RENNES, France -- Sept. 29, 2015 -- Thomson Video Networks today announced that the company's premium HD/SD encoding and video processing solutions are driving the transition to digital terrestrial television (DTT) in the Republic of Ivory Coast. French transmitter manufacturer Thomson Broadcast, part of the Arelis Group, has deployed the Thomson Video Networks solutions as the foundation for a pilot DTT video headend for CNM-TNT, the national Ivory Coast committee heading the transition.
Under the terms of an agreement with the ITU, Ivory Coast must make the switch from analog to digital television and put a DVB-T2 platform on air by June 2015 for UHF frequencies and June 2020 for VHF frequencies. The headend pilot, a joint project of Thomson Broadcast and French DTT technology providers Sagemcom and HTTV, is a major step toward completing the changeover. The headend from Thomson Video Networks consists of ViBE(R) EM4000 encoders, NetProcessor 9030/40 multiplexers/video processors with DVB-T2 gateway, and an Amethyst redundancy switch. Installed in Abidjan, Ivory Coast's largest city, the Thomson Video Networks solutions will enable the government to test and evaluate the DTT service before rolling it out to viewers across the country.
"For this transition to be a success, we need to be able to give our viewers perfect, premium satellite-quality video; advanced services; and numerous and appealing TV channels," said Pascal Veillat, CEO of Thomson Broadcast and Arelis. "Thanks to our extensive expertise in the deployment of complete systems, including headend transmitters, and the equipment from Thomson Video Networks, we know we can achieve these goals. Thomson Video Networks has provided an extremely powerful, compact, and unique DVB-T2 headend solution that provides premium-quality video compression at a low bit rate."
"Ivory Coast is among the first countries in West Africa to start the digital terrestrial migration, and this pilot includes advanced services that go beyond basic DTT. That makes our solution ideal for this project," said Christophe Delahousse, president, Thomson Video Networks. "It's no accident that we are number one in DVB-T2 headend deployments worldwide -- it's because we're able to provide the industry's most advanced digital terrestrial technologies and truly unique features, such as content regionalization and readiness for HEVC. Thomson Video Networks is very focused on DTT migration in Africa, and we believe the deployment in Ivory Coast will be the first of many great successes in the region."
Further information about Thomson Video Networks products is available at www.thomson-networks.com.
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About Thomson Broadcast
Since the earliest years of broadcasting, the Thomson name has been synonymous with expertise and innovation at the highest level. A trusted partner to the world's leading broadcasters, Thomson has pioneered many developments that have shaped the industry, leading innovation in solid-state technology, Digital Adaptive Pre-correction (DAP), Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM), and Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB); winning multiple Emmy(R) Awards; and gaining more than 50 patents in technologies that have become fundamental to broadcasting. Thomson Broadcast is building on this great heritage with a market-leading portfolio of transmission products for terrestrial television, radio broadcasting, and state-of-the-art products for scientific applications, combined with world-class systems integration services. With more than 50,000 active Thomson transmission systems deployed worldwide and a global support presence, Thomson Broadcast continues to forge technologies for the future, with initiatives such as the innovative GreenPower and broadcast/mobile convergence programs. In 2013 Thomson Broadcast was acquired by Arelis Group, a French industrial group mainly involved in military and professional activities. As part of the Arelis Group, Thomson Broadcast has an excellent platform for growth and development as a world-leading manufacturer of television and radio transmitters.
Visit www.thomson-broadcast.com.
About Thomson Video Networks
A global leader in advanced video compression solutions, Thomson Video Networks empowers media companies, video service providers, and broadcasters to deliver superior video quality at the highest density and lowest bandwidth for contribution, terrestrial, satellite, cable, IPTV, and OTT services. Through its innovative Behind Every Screen(R) approach, Thomson Video Networks combines both on-premises and cloud-based resources to create an all-encompassing video infrastructure for its advanced ingest/playout, branding, ad insertion, encoding/transcoding, and packaging technologies. Media enterprises now have every key capability they need to raise video quality and reduce cost of ownership not just for broadcast, but also for multi-screen services on every device and platform. Behind Every Screen you'll find Thomson Video Networks. Visit www.thomson-networks.com.
Photo Link: www.wallstcom.com/ThomsonVN/ThomsonVN-NetProcessor-9030-40-SpliceRater-Multiplexer.jpg
Photo Caption: Thomson Video Networks -- NetProcessor 9030/40 SpliceRater Multiplexer
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