SÃO PAULO – Appear TV, a leading global provider of next-generation video processing platforms for broadcast and IP television, will showcase its XC Series Modular Platform, supporting top transmission functions, at ABTA 2014 (Booth I8). On display will be modules providing multiple processes for all stages of the transmission chain, from content-aggregation and video processing to multiplexing and multiple carrier delivery. Appear TV’s modular video processing platform provides users with a selection of modules to create a solution custom-tailored to their needs. Any signal input from any carrier can be captured and adapted to any other signal output, with highly dense and powerful video processing to any format and any device. With its ability to support multiple processes from its XC 5000 Series 4RU or 1RU modular frames, Appear TV’s solution greatly reduces space by increasing functional density, providing significant operating-cost savings. In addition, all Appear TV modules can work with other third-party devices, making integration with existing transmission equipment seamless. “With the convergence of aggregation and distribution formats, broadcasters are aiming to create a single universal platform that can be used to acquire content and distribute all video formats and profiles on multiple carriers,” says Sergio Renteria, International Sales Manager, Appear TV. “The modular nature of our platform allows users to have multiple dense distribution format processes originating from one chassis, allowing them to stay competitive while making it easy and cost-effective to add and upgrade as new formats and transmission technologies arise. This approach also enables the operator to control all broadcast services using a common platform and single management interface, reducing integration issues and enabling more powerful, user-friendly control and management.” CONTENT-AGGREGATION Appear TV has a wide range of input modules, making its platform the most effective content-aggregation solution on the market. An input module analyzes incoming transport streams and extracts selected services from the desired physical multiple-input interface. Services may then be descrambled, decoded or routed to desired multiple-output or processing modules through the integrated frame backplane. The Appear TV XC5000 frame can receive signals from a variety of sources, including satellite (DVB-S/S2), terrestrial (DVB-T/T2), cable (QAM), IP networks or local ASI feeds. These can then be descrambled by CAM or software-based modules or decoded to baseband, offering a highly dense downlink and content-aggregation platform. VIDEO PROCESSING WITH N+1 REDUNDANCY Appear TV’s encoding and transcoding modules are designed to provide state-of-the-art support of all headend encoding and transcoding duties, while offering control over all inputs and outputs. This means that any format input can address any format output for any device, making operation simple and straightforward. New for transcoding capabilities at ABTA 2014 is Appear TV’s High-Channel Density, MultiFormat SD/HD & Multiscreen Universal Transcoder Module, which performs “any-to-any” format transcodes, supporting 4 full-HD, 16 SD or 28 sub-SD profiles per module, as well as associated audio channels. The modular nature of the Appear TV solution allows multiple transcoder modules to be operated from one 4RU XC5000 chassis, with the capacity to support 64 HD, up to 256 SD or more than 448 sub-SD profiles per frame. These transcoding capabilities can be combined with Appear TV’s Encoder module which can handle up to 32 HD or 64 SD channels per 4RU chassis, offering HD-SDI/SDI with MPEG-2/MPEG-4 AVC encoding. Audio encoding includes MPEG-1 Layer 2 stereo, LC-AAC stereo, HE-AAC v1/2 stereo and Dolby Digital pass-through formats. Along with these capabilities is Appear TV’s self-managing N+1 redundancy solution, a pair of ultra-reliable, hardware-based, fully integrated 1+1-redundant control cards that comprehensively manage redundancy switching, without the need for third-party network managing software. MULTIPLEXING AND MODULATION Appear TV’s multiplexer modules are powerful digital multiplexing solutions that simplify engineers’ deployment and operational routines. The modules have a throughput of 850 Mbps, and each output card supports 250 services for CBR, Capped VBR or Statistical Multiplexed services (VBR). They offer high-performance IP, ASI, QAM, DVBS/S2 and COFDM output modules for direct insertion of digital services into a satellite, cable, terrestrial or IP-based network. DELIVERY Appear TV offers a large number of different output modules that feature MPEG multiplexing and PSI/SI/PSIP regeneration, adaption and DVB/AES scrambling options available as integrated features, with exceptional IP-based seamless network switching and I/O redundancy features. This allows for robust and reliable delivery of a single or multiple multiplexes from a single platform centrally or regional/edge based in the network. The Web-open standards-based user interface can be employed for local or remote configuration and monitoring of all aspects of the fully integrated solution.
