France Télévisions Launches DTV Services For Overseas Territories With Thomson Video Networks Solution

Thomson Video Networks has announced that France Télévisions has launched DTV services for French-administered overseas territories, using an extensive and flexible Thomson headend technology solution.
French overseas territories include locations in the Atlantic Pacific and Indian oceans; the South American coast; and as far as Antarctica, with a combined population of more than 2.5 million. France Télévisions provides television services to the overseas territories through Réseau Outre-Mer 1ère to deliver its programming in SD and HD with MPEG-4 encoding. The solution encompasses a range of technologies from the extensive Thomson Video Networks product portfolio including: the Thomson ViBE EM1000 and EM3000 encoders, NetProcessor 9030 Multiplexers and Sapphire MPEG servers.
Redundancy management is provided by Thomson Amethyst switchers, with advanced delivery-chain monitoring capability supplied by Thomson Granite Sentinel digital TV probes. Reception of contributed feeds for rebroadcasting is handled by Thomson's RD5000 SD/HD MPEG-2/4 receiver/decoder.
Réseau Outre-Mer 1ère provides through six separate multiplexes - one per territory - carried through DVB-S2 transmissions from Paris. Local Réseau Outre-Mer 1ère channels and France Télévisions national channels are encoded in MPEG-4 in either SD or HD, before being multiplexed together and delayed before transmission depending on their time zone.
Christian Augereau, Technical Director, Réseau Outre-Mer 1ère said: "The installation of Thomson technology gives Réseau Outre-Mer 1ère, a very flexible infrastructure for these overseas services, with excellent picture quality and the outstanding management features we need."
The Thomson ViBE HD and SD MPEG-2/MPEG-4 AVC encoders set the benchmark for standard definition and high-definition encoding, thanks to its Mustang compression engine. Combined with the powerful, highly integrated NetProcessor 9030 and the frame-accurate Sapphire MPEG/H.264 time-shifting and disaster recovery servers, the complete solution delivers unprecedented quality with efficiency, and the highest levels of service availability.
Christophe Delahousse, President of Thomson Video Networks, said: "This installation - our second major project with France Télévisions in 2010 and 2011 - has provided a state-of-the-art platform for extremely bandwidth-efficient DTV operations serving a widely dispersed audience around the globe. We are very pleased with the results of our continuing collaboration with France Télévisions and the successful outcome of this initiative."
(KMcA)