re: NTL & Divicom. Did NTL preannounce a new Divicom product?...
InterSect or InterSet will be announced at IBC 98...
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Show Report
IBC 98 Exhibition: A DVB Showcase
Gerald M. Walker, Carrie A. Poland and Jennifer M. Lowe
09/30/98
World Broadcast News
Copyright 1998 by PRIMEDIA Intertec, a PRIMEDIA Company. All rights reserved.
The RAI Centre show floors at IBC 98 will be for DVB, the European-spawned digital TV broadcast systems, what the Las Vegas NAB was for ATSC, the American standards. DVB-compliant equipment will have center stage at numerous stands during the convention, 11 to 15 September in Amsterdam. And the DVB Group will hold demonstrations of terrestrial (DVB-T), cable TV (DVB-C) and satellite (DVB-S) transmissions. As one exhibitor put it, "IBC 98 could be renamed, DVB 98."
At the dawn of digital television in Europe, exhibitors at IBC 98 are lining up their DVB-compliant equipment and getting ready to take orders. In addition, they expect to see visitors from the "uncommitted" countries who will be at IBC to decide which way to go into the next century. Although the multiplexes going on-air in Europe are emphasizing multichannel services, there will be demonstrations of high-definition television (HDTV), as well.
Essentially, every aspect of the DVB broadcast chain will be on display throughout the RAI halls from transmission to encoders, to production gear, to set-top boxes. Data transmission systems will also be a highlight of the digital showcase. For its part, the DVB Group plans to demonstrate mobile DVB broadcasts, as well as HDTV.
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Philips DVS is among the exhibitors who plan to feature products for all three DVB transmission standards. Philips equipment will also be used in the DVB Group's demonstrations, according to Bart van Dijk of Philips. Key products on the stand will include digital multiplexing systems.
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"This is a year that the issues surrounding digital terrestrial will become apparent. As people make commitments, the implications of those decisions will be clearer," comments a spokesman for Snell & Wilcox. "Some of the broadcasters have already made their decisions," he adds, "For example BDB is going on the air."
Snell & Wilcox has sold BDB, recently renamed On Digital, their digital backbone, including modular and digitization equipment for terrestrial applications. The spokesman believes that as a result of these installations, where broadcasters have invested real money, DVB-T will be a big thing at IBC.
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Canal+ also is showing the set-top box that will be produced by different manufacturers selected by British Digital Broadcasting. Those boxes are DVB compliant, as well. It is also capable of downloading software for games and other programs.
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In the case of NTL , a large part of its IBC presence will be offering attendees the hands-on experience of implementing DTT networks.
"Now, having had the nuts-and-bolts experience of actually implementing the networks, being systems integrators and building the transmitters, as well as working out the antenna systems, plus making it all fit into the existing analog world, which still has to carry on, I think we can offer a whole lot of expertise," comments NTL 's Bruce Randall.
He adds that NTL has also introduced interactive systems as various platforms come on stream. At the moment, the interactive system is UK-facing, but Randall expects that it will
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Divicom will release its new interactive cable services with TCP/IP. The InterSet interactive set-top box controller enables cable operators to deliver interactive application services, such as web browsing, e-mail and commerce.
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FAST Multimedia The 601 real-time nonlinear video editing system based on the MPEG-2 standard, is at the heart of this year's trade show presentation by FAST Multimedia. In addition to the high picture quality offered by the editable MPEG-2 format, 601 will offer the print to DV option, allowing users to generate a fully DVD compatible MPEG-2 video datastream. Visitors to the FAST stand can also get hands-on experience with blue., the professional native digital editor, as well as with DV Master Pro, FAST's new DV / DVCAM / i.LINK editing solution for Windows NT.
With 601 and blue., FAST has two new products based on MPEG-2. The version of compression used lets users frame-accurately edit the format with high quality.
The central element of 601 is FAST's editing software, 601-Studio. The user has an unlimited number of video and audio tracks with a completely custom-izable and professional interface. Both 2-D and 3-D video effects and filters can be manipulated via an effects editor and key frame. Stand 2.230
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NDS NDS will show a number of new products and digital broadcasting systems at the show, including the new E5000 encoder range. The high-quality range of MPEG-2 compression digital encoders offers flexibility with space for a multitude of modular option cards, ensuring that the encoders can be configured to meet the needs of many customer-specific requirements.
Additionally, NDS' Terrestrial News Gathering (TNG) system will be demonstrated. TNG gives broadcasters a mobile news gathering system that, when used with COFDM modulation, operates in built-up urban areas, which can often be a challenge for mobile newsgathering.
NDS will be showing MPEG splicing systems for DTH and DTTV digital broadcasters. MPEG splicing allows broadcasters to add local content, such as news and advertisements to a national network without a noticeable drop in picture quality.
The company will also spotlight its new store and forward systems, featuring local material capture, scheduled playout and offline automatic content capture. It allows broadcasters to better manage bandwidth and is designed for scheduling and pretransmission of adverts and near live distribution of local programming in a national network.
Additionally, NDS will show the MediaStorm data broadcasting system. Compliant with Internet and DVB SI-DAT standards, the MediaStorm delivers a transparent link between broadcasters and their customers. Stand 8.240
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Thomson Broadcast Systems Thomson Broadcast Systems will show a series of new products, including the 1707 one-piece digital triax camera. Designed for use in all kinds of studio and many outside broadcast applications, the 1707 camera, which is all-digital from acquisition to transmission over triaxial cable, features a digital triax link with no compression, one-piece configuration, 12-bit acquisition and 24-bit signal processing.
The company will also feature Nextore, a two- or four-channel server developed in close collaboration with Digital Equipment Corporation. Nextore is a universal server, using Windows NT computer standards and AVI/Open DML file formats, with all the facilities for high data rate network connections.
Also new is the DBE 4100 family of MPEG-2 encoders. The family includes DBE 4110 for DSNG applications, DBE 4120 for contribution applications, and the DBE 4130 for broadcast applications.
Thomson Broadcast will also be showing the TNA/SNA/CNA 4600 family of telecom network adaptors. The adaptor family is well-suited to convey MPEG-2 transport streams between remote sites or from a central headend to several remote headends. Stand 8.370
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No mention of Innovacom |
