TANDBERG Television TAT.OL) announced that it is enabling China Central Television (CCTV), the country’s largest broadcaster, to provide its viewers with high definition coverage of live games from the FIFA 2006 World Cup in Germany. CCTV is using TANDBERG Television’s award-winning MPEG-4 AVC HD encoding and decoding solutions to maximize the bandwidth of its DS3 international link and its local delivery network.

CCTV is one of the 150 operators from 145 countries that have broadcasting rights from FIFA’s Host Broadcast Services (HBS). Live feeds from matches in 12 German cities are being broadcast around the world, including the final in Berlin on July 9. For almost a year CCTV has been broadcasting an HDTV service using a TANDBERG MPEG-2 head-end system. The World Cup provides an ideal opportunity to put TANDBERG’s end-to-end MPEG-4 AVC HD system to the test.

"Broadcasting the World Cup in high definition is not only a magnificent achievement in its own right, but is also an excellent preparation for the upcoming 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing," says Mr. Ding Wen Hua, Chief Engineer of CCTV. "The implication for large-scale broadcasting in HD is immense and this is a significant event in the Chinese, and Asian, television industry."

As well as using TANDBERG’s advanced HD compression, CCTV is the first broadcaster in Asia to use the new professional multi-format MPEG-2/MPEG-4 AVC SD/HD decoder, the TANDBERG RX1290, which is being launched at Broadcast Asia this week. The TANDBERG RX1290 receiver is the world’s first multi-format MPEG-2/MPEG-4 AVC decoder, capable of processing and decoding more video formats than any other receiver and enabling network operators and broadcasters to deliver content from studio to studio and across networks to regional head-ends and affiliates. It is the perfect partner for MPEG-4 AVC encoding technology, which greatly reduces the bandwidth used.

"Being able to help CCTV further its HDTV aims is a great honor. We have enjoyed a long partnership with CCTV and we are committed to helping the broadcaster to continue to develop advanced television services such as HDTV delivery of the FIFA World Cup," says Graham Cradock, executive vice president and general manager, TANDBERG Television, APAC.

At Broadcast Asia, visitors to the TANDBERG Television stand (#8C2-01) will be able to view a live demonstration of the company’s award-winning advanced compression solutions. Graham Cradock will present the Broadcast Asia opening keynote address on Tuesday, 20 June 2006 at 12:00 noon, entitled ’Reality Bites: New Generation Drivers for Digital Content Delivery’.