TANDBERG Launches World’s First Professional Multiformat MPEG-2/MPEG-4 AVC Decoder

TANDBERG Television announced that it is bringing the benefits of MPEG-4 AVC advanced video compression to players in the video contribution arena. The NAB launch of the world’s first professional multiformat MPEG-2/MPEG-4 AVC SD/HD decoder will enable network operators and broadcasters to deliver both standard definition (SD) and high definition (HD) content from studio to studio and across networks to regional head-ends and affiliates. The leading edge professional receiver, named the RX1290, is also ideal for use in digital satellite newsgathering and digital electronic newsgathering applications.

The RX1290 is TANDBERG Television’s next generation professional receiver and has been specifically designed for the high-end contribution market where premium quality and performance is paramount. Being capable of decoding both MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 AVC, HD or SD, the RX1290 offers the ultimate receive device to help the migration from today’s SD broadcast environment to tomorrow’s HD-capable networks.

“The launch of the RX1290 continues our tradition of offering value-added, highly integrated professional receivers for quality-conscious broadcasters. Our advanced compression track record is full of market firsts and we are pleased to maintain that position with the NAB launch of our AVC encode-decode solution. With this development broadcasters can now benefit from the advances in compression standards to achieve up to 50% bandwidth saving on their contribution links,” says Roger Bolton, Business Development Director at TANDBERG Television.

The RX1290 comes with a standard ASI interface and can in addition be fitted with an integrated high performance DVB-S2 demodulator giving an additional potential 30% bandwidth savings. Future interfaces will include IP and COFDM as well. Capable of processing and decoding more video formats than any other receiver on the market, the RX1290 is designed around the most powerful processors available. It works with the TANDBERG Director V5 control solution with smartcard-less conditional access for satellite contribution and distribution.