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PROMAX supports the deployment of Ultra HD in France

The Future TV Days 2015 exhibition organised this week by TF1 has been the opportunity for the French satellite broadcaster FRANSAT to present a new distribution solution for Ultra HD channels based on the PROMAX CompactMax headend.

For nearly one year the satellite operator EUTELSAT has been broadcasting two Ultra HD channels. One of them, broadcasted through the FRANSAT platform for French TV viewers via EUTELSAT 5 West A satellite, has been used mainly for demo purposes but also for major sports events like the Roland Garros grand slam for instance.

PROMAX CompactMax transmodulators distributing Ultra HD channels

PROMAX had the honour to contribute to the Future TV Days event by providing a CompactMax transmodulator which allowed to receive the DVB-S2 signal from the FRANSAT satellite transponder, unscramble it using an official FRANSAT Pro CAM module and remodulate it into a DVB-T2 terrestrial multiplex.

A 4K second generation TV was used to show the picture of the DVB-T2 signal to the visitors. The reception quality of both DVB-S2 and DVB-T2 signals were easily tested using an HD RANGER 2 meter.

A CompactMax-2 transmodulator delivering the Ultra HD satellite signal in DVB-T2 format.
A HD RANGER 2 field strength meter performs a quality monitoring by showing the constellation graph of the DVB-T2 signal.

Ultra HD provides an unprecedented viewing experience, with a higher picture quality, a broader range of colours, higher frame rates and greater luminosity. This new technology has partly been possible thanks to the new video compression standard HEVC (High Efficiency Video Coding), much more efficient than the MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 H.264 compressions used until now. However, despite the HEVC high efficiency, Ultra HD pictures still requires very high bitrates that can usually only be transmitted using second generation modulations like DVB-S2 (for satellite transmissions) and DVB-T2 (for terrestrial transmissions).

TV resolutions comparative, starting from DV to 4K.

A quick view to CompactMax digital transmodulators from DVB-S/S2 to DVB-T, DVB-T2 and ISDB-T/Tb

The CompactMax headend becomes hence a real solution for the distribution of UltraHD satellite channels in condominiums, hotels and cable networks using DTT signals.

The CompactMax receives satellite channels and converts them to digital terrestrial standard in order to be retransmitted efficiently and at an inexpensive cost per channel. The quality levels of the terrestrial signal at the output are so high that signal can be broadcasted by a small emitter.

PROMAX è un produttore leader di sistemi di test e misura, impianti di distribuzione di segnale broadcast e TV. Le nostre linee di prodotto includono strumenti di misura per TV via cavo, TV satellitare, reti ottiche broadcast, wireless e fibra, gli analizzatori di FTTH e GPON. Modulatori DVB-T, stelle filanti IP o IP convertitori (ASI, DVB-T) sono tra i più recenti sviluppi della società.