Tandberg launches mPlex for mobile TV publishing

TANDBERG Television will launch mPlex, a unique, end-to-end system
solution for Mobile TV publishing. At the core, the new TANDBERG mPlex
media processing platform offers industry leading performance with eight
times the density of current mobile TV solutions and employs proven
TANDBERG Television technologies, such as constant and variable bitrate
(CBR & VBR) MPEG-4 AVC encoding, native IP processing and flexible
architectures for VBR control and mobile-specific scrambling. The
addition of mPlex into a system solution that incorporates new and
existing TANDBERG Television products uniquely enables the company
’s
customers to extend their subscriber offer, grow revenues and reduce
churn through the deployment of TANDBERG Television
’s
broad ecosystem for Mobile TV.

Throughout its history, TANDBERG Television
’s
best-in-class solutions have made the company the global leader in video
compression and have enabled it to provide video expertise across a
range of platforms including terrestrial, satellite, cable, IPTV and
telco networks. Now these technologies – which include scrambling,
statistical VBR encoding, advanced architectures, content simulcast and
overall system management with automated redundancy – have been applied
to the mobile world to produce a highly efficient ecosystem for
broadcasting to mobile devices such as mobile phones, media players,
in-car systems and laptops.

Additional to the mPlex media processing core
are TANDBERG Television professional receivers for reception, UDCast
IPE-10 for DVB-H IPE, time slicing and
MPE-FEC, SFN (single frequency networks) and transmission network
adaptation including ATM/IP telco networks or DVB-S/S2 satellite
modulation. At the remote transmitter site, the TANDBERG Television
solution provides reception and network adaptation, as well as content
regionalization and customization including SFN re-adaptation and time
slicing.

“In-Stat forecasts more than 120 million
mobile TV viewers by the end of the decade and we believe that the next
two years will see significant roll-out of mobile TV infrastructure. We
are excited to be launching a complete mobile TV solution that will
enable broadcast and mobile network operators to efficiently introduce
high quality mobile TV services. TANDBERG Television
’s
market leading track record in digital video with best-in-class video
quality in ultra-low bandwidth has enabled us to create a highly
flexible mobile TV ecosystem that is unique in the market,
”
says Simon Frost, business development director for Mobile TV at
TANDBERG Television.

The new mPlex encoder/transcoder provides market leading video encoding
performance in MPEG-4 AVC Baseline Profile delivering superior picture
quality at bandwidths of 200-300 kbit/s or below, for low resolution,
reduced frame rate video services. Pre-processing is a patented skill of
TANDBERG Television and is adapted for use in advancing video quality
with a multitude of feed types. The power of CBR encoding is also
greatly enhanced with the addition of TANDBERG Television
’s
dominance in VBR encoding; typically delivering a 30% increase in
spectral efficiency. In Mobile TV this means additional channels,
maximizing utilization of precious bandwidth and allowing operators to
increase revenue and reduce customer churn.

Unlike competing systems, the extensive dynamic encoding of VBR channels
is integrated with the IPE-10 encapsulator for DVB-H without proprietary
control signaling or penalty. Like the award-winning iPlexTM
IPTV head-end, the mPlex is capable of streaming identical programming
to multiple network interfaces simultaneously, i.e. Gigabit Ethernet
with native video and audio into RTP (DVB-H), into MPEG-2 TS, ATM, or
ASI, offering service providers a high degree of flexibility and air
interface choices. This truly converged head-end architecture
simultaneously supports the same content processed for multiple delivery
platforms and reception devices; from HD on the big screen, through to
SD for IPTV and cable, and low resolution for Mobile TV. One device can
finally feed all, without penalty or compromise in performance.

The TANDBERG Mobile TV solution, inclusive of the mPlex is available for
shipping in early Q2 2007.