Italy’s Communications Authority (AgCom) has authorised commercial broadcaster Mediaset to transform a DVB-H multiplex into DVB-T technology. The MDS3 multiplex, originally allocated for mobile TV broadcasting, was acquired by Mediaset Group in 2006 from Europa TV. To date it was not used for the transmission of DTT channels. As a result of this decision, Mediaset […]
The US Energy Department, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE), the Appliance Standards Awareness Project (ASAP), the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) and the National Cable & Telecommunications Association (NCTA) have announced non-regulatory energy efficiency standards for pay-TV set-top boxes that will result in significant energy savings for […]
The Intellectual Property Advisor to the UK Prime Minister has suggested that in order to strike an appropriate balance between the interests of rights holders and those of consumers, a three-pronged approach to IP is necessary: education, the carrot and the stick. Writing in the World Intellectual Property Organisation’s newsletter, Mike Weatherley MP, says that […]
Digital UK – the company which supports the UK’s terrestrial TV service and its viewers – has called on UK comms regulator Ofcom to ensure that appropriate measures are taken to protect terrestrial television services from interference which could be caused by the use of the so-called White Spaces – the gaps in the spectrum […]
Members of the ITU have accorded first-stage approval of G.fast, the new ITU broadband standard capable of achieving access speeds of up to 1 Gbit/s over existing telephone wires. Within 250-metre range of a distribution point, G.fast’s fibre-like speeds give service providers a tool to supplement and further monetise fibre to the home (FTTH) strategies […]
The Board of Directors of the Multimedia over Coax Alliance (MoCA) has congratulated Entropic, a specialist in semiconductor solutions for the connected home, for its efforts in its completion of Golden Nodes for the MoCA 2.0 specification. “Approval of Golden Node Certification demonstrates our firm belief that MoCA 2.0 is the best wired technology standard […]
US digital television standards body the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) has elevated the A/105 ‘Interactive Services’ system to Candidate Standard. A key element of the emerging ATSC 2.0 standard, A/105 is designed to enable the marriage of Internet-delivered and broadcast content. ‘Candidate Standard’ status is a major step toward becoming a ‘Proposed Standard’, and […]
Sony Japan is making available a software update for its Bravia X-range of 4K displays. The upgrade means that the giant TV sets can now handle HDMI v2.0 connectivity. Sony has two X-models in the market measuring 55” (X8) and 65” (X9). As yet there are no instructions on whether the update is available to […]
At the 75th meeting of the DVB Steering Board, the new DVB-GSE-Lite (Generic Stream Encapsulation) specification was ratified. The specification will now be submitted to the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) for formal standardisation. A GSE-Lite BlueBook will be published shortly. The DVB-GSE protocol allows for efficient encapsulation of IP and other network layer packets […]
The planet still has some 23,182 channels broadcasting in Standard Definition. Of this total, says Northern Sky Research, 73 per cent are still transmitting in MPEG-2 or similar SD systems. In other words, MPEG-4, a newer compression system, has yet to make any progress in some key markets. Even amongst markets considered to be classified […]