Thomson Does Five HD Channels in 24.8 Mbps OTA in France

RENNES, FRANCE—Thomson Video Networks conducted what it said was France’s “first” demonstration of transmitting five HD channels in a DTTV 24.8 Mbps multiplex, enabled by the company’s industry-leading Vibe EM4000 HD/SD encoder and NetProcessor multiplexer/video processor. The demonstration was held Nov. 30 through Dec. 5. It was managed by the HD Forum at the NRJ main broadcasting facility in Paris.

Thomson Video Networks created the demonstration to show how advanced compression technology can be used to broadcast five HD channels, instead of the three currently used today in France, in a DTTV 24.8 Mbps multiplex without compromising video quality. With 1080ix1920 HD content provided by five French broadcasters—Arte, Canal+, France Televisions, NRJ, and TF1—the Vibe EM4000 encoded the video in MPEG-4 VBR (statistical multiplexing). The HD content was then multiplexed by the NetProcessor, modulated in DVB-T, and displayed on five 46-inch and 55-inch televisions with built-in decoder capabilities.