NTT Electronics' HDTV Encoder to be employed by major American production company for Satellite News coverage of Spring Training
February 20, 2007

NEL provides a powerful backup tool for the switch to High Definition Satellite News Gathering

TOKYO (February 20, 2007) - NTT Electronics Corporation (NEL; Tomoyuki Toshima, CEO), an industry leader in image compression technology, is pleased to announce the delivery of its MPEG-2 HDTV Encoder/Decoder to the major American television production company, International Media Services, Inc. (IMS). IMS will first utilize this equipment in their coverage of the professional baseball spring training to be held in Florida from Mid-February through the end of March.

The rapid progress made in the adoption of digital broadcasting and HDTV content broadcasting has led to the need for HDTV to extend beyond the studio to include outside broadcasting. The exquisite detail that marks an HDTV image is in particular demand within the realm of sports broadcasting, allowing the viewer to enjoy experiencing the speed and movement of these amazing athletes. NTT Electronics is thus providing a powerful tool for the HDTV outdoor broadcasting arena.

In this deployment of NTT Electronics’ MPEG-2 HDTV Encoder HE3100, video images from Spring Training will be distributed to Japanese television networks and American sports networks via satellite in a process called Satellite News Gathering (SNG) and via fiber-optic optical lines. The image taken by HD camera will be sent to outside broadcast (OB) trucks where the HE3100 will be loaded. Therein, the HD-SDI data will be compressed into MPEG-2 stream for transmission via satellite.

Both NTT Electronics’ MPEG-2 HD Encoder HE3100 and its MPEG-2 HD Decoder HD3100 have garnered high praise throughout the globe for their extremely high resolution images when loaded with “VASA”, a high quality MPEG-2 single chip codec LSI developed by NTT Electronics. At the same time, depending on the hardware configuration, the HE3100 can relay signals between the outside broadcast location and the studio with minimal delay.

The HE3100 supports not only each of the principle HDTV formats such as 1080i, 720p, but also 576i, 480i for SDTV formats. The HE3100 can also encode 4 audio channels while supporting a maximum of 2 systems, allowing for a total of 8 channels to be encoded. The unit is enabled for quick boot and can be easily operated via its front panel. The HE3100’s Lip Synch function also boasts perfect synchronization, or a lip synch of zero, between the video and audio channels.

HD MPEG-2 Encoder HE3000 Series (half-rack size)
HD MPEG-2 Encoder HE3100 Series (full-rack size)