France Télévisions launches DTV services for territories with Thomson Video Networks system

France Télévisions has launched DTV services for French-administered overseas territories, using Thomson Video Networks headend technology.

French overseas territories include locations in the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans; the South American coast; and as far as Antarctica, with a combined population of more than 2.5 million. France Télévisions provides television services to the overseas territories through Réseau Outre-Mer 1ère, the French foreign broadcasting organization.

Thomson Video Networks provided the headend technology for Réseau Outre-Mer 1ère to deliver its programming in SD and HD with MPEG-4 encoding. The system encompasses a range of technologies including: the Thomson ViBE EM1000 and EM3000 encoders, NetProcessor 9030 Multiplexers and Sapphire MPEG servers. Redundancy management is provided by Thomson Amethyst switchers, with advanced delivery-chain monitoring capability supplied by Thomson Granite Sentinel digital TV probes. Reception of contributed feeds for rebroadcasting is handled by Thomson's RD5000 SD/HD MPEG-2/4 receiver/decoder.

See Thomson Video Networks at 2011 NAB Show booth SU491.