Arqiva chooses Thomson for UK DTT upgrade

UK transmission services provider Arqiva has chosen Thomson Video Networks to provide its ViBE EM4000 HD/SD encoder with the Flextream statistical multiplexer for the upgrade of the UK digital-terrestrial TV platform.

Three new ViBE EM4000 platforms will provide DVB-T/T2 video compression for the  upgrade, which is designed to enable Arqiva Services to launch new TV channels on its existing multiplex while also introducing a new high-definition multiplex.

The encoder supports up to eight HD MPEG-4 AVC channels in a 1-RU chassis with features including embedded audio and subtitle transcoding.

“When we signed up for the challenge of not only expanding our existing channel offering, but introducing a brand-new HD multiplex, we did so knowing the ViBE EM4000 would deliver the required performance gains,” said Stephen Foden, Arqiva Services’ head of multiplex engineering.

“The EM4000 has provided us with the expansion capability that we were looking for on our MPEG-2 SD services. It has surpassed our expectations, ensuring we’re now able to launch more HD services than we had originally planned. We believe the Thomson Video Networks technology roadmap will be a key enabler for Arqiva as we further expand our business over the coming years. The collaboration between Thomson Video Networks and Arqiva has been excellent and they have proven to be the ideal technology partner for this project.”