TANDBERG Television's MPEG-2 encoders have passed compliance testing for its implementation of the SCTE 35 specification for digital ad insertion.
CableLabs, a non-profit research and development consortium for the cable industry, conducted the tests as part of its Phase 5 DPI (Digital Program Insertion) testing. TANDBERG Television will provide SCTE 35 functionality in its compact E5710 1RU and E5720 2RU encoders.
Although CableLabs performs certain SCTE 35 conformance tests for the benefit of the cable industry, CableLabs does not formally certify products as SCTE 35 compliant.
“TANDBERG Television’s support of the SCTE 35 standard (now the ITU approved standard J.181) and its integration into our encoding technology demonstrate our strong commitment to the cable industry in the United States,” said company CEO Eric Cooney. “The passage of the recent CableLabs testing validates our SCTE 35 implementation and confirms that we offer a real and interoperable path to the deployment of this important technology.”
The specification, which has been approved as American National Standard SCTE 35 by the Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers (SCTE), provides a way to trigger the insertion of local digital content like commercials and promos.
“For years, analog cable operators have reliably triggered head-end equipment for local program content insertion,” said TANDBERG Television principal system architect Giles Wilson. “The deployment of SCTE 35-capable distribution systems will provide for equivalent operation in digital systems, allowing cable operators to splice local advertisements or promos directly into digital network feeds. By adding this standard to our range of encoders, TANDBERG Television becomes an option for cable operators who want to provide superior encoding quality at low bit rates to maximize bandwidth and create more targeted, localized revenue streams.”
SCTE 35 defines a means for inserting digital cue tones into encoder output so affiliates can trigger switches from the network feed to a local content.
For more information visit www.cablelabs.com and www.tandbergtv.com