DVB Scene eNews Issue 10

Issue 10

Prof. Ulrich Reimers and his team from the Technische Universität Braunschweig.

Thank You Ulrich - Peter MacAvock Pays Tribute

Prof. Dr.-Ing.
Ulrich Reimers

Ulrich Reimers is synonymous with the DVB Project. He has managed the engine room of DVB - the Technical Module - for some 100 meetings. As he plans to step down, there will be many tributes paid to the world's first DVB compliant human being.

DVB has known many successes through the years. Arguably, it was the vision of those who founded the project which paved the way for this success. Producing the right standards at the right time, and with the correct stakeholders, is key to success. Many of the revolutions we have seen in media entertainment would not have been possible without DVB. Would these have happened without DVB? Probably, but not anything like in the coherent manner in which they did. This is because of Ulrich Reimers

Nobody has a mastery of the technology like he has. His meetings are an education in how to run large complex meeting, with meticulous preparations, engaging manner and a core set of tools to deal with the difficult topics. Principal amongst these, and an Ulrich invention, is the Coffee Break. Ulrich has used these expertly to resolve complex topics and build consensus. There have been other inventions: the traffic lights to verify the economic viability of technical outputs and "sleep mode" for groups where experts are kept on-board without necessarily being on the TM agenda.

But Ulrich is also a fantastic individual. As a long-time fan of his style and student of his techniques and expertise, I have been greatly influenced by him. But I am not alone. All those who have been influenced comment on his kind nature and engaging style. How can someone this good be this nice?

When Ulrich passes the baton in June to his able successor Nick Wells (BBC), the TM will necessarily enter a new phase. We have all learnt a lot from Ulrich and the world of television owes him a deep debt of gratitude. As he moves on to other projects we hope he enjoys the challenges and his colleagues appreciate him as much as the DVB world does. Additionally, we hope that he'll have some more time for his favored past-times of looking after his grand-daughter, bird-watching and music.

Thank you Ulrich.

Verimatrix Video Content Authority System (VCAS™)

Part of the VCAS 3 multi-network platform, VCAS for DVB is a full featured CA solution for one-way and hybrid networks. Featuring both smart card and cardless security, it can be combined with VCAS protected multi-screen services to PC/Macs, tablets and smart phones, enabled by the unified VCAS 3 security authority.

www.verimatrix.com

DVB-T2 Lite (v1.3.1) Plug Fest Successfully Completed

The DVB-T2 Validation and Verification (V&V) group, coordinated by the Technical Module TM-T2 working group, completed a very successful Plug Fest at the Thomson Broadcast facilities in Conflans Sainte-Honorine, France, on the 6 - 7th March 2012.The aim of the Plug Fest was to validate the latest version (v1.3.1) of the DVB-T2 specification (currently released as DVB Blue Book A122 on 07/11) and the DVB-T2-MI specification(currently released as TS 102 773 v1.3.1 on 01/12) through the interoperability of independent hardware implementations. This goal was certainly achieved. The event marked a significant step in the validation of DVB-T2 Lite, which optimizes the DVB-T2 standard's performance for mobile reception. Read more...

Report From DVB World

This year's DVB World held in Rome was another success. Over 170 DVB, digital TV, telecom, spectrum and energy policy experts attended over 25 presentations and a Master Class session on 3DTV and Ultra High Definition TV. There was plenty of opportunity for networking during the breaks, evening drinks and meals to help shape the future of digital TV around the world.

David Wood once again entertained and informed with his insightful blog and tweets, which can be found on the DVB World website (www.dvbworld.org).

The dates for next year's event are set for March 11 - 13 with the host city to be announced at a later date.

To read a full report on the conference click here.

Everything You Ought To Know Aabout WRC-12 - David Wood Reports

Following the World Radio Conference 2012 (WRC-12) that took place in Geneva in February 2012, many European broadcasters felt run over by a herd of buffalo. In an unprecedented move, the conference decided on something not on its agenda.This was that a part of the radio frequency spectrum hitherto given over to terrestrial television broadcasting, the band between 700MHz and 800Hz, in the broadcasting 'Region 1' that includes Europe, Africa and greater Russia, should be given over to IMT systems (largely wireless broadband internet) from 2015.

Earlier this week representatives of about 60 concerned organisations met at the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) in Geneva to try to do more than wag a finger in the air and complain. Read more...

MERlin DVB-T/T2 Monitoring Receiver from dB Broadcast

Terrestrial receiver for continuous off-air reception and monitoring of DVB-T/T2

Monitors key parameters such as MER and LDPC

Includes programmable templates to compare the received modulation parameters with the expected configuration

Designed for use at remote transmitters and relay sites

New Payload checking option to perform critical Transport Stream tests

www.dbbroadcast.co.uk/MerlinProduct

DVB-C2 Arrives At A New Milestone With Berlin Plug Fest

It became quite a busy day on Monday, 27th February 2011, when more than twenty DVB-C2 experts from all over Europe, as well as from Korea, came together on the invitation of DVB to the RF labs of Kabel Deutschland in Berlin, to test their prototype implementations of the new DVB-C2 standard for the first time. They were setting up their modulators and tuner/demodulators for testing in a realistic cable environment. The DVB-TM Ad-Hoc Group TM-C2 had prepared a detailed schedule and related technical testing configurations for the three days of the Plug Fest.

Detailed information on the Plug Fest had been distributed in advance. During the kick off meeting of the Plug-Fest all test configurations, parameter settings and measurement procedures were introduced and discussed. The second half of the first day was devoted to interoperability testing of the four different DVB-C2 modulator implementations with the three different DVB-C2 demodulator implementations. A total of 128 Test Cases had been defined by the TM-C2 Verification & Validation Group. All different configurations of the four DVB-C2 modulators were tested with the available eight tuner/demodulator (five tuner/demodulators used the same chip set) implementations. Read more...

ReFeree T2: The DVB-T/T2 Swiss Knife

Since its introduction, the ReFeree T2 from ENENSYS has been used in all major trials and deployment phases of DVB-T2. This analyzer combines RF, ASI and IP inputs to accurate measurements. This makes the ReFeree T2 the ideal solution for coverage tests, installation/maintenance of DVB-T2 network and product validation.

www.enensystest.com

DVB At The ABU Symposium

The Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union's 8th annual ABU Digital Broadcasting Symposium was held from 6 - 9 March, 2012 in Kuala Lumpur. DVB was very well represented in a number of activities at the event which was attended by DVB Chairman, Phil Laven and DVB Asia representative, John Bigeni.

Some of these activities included:

A DVB specific industry meeting led by Phil Laven, which provided an opportunity to discuss common regional issues relating to aspects of the DVB standards, particularly implementation issues.
A presentation outlining the economic and environmental benefits gained by using DVB-T2 was given in the main body of the program by John Bigeni.
A workshop entitled 'DVB T to DVB-T2 Fundamentals to Planning' was conducted by Gerard Faria (Teamcast) and John Bigeni. This workshop which was attended by more than 120 delegates discussed the fundamentals of the key technologies in DVB-T2 as well as planning issues arising from these technologies.
A DVB booth at the event exhibited the transmission of Multiple PLPs which is one of the most attractive features of DVB-T2.

Needless to say, one of the main focuses of the Symposium was DVB-T2. A number of DVB-T2 related papers presented by DVB Members were featured in the program.

This Symposium is now becoming the key broadcasting industry event for the Asia region and is growing from strength to strength. Some 41 countries were represented with more than 1000 participants. The Symposium program included presentations from 88 speakers. The event also included a number of workshops, webinars and tutorials.

France Telecom & TDF Join DVB-S2 Licensing Patent Pool

S2 Licensing announced that two additional patent owners have agreed to license their essential DVB-S2 patents through its worldwide patent licensing program. France Télécom and TDF SAS will each license their DVB-S2 essential patents through S2 Licensing, joining current patent owners DTVG Licensing, Inc., the European Space Agency (ESA), and Radiotelevisione Italiana SpA (RAI).

"The addition of the France Telecom and TDF patents into our license offering will not result in additional royalties to present or future licensees," explained John T. Whelan of S2 Licensing. "We are extremely excited to offer these additional essential patents through our licensing program," explained Whelan. "This adds to the already tremendous value offered to our customers."

For further information visit the S2 Licensing website.

New Members
DVB welcomes its newest member. Inmarsat owns and operates a global satellite network and offers mobile satellite communications services for users in the maritime, land and aviation sectors. www.inmarsat.com

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Read all about DVB Members' latest products in Market Watch. This issue features new products from: Pixelmetrix T-Vips Neotion Newtec Renesas TeamCast To discover these products click here.