Brazil's TV Globo taps Pro-Bel Cifer for Olympic needs

Brazil ’s TV Globo, one of the world’s largest broadcasters, has selected Cifer technology from Pro-Bel’s Vistek range to handle the signal conversion required for its Beijing 2008 Olympic Games coverage.

Globosat, a content provider from same the same group as TV Globo, has bought two Cifers, with TV Globo itself hiring another 14. Two will be deployed in Beijing and 14 in Rio de Janeiro. They will be used to convert the 1080i/50 and 625-line signals in China to 1080i/59.94 and 525-line signals used in Brazil.

Cifer is based on Pro-Bel’s proprietary advanced algorithms for format conversion and Digital Vision’s patented motion estimation technology, facilitating pixel-accurate estimations and hence very high quality conversion. Cifer is truly universal as it can convert between any SD standard and between the primary HD standards. It can also convert from SD to HD and HD to SD with the resulting pictures being virtually indistinguishable from the original.

“TV Globo has been using Vistek equipment for many years and is therefore familiar with the quality that we bring,” says Victor Porter, Pro-Bel’s Regional Sales Manager for South America

Brazil’s HD transmissions started in Sao Paulo in December 2007, using the ISDB-TB system. and all major cities will be covered in 2009.

The TV Globo sale adds to a total of well over £4m in Vistek signal processing and test signal equipment that has been sold or rented by Pro-Bel to a variety of broadcasters for use in Beijing.