dB Broadcast To Debut Ethernet SNMP Control For Hawkeye Range At Broadcast Live & VideoForum

Leading UK independent system integrator and manufacturer dB Broadcast is to introduce Ethernet SNMP control for its Hawkeye range of modules on its stand number H58 at Broadcast Live and Video Forum, Earls Court, 30 January to 1 February 2008.
SNMP controls are provided by dB’s B065 rack controller, which allows remote control and monitoring of Hawkeye ASI and SD monitors/switches, receivers, decoders and other modules within the range. The B065 automatically detects compatible modules in a chassis and provides a single point of control. When used with the optional B067 PC control interface software, a graphical representation of chassis contents, alarm states and logs may be obtained.
dB will highlight a major contract from Siemens IT Solutions and Services to supply the BBC with on-going coding and multiplexing services. To enable the provision of these services, dB is building multiple facilities, known as the centralised coding and multiplexing nodes (CCM nodes), to compress and stream BBC digital television signals.
The facilities are currently being constructed and will be operational before the start of the analogue switch-off in 2008.
Tom Swan, dB’s Director of Sales and Marketing, said: "Some idea of the size of the project can be gleaned from the fact that it involves 270 bays of equipment.
"We are prefabricating all the bays at dB, while building work is carried out on-site. Not many other companies have the facilities to do this."
As well as providing the central CCM facilities, dB is also upgrading other BBC sites around London.
At the other end of the broadcasting spectrum, dB will highlight its latest work on OB vehicles, which includes one for China and two for use in the Middle East.
The Chinese OB vehicle is based on a Mercedes 814D KA Vario and is being built and tested at dB’s purpose-built premises in Cambridgeshire, Eastern England, and commissioned in China. The contract called for a dB engineer to go to China to provide overall system training for Chinese engineers.
Over 700 of dB’s Hawkeye switching and monitoring modules are being used in the CCM project (covered above), including 320 of the B092S and 320 modules from the B080 series. These modules will be featured at Broadcast Live.
The B092S continuously monitors two SD video signals and incorporates a 2x2 switch. The two inputs are typically main and reserve signals and the module can switch any of the inputs to the two outputs of the switch. The B080 series has been designed for continuous monitoring and switching of two ASI transport streams in a broadcast environment. The series supports MPEG2, MPEG4, DVB and ATSC standards.
Also being shown at Broadcast Live will be satellite and terrestrial receivers from dB’s B100 series, represented by the B101 DVB-S QPSK satellite receiver and the B102 DVB-T COFDM terrestrial receiver. Both these modules are used in professional applications, where QPSK and COFDM services respectively are taken off air as DVB-ASI content.
(DS)