New Demodulator for China DTV Announced

By Doug Lung
published

Iberium Communications has announced a new digital demodulator core, the "Paco," for the China DTV market. It is fully compliant with the digital terrestrial standard DTMB (GB20600-2006) and supports all single carrier and multicarrier transmission modes. The Paco core has been licensed to an unnamed major Japanese consumer electronics vendor.

I hadn't heard of Iberium demodulators, so I looked for additional information on their Web site. In 2007, the respected Communications Research Centre (CRC) in Ottawa, Canada called their "Garcia" 8-VSB and 64/256-QAM core for North America, "Overall... one of the best receivers tested..."

The company is also working on a demodulator core, the "Santana" for the new ATSC mobile DTV standard. The Iberium product listings have no technical details on any of the demodulators. All it says about the Santana is, "Iberium is leveraging its expertise in VSB and will be ready with a high performance solution in Q1 2010. Information is available under non-disclosure agreement."

If any readers know what products are using the Iberium demodulator core or have more information on the Iberium CRC study, please let me know.

Doug Lung
Doug Lung

Doug Lung is one of America's foremost authorities on broadcast RF technology. As vice president of Broadcast Technology for NBCUniversal Local, H. Douglas Lung leads NBC and Telemundo-owned stations’ RF and transmission affairs, including microwave, radars, satellite uplinks, and FCC technical filings. Beginning his career in 1976 at KSCI in Los Angeles, Lung has nearly 50 years of experience in broadcast television engineering. Beginning in 1985, he led the engineering department for what was to become the Telemundo network and station group, assisting in the design, construction and installation of the company’s broadcast and cable facilities. Other projects include work on the launch of Hawaii’s first UHF TV station, the rollout and testing of the ATSC mobile-handheld standard, and software development related to the incentive auction TV spectrum repack. A longtime columnist for TV Technology, Doug is also a regular contributor to IEEE Broadcast Technology. He is the recipient of the 2023 NAB Television Engineering Award. He also received a Tech Leadership Award from TV Tech publisher Future plc in 2021 and is a member of the IEEE Broadcast Technology Society and the Society of Broadcast Engineers.