PROMAX Digital To TV headend

November 2, 2009.

DVB-S is the standard for digital satellite TV. DVB-T - for digital terrestrial TV. And DVB-C – for digital cable TV. So if you want to create the cable network to provide digital TV to a number of end users you need to equip all of them with DVB-C set-top-boxes. You will also need the DVB-C headend. But is this the most cost effective way? The experts from PROMAX say: no, you can make it simpler and cheaper!

PROMAX guys were smart to notice that the modern TV-sets are not equipped with a DVB-T tuner next to the classical analog one. And now, if the DVB-T signal can be transmittedover-the-air, it can be transmitted through a cable network as well.

The end user’s TV-set does not care if the DVB-T signal comes to it from an aerial or from a cable system. Some of the viewers will have a DVB-T tuner built-in in their flatTV-sets, the others will use a separate DVB-T set-top-box for terrestrial reception.

But one thing is certain: if they can receive a wireless DVB-T signal they will also be able to receive digital cable TV if only the cable headend outputs DVB-T compatible signal. And PROMAX Digital To TV (DTTV) headend just does it! The system works without any additional set-top-boxes installed at the end user side.

To make the cable network attractive, you not only need to retransmit all the terrestrial signals available over the air but you have to add content that is distributed via satellites. Quite often you would like to broadcast some content from A/V sources. For example, the hotels often play looped information for their guests. Finally, you can not forget about the Internet and the Internet TV (IPTV). Why not to make it available to the cable subscribers as well? All the above wishes are in fact the requirements that PROMAX engineers took into account when they were designing DTTV headend.

Digital To TV

Installation

Right after plugging in every module and connecting them on the rear panel with control and signal cables, DTTV is ready for setting up. If the services are scrambled, you can use a valid smart card and insert it in the CAM installed in the module. To get physical access to CAM, all you need to do is to unscrew a small lid on the top panel of the module.

PROMAX developed PC software to control DTTV. Both PC and DTTV must first be connected to local area network. You set the IP address, submask and gatewayin DT-800 module manually.DHCP is not supported. This is something natural in professional equipment. The application makes the whole configuration process much easier. This is a real help for the installer.

Performance

The quality of output signal is absolutely great. This is much, much better than you can get from the satellite LNB or terrestrial antenna. That’s because the modules have very good front ends, they demodulate DVB-S/S2 or DVB-T, correct the bit errors and remodulate transport stream to DVB-T. Thanks to that, the output signal has practically no bit errors.

All parameters related to signal quality: MER, C/N, CBER, VBER are absolutely excellent. Moreover, the signal level is very high. When you connect a modern TV-set even at the end of a very large cable network, the signal will still be very, very good. There is no single parameter we can complain about.

Conclusion

DTTV is a very high quality DVB-T headend of perfect output signal and very big configuration possibility. The modules we had in our test rack are but a few of the modules available from PROMAX. Visit their webpage www.promaxelectronics.com for more details. If you seriously think about the cable headend and want to make the whole enterprise economically sound, you have to consider DTTV!.

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PROMAX is a leading manufacturer of test and measurement systems, broadcast and TV signal distribution equipment. Our product lines include measuring instruments for cable TV, satellite TV, broadcast, wireless and fibre optics networks, FTTH and GPON analyzers. DVB-T modulators, IP streamers or IP converters (ASI, DVB-T) are among the company’s latest developments.