, VBI support, and advanced program multiplexing in an advanced encoding solution.
Rogers Television will use the new Scopus IRD-2900, a professional receiver decoder rich in a variety of video, audio, and customizable options with the added benefit of IP connectivity for SNMP control. TVC Canada, a systems integrator, facilitated the sale and coordinated the installation. TVC is Canada‚s leading value-added reseller in broadcasting and cable.
