Norwegian monitoring vendor Bridge Technologies hopes to exploit the growing installed base of DVB-T2 for video contribution in Europe with a new solution to be unveiled at IBC 2011. The company will debut a monitor it claims will be the world’s first for the DVB-T2 Modulator Interface (MI), which enables multiple transmitters to participate in a DVB-T2 single-frequency network (SFN). DVB-T2 is already used by many operators in Europe because of its ability to support SFN, achieving 30 percent bandwidth efficiency gains over the legacy DVB-T. Bridge Technologies has solved the monitoring challenge posed by the DVB-T2-MI format and is making T2-MI monitoring available as an option across the range of VideoBRIDGE probes.
SFN allows multiple transmitters to combine to provide stronger signal transmission and avoid gaps in coverage in some areas within the DVB-T region, reducing power costs in the process. It also makes more efficient use of scarce radio spectrum. But it brings challenges synchronizing signals to avoid distortion, since the single-frequency operation creates overlaps where signals are arriving from more than one transmitter. DVB-T2 MI was developed to facilitate communication among transmitters to ensure accurate timing of signal transmission.
