NTT Intros Integrated Receiver-Decoder

By Debra Kaufman

NTT Electronics unveiled the HVD6100, which the company says is the world’s first professional IRD that combines decoder functionality with support for AVC/H.264, 4:2:2 chroma with a DVB-S2 demodulator.

‘HDTV, SDTV, AVC/H.254 and MPEG-2 are all being used to transmit video in broadcast,’ says Shoichi Nakano, general manager, Beijing representative office, NTT Electronics Corp. ‘During this transitional time, the professional IRD market hasn’t had a product that combines an AVC/H.264 decoder with support for HDTV 4:2:2 chroma and a DVB-S2 demodulator that enables high efficiency satellite transmission.’

Other features that make the HVD6100 relevant for current broadcast conditions include the decoder’s supports multi-formats: AVC/H.264 and MPEG-2; 4:2:2 and 4:2:0 chroma; and HDT and SDTV. The IRD also supports HDTV/SDTV resolution conversion. The demodulator function supports DVB-S2, DBV-DSNG and DVB-S formats for high-performance satellite transmissions.

Sports are the first major application for the HVD6100. The NTT HVD6100 IRD was selected this season as codec equipment for HD sports on the MLB Network.

Also introduced is the MPC1010 MPEG-2 HDTV/SDTV multichannel encoder, which will be available for purchase in Q3 2009. The MPC1010 can be installed with multiple MPEG-2 HDTV/SDTV encoders for high image quality. With an encoder IC that provides high quality MPEG-2 video, the unit supports both 720P and 1080i HDTV and 576i and 480i SDTV standards. An ideal feature for digital terrestrial broadcast systems, the MPC1010 is also compliant with the ATSC standard and includes TS MUX and PSIP generation features. The modular design of the MPC1010, which can provide simultaneous encoding of up to four different video and audio channels in a single rack, maximizes flexibility for broadcast operators.