Satellite Companies Pushing DVB for Improvements to DVB-S2 Standard

   Newtec and DVB members Arabsat, Cisco, SES and Thomson Video Networks have requested to add an extension of the current DVB-S2 standard as part of the DVB agenda. 

Newtec said it is launching its Clean Channel technology at the up-coming Cabsat and SATELLITE exhibition and conferences. The Clean Channel solution aims to increase satellite efficiency for IP trunking and backhauling, while providing a 15 percent improvement in broadcast contribution compared to the current DVB-S2 standard.

   Newtec Co-Founder and CTO Dirk Breynaert said that customers would immediately be able to benefit from Clean Channel as it is available as a software field upgrade for existing Newtec equipment.

  “We predict that a new DVB standard will lead to significantly more efficient solutions than any DVB-S2 based satellite equipment on the market today is capable of. This step forward is critical to ensuring the continuation of a vibrant and profitable satellite industry,” Breynaert said. “The current DVB standard has served the industry well, but it is now more than 10 years old. We do feel that our satellite industry will benefit even more by having DVB and its members support the idea of developing an extended standard in line with today’s technological advances”

   Newtec and its partners believe that an improvement of the current DVB-S2 standard could be provided via an extension to guarantee interoperability and better satellite efficiency for professional satcom applications. The companies also said that a differentiation between contribution and distribution would create the greatest DVB-S2 efficiency gains by making the standard aware of the application for which it is being used.

   Breynaert added that an increased number of modulation and coding schemes and Forward Error Correction (FEC) choices would provide the highest resolution for optimal DVB-S2 modulation in all circumstances. “Adding higher modulation schemes, such as 64APSK, is useful considering the professional applications that could work with improved link budgets provided by, for example, bigger antennas and more powerful satellites,” he said.

   Newtec and its partners aren’t the only ones looking for improvements to the DVB-S2 standard. In March 2011, NovelSat unveiled its NS3 3G-Sat modulation technology as an improvement to the standard.

   In late January, NovelSat conducted independent live testing of its NS3 technology to confirm that broadcasting data via satellite can be accomplished at the same cost of fiber. The testing was conducted in collaboration with satellite operator SES and U.K. data services provider Satellite Mediaport Services (SMS). NovelSat said its team ran tests over three different SES satellites – NSS-703, NSS-5 and NSS-10.

   SES Vice President of Sales for Europe and Central Asia Simon Gatty-Saunt endorsed Novelsat’s NS3 technology and said that the operator is searching for innovations to enhance its level of service. “Novelsat’s NS3 satellite modulation technology definitively falls into that [service enhancement] category by bringing fiber level costs to satellite broadcasting for the first time, while retaining the inherent value of satellite communications,” Gatty-Saunt said in a statement.

   SMS Founder and CEO Zvi Golod also praised the NS3 modulation solution’s performance during testing. “For our customers this is a dream come true. For the first time in our industry we are able to offer data services over satellite for a lower rate than fiber, which will revolutionize communication cost from Europe to emerging markets.”