Platform covers all areas of digital TV

The successful R and S SFU TV test platform from Rohde and Schwarz has now been enhanced to handle the new 8VSB/ATSC and J.83/B digital TV standards.

The successful R and S SFU TV test platform from Rohde and Schwarz is used for generating test signals in accordance with the world's major digital TV standards.

These standards include DVB S2, DVB-S, DVB-C, DVB-T, DMB-T and DirecTV.

In addition, all important new mobile TV standards such as DVB-H and T-DMB are supported.

The R and S SFU has now been enhanced to handle the brand-new DTV standards 8VSB/ATSC and J.83/B.

A real-time DAB encoder and an ETI input interface are also provided.

All this makes the R and S SFU even more versatile.

A major new feature is the integrated real-time encoder for generating T-DMB and DAB signals (option R and S SFU-K11) as well as the ETI input interface, which is available as the new option R and S SFU-B11.

In conjunction with the platform functionality such as noise superposition and fading simulation, the R and S SFU is now able to generate complex T-DMB and DAB test signals in real time.

This enhancement of the R and S SFU broadcast test system meets the growing requirement for integrating different technologies in a single receiving unit and provides a cost-efficient and complete one-box solution.

An option for the American MediaFlo standard is planned.

Qualcomm will set up a nationwide network on the basis of this standard to enable mobile radio operators in the USA to transmit TV programmes to mobile phones.

The 8VSB/ATSC and J.83/B DTV standards are mainly used in the USA.

Implementing them in the R and S SFU rounds out the test platform with regard to the development and verification of receivers and receiving components that make use of this technology.

It is now also possible to use an arbitrary waveform generator as a universal modulation source, eg for generating adjacent channel interference.

WinIQSIM is a tried-and-tested, versatile and flexible Windows software program for generating these signals.

It can also calculate the required I/Q baseband signals.

The R and S SFU is a system platform for developing and thoroughly testing new digital transmission methods in TV.

It provides high-precision standard signals, permits signal modifications up to the system limit and can insert defined errors.

The R and S SFU, which is upgradeable for future standards, can replace a system consisting of multiple instruments.

It combines a test transmitter, a signal generator/recorder for MPEG-2 transport streams, a fading simulator with up to 40 paths, a broadband, digital AWGN noise source plus an arbitrary waveform generator in a single platform.

A BER meter checks the RF modulator as well as interference affecting the signal.

The R and S SFU thus covers practically all areas of digital television: research and development, production, quality control, service, propagation and reception tests performed by network operators, plus EMC measurements.

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