Fox has selected Motorola to supply satellite transmission equipment, including compression systems, multiplexers, and radios to enable Fox to transition all its satellite program distribution to 100% High Definition (HD) delivery. The rollout will begin in Q1 2009. Financial terms were not disclosed.
As part of the migration, Fox will provide its affiliates with Motorola’s DSR-6000 commercial digital satellite radio that include the capability to derive an SD version of the HD content transmitted by Fox. The Motorola radios will read the standardized Active Format Descriptor information carried with the HD content that specifies the appropriate image composition for 3×4 aspect ratio SD TV sets. The deployment also includes Motorola’s Broadcast Network Control System and SE-3000 high quality HD encoders to distribute its programming via satellite. Their functionality includes statistical multiplexing — to enable Fox to effectively combine individual HD streams into multiplexes operating with payloads as high as 73 Mb/s. The DSR-6000 radio will convert the appropriate HD stream to the properly formatted SD signal as well as passing the HD signal as ASI or IP. Both the DSR-6000 and the SE-3000 will employ DVB-S2 modulation, enabling the efficient and robust delivery of high quality content via satellite.
Motorola said the transition to all-HD distribution will enable Fox to significantly streamline its distribution infrastructure as it moves from the current mix of SD and HD environments and diverse, multi-vendor technology platforms to a common all HD Motorola architecture. The need for parallel SD storage and distribution will be eliminated since Motorola radios will support the real time conversion of the HD content to the SD format.
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