Digital Terrestrial Television in standard quality (SD) was recently retired in Spain. Now, all Spanish channels can be enjoyed in high definition (HD) and there are even some that are already working to offer content in 4K. In other countries, they have not yet made the leap, but there is one that is very close to doing so thanks to some European satellites.
Major UK broadcasters and other thematic channels are enhancing their viewers’ experience by providing content in HD quality. This is being possible thanks to some changes that are taking place in the Astra 2G satellites with European coverage on the 11.112-H frequency.
Why will British channels be seen in HD?
One of the Astra 2G satellite transponders is switching to DVB-S2 and 8PSK modulation. That is, it has adopted a more advanced transmission standard, with greater resistance to noise and interference and better image and sound quality.
The term ‘DVB-S2’ refers to the successor to the DVB-S system and is used to transmit digital television signals and other services via satellite. Meanwhile, the ‘8PSK’ concept is one of the modulation modes used by DVB-S2, which allows three bits per symbol to be transmitted (it is more efficient than the QPSK mode, which transmitted two bits per symbol).
Added to these changes is that the symbol speed has increased from 22 to 23 Msymb/s (megabauds per second). This measurement determines how many symbols are transmitted per second and, in this case, implies a greater data transmission capacity.
On the other hand, the FEC (Forward Error Correction), which is a mechanism that helps correct errors in data transmission, has changed from 5/6 to 2/3. This means that, before, for every six bits transmitted, five were useful data and one was redundant for error correction, resulting in a higher FEC, but higher bandwidth; and, now, for every three bits transmitted, two are useful and one is redundant, reducing the FEC, but also the bandwidth used.
As a result of these modifications, the capacity of the multiplex has increased from 11.77 to 45.55 Mbit/s. The word ‘multiplex’ refers to the set of channels or services that are transmitted together on a specific frequency and its capacity is the total amount of data it can transport in a specific period of time.
Thanks to this increase in mutiplex capacity, it has been possible to include other television channels to the HD content offer in the United Kingdom. Specifically, it has been implemented to the chains that are within the orbital position of 28.2º East of the Astra 2G satellites.
These are the affected channels
The transponder that has optimized the deployment of its signal distributes to the following channels:
- New Vision TV
- Dunya News
- India Today
- MATV National
- Brit Asia TV
- IQRA Bangla
- ARY Digital
- Islam TV
- GEO News
- Arise News
- Faith UK
- Iqra TV
