Australia's National Broadcaster Selects Ericsson for Digital Free-to-Air TV

Australia's national broadcaster, the ABC, has awarded a five-year contract to Ericsson to supply satellite video compression technology to expand the reach of high-definition and standard-definition digital TV programming across the country. As Australia undergoes the switch from analog to digital free-to-air TV, the Australian government is funding a new satellite service to provide digital television to viewers in remote areas where free-to-air digital TV can't be received by TV antennas. About 247,000 Australian households in these "digital black spots" will benefit from the initiative. The system uses a range of Ericsson head-end equipment including bandwidth-saving MPEG-4 AVC EN8190 HD and EN8130 SD encoders, Reflex statistical multiplexing for channel bitrate allocation and management, and nCompass Control and Monitoring. Deployment starts in December 2010. Financial terms were not disclosed.
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