Tandberg Television has announced that Kingston inmedia will deploy its MPEG-2 low bit-rate encoding engine, the E577O.

A company release informs that the move will enable Kingston inmedia to further its technology excellence and benefit from important bandwidth efficiencies across both its Eurobird and New Skies DTH satellite services. The E5770 is being launched in the US this month where Tandberg will show how the new encoder sets a new standard for excellence in MPEG-2 video compression performance.

Kingston inmedia provides satellite services. For many of its customers, Kingston provides a total service, from TV production studios through to channel playout direct to DTH platforms, such as Sky in the UK and cable headends across Europe.

Kingston plans to upgrade a number of its existing Tandberg E5710 encoders to the new E5770 multi-pass solution and expects the move to enable it to increase its bandwidth efficiency by between 10 and 15 per cent. This ability to squeeze more channels per transponder is particularly important as forecasts predict a shortage in bandwidth and space segment on satellites that serve some of Europe’s premier DTH platforms.

Kingston added that by deploying the E5770 it can offer multi-channel broadcast systems that deliver economies of scale as well high performance and superb picture quality. Kingston claims that its satellite DTH and playout solutions are already being used by a number of TV channels such as ESPN Classic Sport and Zone Vision, and platform operators such as Frontage Satellite Television (FSTV), which recently launched a new DTH platform for Nigeria using Kingston’s end-to-end capability.

The release adds that the combination of Kingston’s value-added end-to-end satellite services and the bandwidth efficiencies and high picture quality that Tandberg's technology provides means that broadcasters and channel owners can get to market quickly and cost-effectively with the confidence that they are basing their business models on a tried and trusted partnership.

Tandberg claims to be constantly pushing MPEG-2 technology to its limits and developing real-world solutions that are allowing more and more DTH systems to come to market. The E5770 is able to deliver high performance compression while minimising the total bit-rate through a unique multi-pass pre-processing technique that constantly optimises bit-rate allocation for critical scenes, ensuring that the final encoded video has the best possible picture quality available.

Kingston inmedia provides global satellite-centric broadband applications. It also offers products and services that enable organisations in the broadcast, enterprise, and international carrier sectors to create, manipulate, store and distribute multi-media solutions. Its customers include BBC, CNN, BSkyB, CNBC, ITV and Reuters.

Tandberg Television creates products and systems for the delivery of high quality live video and on demand content across cable, DSL, fiber, IP, satellite and terrestrial networks. The company claims to provide systems integration and global support capabilities through its sales and 24-hour support operations in the Americas, Asia, Australia and Europe.