ENENSYS HIGHLIGHTS rEWS - VIDEO-BASED REGIONAL EMERGENCY WARNING SYSTEM FOR DVB-T NETWORKS

ENENSYS HIGHLIGHTS rEWS - VIDEO-BASED REGIONAL EMERGENCY WARNING SYSTEM FOR DVB-T2 NETWORKS 09 Sep 2014

ENENSYS, designers and manufacturers of digital TV transmission technologies, is demonstrating its innovative rEWS technology at IBC2014. Regional Emergency Warning System (rEWS) is a receiver-agnostic technology providing video-based emergency warnings of dangerous weather events and natural disasters on a regional basis for DVB-T2 networks.

Providing TV-based emergency warnings on a regional basis is a primary requirement across many countries and regions around the world. But using receiver-based methods is complex, requiring special receiver software in order to display the emergency alert and even then they only support audio, text and graphics. Alternatively, using a standard middleware like HbbTV or MHEG-5 means the alert display is implemented as an application but this requires additional receiver cost and comprehensive receiver conformance testing. Middleware solutions are also limited to audio, text and graphics.

ENENSYS has addressed this need with rEWS, a technologically elegant and cost-effective solution for digital terrestrial (DVB-T and DVB-T2) networks, including those with multiple regions where only one region needs the warning. By using broadcast TV channels to convey the warning message across all TV channels in a region (or nationally) at the same time, rEWS avoids the need for special receiver software.

ENENSYS' rEWS is a video-based solution that overcomes these limitations. The emergency alert is delivered as a TV service, using standard broadcast video and audio. When an alert is triggered, all normal programming is interrupted and replaced with the emergency alert service, which is usually provided by the government disaster coordination centre. As the alert message is standard video and audio all basic set-top boxes and iDTVs can receive the warnings without modification and, in addition, the alert message can use video as well as audio, text and graphics

This means any receiver will play the warning immediately. Alerts can be broadcast from selected transmitters only for regional coverage. rEWS is available as part of all ENENSYS regionalisation solutions, including content regionalisation solutions (T2Edge with PLP substitution feature) and within ENENSYS' OneBeam solution.

Both rEWS and OneBeam benefit from ENENSYS' new modular chassis, which can house up to six modules in 1RU, generating valuable space and cost savings. As well as handling multiple ENENSYS products (ASIIPGuard, T2Edge, T2EdgeDTH, NetMod, etc.) it allows modules to be hot swappable and the option to do the same with power sources. This makes for added flexibility and easy maintenance. The HDc platform is highly scalable and is fully future-proof, allowing roll-out with T2 local adaptation or T2 modulation, with the option to add a DTH combination as a redundancy solution.

Richard Lhermitte, VP of Sales and Marketing, says, rEWS is a logical extension of our drive to create DTT network optimisation and regionalisation tools. rEWS allows programming to be interrupted to play out the emergency alert, replacing all the normal A/V transport stream components with the emergency alert A/V content. The fact that it's compatible with single frequency networks essential in today's competitive spectrum environment is also obviously very important.

About ENENSYS:

Founded in 2004 by digital TV professionals, ENENSYS Technologies has years of experience in the design and manufacturing of digital TV transmission systems. Its products sit between encoding/multiplexing and transmission, facilitating signal distribution over a wide variety of networks including IP. ENENSYS is the world leader for DVB-T2 technology, and covers other standards such as DVB-T, LTE Broadcast, T-DMB and DTMB. The company develops the technology embedded in its products and has released 15 patents to protect its intellectual property. For more information visit www.enensys.com.

LINK:	http://www.theiabm.org/article.php?group_id=12593...
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