Digital Terrestrial TV (DTT) has gone from pioneering and test implementations to massive roll-outs. IMS Research anticipates a world-wide annual growth rate of more than 43%, and in Europe more than 20 countries are now planning a DTT build-out using Digital Video Broadcast-Terrestrial (DVB-T) the next years. At the same time competition for TV customers is becoming fiercer with TV services being provided over satellite, cable, DVB and now also over broadband DSL and fiber networks. This means that the overall solution cost needs to come down to rectify the business case for building out national DTT networks. New multi-service network platforms need to increase network utilization and enable the DVB signals to be sent over the same network as other traffic, reducing the total infrastructure cost.

Net Insight’s Nimbra platform opens new business opportunities
The Nimbra portfolio does not only enable seamless transport of the digital TV signals with guaranteed 100% QoS. It is especially designed for Media and TV operators to decrease the cost of its network operation and enable new business opportunities. A nation-wide digital network based on Net Insight's Nimbra platform opens up new business opportunties for the digital TV operator to move into other segments. By only adding ports to the same chassies, DVB-H for mobile TV, DAB or DMB for digital radio, HD/SD video and digital audio for media contribution services and IP/Ethernet for business and WIMAX/WiFi services are easily supported over the same infrastructure. This opens up large opportunities to cooperate with other operators or compete in the expanding converged network market. In a future with an increasing demand for video-enabled nation-wide networks, this puts the new digital TV operators in a prime position.

What is the technical trend for digital terrestrial TV networks?
Traditional DTT implementations have been based on Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) networks with ATM-ASI adapters at the head-end and out at the transmitter antenna sites. ATM is however on the decline and many operators are instead looking at alternative solutions. However, many operators which have trialed IP/MPLS experience QoS issues and multicast scalability problems and IP/MPLS also drives network complexity and thus cost.
Net Insight's solution offers a one-box solution reducing CAPEX and OPEX by taking in the MPEG signals directly either in the box over ASI or IP/Ethernet interfaces as well as handling the transport directly on fiber, SDH/SONET or microwave links. With its strong Ethernet transport functionality it also enables a seamless transition into an end-to-end IP MPEG solution.

GPS-free synchronization of SFN networks
Most digital terrestrial TV and mobile TV networks include SFN transmitters requiring GPS synchronization for correct transmission of the TV signals. Many countries have become aware of this strong dependency on GPS. If the GPS signal is turned off or jammed by external devices, public TV can be disrupted. This poses a threat to national and homeland security, and several countries are now demanding GPS-independent solutions for their public TV services.
Net Insight provides a unique feature where the same synchronization signals received from GPS is instead distributed across the network infrastructure, which delivers the actual TV and data signals. It thus creates a robust delivery and synchronization that cannot be jammed or turned off by external influences.

Unique features
The Nimbra portfolio includes several unique features such as:

Digital Terrestrial Television brochure