Bridge Technologies has launched a complete solution for monitoring and analyzing DVB-T2 transmissions, with full support for the T2-MI stream format. DVB-T2 is estimated to be the transmission format of choice for 70 percent of the broadcast infrastructure currently under construction, and DVB-T2 networks are already coming on air in most countries in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East.

Part of the DVB-T2 specification, T2-MI is used for contributing streams from the master headend to regional sites in a highly efficient and controlled form. T2-MI provides important advantages for operators, especially in single-frequency network (SFN) applications, where it ensures accuracy, allows all scheduling and allocation decisions to be made at the central headend, and lets each modulator in the network unambiguously create an identical on-air signal. However, the complex T2-MI formatted streams are structured in a way that made them inaccessible to standard monitoring systems — until the introduction of the DVB-T2-MI option for the VB120 or VB220 probes.

Together with the new dual-input VB252 DVB-T2 RF interface, the system provides complete visibility and packet analysis of both outer and T2-MI inner streams together with accurate drift monitoring for SFN networks, impulse response analysis, and high- quality MER measurement and level readings. With a system of probes including the VB252, operators can monitor DVB-T2 transmissions from the central headend to transmission sites, with full analysis of IP core transport (IP/FEC), SFN drift monitoring on ASI and RF, T2-MI analysis of PLPs (physical layer pipes), and RF input for DVB-T/DVB-T2 monitoring.

For monitoring at transmitters sites and field locations for quality validation, the VB252 will be available in Q4 2011.