TANDBERG Television announces the start of a new chapter in video compression, once again setting the standard for best quality encoding. The video compression market leader will launch its latest innovation, the EN8100 MPEG-2 SD encoder, at NAB 2009 (booth SU5108). The new system delivers a host of performance and operational benefits for DTH satellite, cable and terrestrial operators, as well as for content aggregators and distributors.

The TANDBERG EN8100 is the industry’s next generation MPEG-2 encoder, based on in-house developed technologies and encoding algorithms. It has been designed from the ground-up to deliver revolutionary encoding performance in a high density, low power (6 channels in 1 RU) chassis. The EN8100 cuts MPEG-2 SD bandwidth requirements by at least 15%, even in legacy STB operations, and delivers a step change in performance that makes a meaningful difference to business cases.

Bandwidth for new services and higher quality

With close to 1 billion MPEG-2 standard definition STBs and integrated digital TVs expected to be deployed world-wide by the end of 2009 {source: Screen Digest's TV Technology Intelligence service, March 2009}, the TANDBERG EN8100 opens up new opportunities for legacy service providers around the world. It enables operators to achieve higher picture quality in the same bitrate, which is ideal for making SD MPEG-2 look acceptable on large flat panel TVs, and to profit from additional revenue from their existing infrastructure.

Importantly, the minimum bandwidth savings of 15% are achieved while maintaining full compatibility with all previous generation STBs to maximize limited and expensive network and bandwidth space. This means all operators can cost-effectively launch new services and save one in every five frequencies/transponders used for MPEG-2 broadcast. This enables operators to:

• Reduce transponder space and OPEX for SD services and launch HD services with no additional transponder space
• Create space on cable networks to launch or expand new services such as HD, Internet or VOD by reducing bitrates currently used for MPEG-2
• Deploy more SD channels per terrestrial multiplex with the same or superior picture quality than possible with any other MPEG-2 encoder available.