Norweigans tap Tandberg for DTV system

Telenor Broadcast Holding AS has awarded Tandberg its contract to provide technology and expertise that will support the nation’s move to digital terrestrial TV (DTT) for Norway.

The system will include TANDBERG Television s next generation EN8030 MPEG-4 AVC encoders, the new TANDBERG iSIS 8000 IP multiplex system and its field proven nCompass control and monitoring.

The move to digital terrestrial television is an historic landmark in Norway and we have selected TANDBERG Television as our DTT technology provider. The company s flexible IP multiplexing technology and its next generation MPEG-4 AVC encoders will enable us to build a DTT network with a flexible digital television infrastructure that can support the introduction of increased channels and new video services, says Torkel Aamodt Thoresen, Technical Product Manager at Telenor Satellite Broadcasting. Telenor Satellite Broadcasting will be building and operating the encoding and multiplexing part of the Norwegian digital terrestrial network.

Telenor has a one-third ownership of Norges Televisjon (NTV) which holds the DTT license in Norway. The other partners in NTV include the broadcasters NRK and TV2. Trials of both standard definition (SD) and high definition (HD) digital television will start in January next year. The commercial roll-out of the SD service will commence in September 2007.

The DTT platform will use the MPEG-4 AVC video compression standard which will allow NTV to take advantage of bandwidth saving benefits of up to 50% over MPEG-2. This enables NTV to deliver better quality pictures and more channels within the bandwidth of the terrestrial spectrum, and also to achieve the eventual transition to HDTV.

To be able to complete the successful migration from analog to digital, NTV needs to be able to offer a strong viewer proposition with high quality pictures and broad content choice. The bandwidth savings of our industry leading MPEG-4 AVC encoding and the efficiency of our IP systems enable DTT operators such as NTV to make their business models work and to look forward to introducing new compelling consumer services such as interactive, on-demand and high definition television that help to attract and retain viewers, says Eric Baron, President of TANDBERG Television EMEA.