Sinclair Taps ATEME for ATSC Encoding

By Tom Butts
published

PARIS, DENVER & SINGAPORE–ATEME has announced that it is supplying Sinclair Broadcast Group with live video encoding technology for Sinclair’s Dallas experimental ATSC 3.0 test for single frequency networks.

ATEME is providing its TITAN encoding platform for ATSC 1.0 (MPEG-2) “Host Station” encoding and “NextGen” 3.0 (HEVC) encoding, providing efficient, Live/Mux statistical multiplexing enabled VBR encoding across both transmission platforms. Two years ago, ATEME introduced HE-MPEG2, a high-efficiency MPEG-2 codec, which is compatible with MPEG-2 compliant decoders, including legacy set-top boxes, digital televisions and digital to analog MPEG-2 converters.

[Read: Q&A: Mark Aitken On Dallas Next-Gen SFN Trial]

Based on the bandwidth efficiency of HE-MPEG2 in conjunction with ATEME’s TITAN Live/Mux statistical multiplexing, the ATSC stations have increased mux density by 30 percent without compromising video quality, according to ATEME. TITAN is a pure software encoder-transcoder that can provide a migration path to ATSC 3.0, HEVC or SHVC (scalable HEVC) and runs on any private/public and on/off-premises cloud infrastructure.

For a comprehensive list of TV Technology’s ATSC 3.0 coverage, see our ATSC3 silo.

Tom Butts
Tom Butts

Tom has covered the broadcast technology market for the past 25 years, including three years handling member communications for the National Association of Broadcasters followed by a year as editor of Video Technology News and DTV Business executive newsletters for Phillips Publishing. In 1999 he launched digitalbroadcasting.com for internet B2B portal Verticalnet. He is also a charter member of the CTA's Academy of Digital TV Pioneers. Since 2001, he has been editor-in-chief of TV Tech (www.tvtech.com), the leading source of news and information on broadcast and related media technology and is a frequent contributor and moderator to the brand’s Tech Leadership events.