High five from Rohde & Schwartz transmitter
September 8, 2011
Colin Mann @ IBC
Test and measurement, broadcasting, radio-monitoring and radio-location specialist Rohde & Schwarz is claiming a new era of efficiency in broadcasting with the launch of its R&S THU9 transmitter generation at IBC in Amsterdam.
Noting that in order to achieve higher levels of economy, broadcast network operators must reduce the energy consumption and infrastructure costs of their systems, the new high-power transmitter offers the highest efficiency, the most flexible configuration and the highest power density in its class, says the company.
According to Cornelius Heinemann, Director, Terrestrial Transmitter Systems, the five factors powering the initiative are true efficiency in energy, space, operation, service and investment, claiming that the new transmitter boasts the best energy efficiency values for solid-state TV transmitters, offering efficiencies of up to 28 per cent for COFDM (Coded Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplex) standards and up to 30 per cent for ATSC standards including the cooling system significantly reduce energy costs. The transmitter can handle all common digital and analogue TV standards.
The high power density makes the R&S THU9 the most compact system in its class, says the company. Depending on the configuration, as many as four single transmitters can be accommodated in one rack. The MultiTX concept makes optimal use of floor space and cuts down on infrastructure costs. Even when configured as a single transmitter, the R&S THU9 requires less space than competitive products. In such an all-in-one configuration, the pump unit and the bandpass filter are integrated in the rack.
The R&S TCE900 transmitter control exciter also contributes to the system’s flexibility because it can be configured as a transmitter control unit or as an exciter using plug-in boards. Since the base unit is always the same, the network operator can change the functionality directly at the transmitter site. The exciter can be software-switched from analogue to digital TV standards such as DVB-T/-H, DVB-T2, ATSC, ATSC Mobile DTV and ISDB-T/ISDB-TB. Multiple transmission standards can be installed on one exciter.
Heinemann noted the increasing share of the company’s orders coming from Central/South America. “This shows our strategy fro the region is working. We’ve tied in with standards and increased our local presence.”
He said that DVB-T2 had taken “a giant leap forward”, explaining that the company had seen many existing DVB-T networks that needed expanding, with a number of countries transitioning to HDTV via T2, such as Sweden, Finland and the UK, while others were moving directly to T2, such as Russia, Serbia, Ukraine, and Turkmenistan, together with India and the SADC (Southern Africa Development Community) countries.
The ISDB-Tb standard (based on the Brazilian-developed version of Japan’s ISDB-T)selected by most South American nations, and supported by Rohde & Schwartz, had made Latin America a focus region. “We expect strong growth with upcoming events such as the football World Cup and the Olympic Games. That provides the motivation to go digital,” concluded Heinemann.