DVB-S2 to accommodate wide- band transponders. And the best person to explain an annex that boosts potential bandwidth into hundreds of MHz is Alberto Morello, director of RAI’s Research Centre. Co-chair of the group that developed DVB-S2 and DVB- SNG, Morello is currently chair of the SMPTE ad-hoc group responsible for second-genera- tion satellite systems. “The maincommercial
drivers in the short term are the newKa-band satellites, designed to deliver professional and consumer interactive services in areas where terrestrial broadband is not readily available,” he says. “Such satellites can provide transponders characterized by
very wide bandwidths from 200 to 500 MHz, which are better filled by one or few wideband carriers than by a multiplicity of conventional DVB-S2 carriers, with a bandwidth occupation of 30-50 MHz.”
Further into the future DVB-S2 will enable the intro- duction of ultra-HD services. What though of time slicing? The conventional DVB-S2 system could in principle operate on wide-band satellite transponders, but for practical reasons receivers produced today cannot demodulate the full stream at very high speed. Morello explains, “The S2 update provides the technical means for allowing time-sliced
Boosting bandwidth by satellite
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transmission, and a much simpler implementation of high- speed receivers. The receiver is not obliged to demodulate all the bits of a high bitrate stream, but can select the particular bits which are carrying the selected TV programme.” He promotes the tantalising
prospect of S2 extensions, beyond professional satellite newsgathering, internet trunking, and broadband consumer networks using Ka-band satellites, but with a warning. “The TV broadcasting market will be the last to evolve, due to technology migration issues and the lower perspectives of attaining significant gains versus S2,” he says. “I doubt that an efficiency gain of 10-15 per cent will justify the replacement of millions of set-top-boxes.”
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