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Applicatioin MPEG-4 HD for ENG vans

The digital upgrade of analog Electronic News Gathering (ENG) vans via the NEXTEL upgrade program is providing MPEG-2 SD encoding capability for remote news feeds. The new digital microwave links will provide 8 MHz RF channels (Full channel operation) or 4 MHz, Half channel operation in congested markets. Depending upon modulation type selected a range of data rates are supported for a Full, 8 MHz RF channel allocation:

Modulation:


  • QPSK
  • 16QAM
  • 64QAM

Minimum data rate:


  • 4.98 Mbps
  • 9.95 Mbps
  • 14.9 Mbps

Maximum data rate:


  • 10.6 Mbps
  • 21.1 Mbps
  • 31.7 Mbps

The lower data rates offer the most Forward Error Correction and protection for Path anomalies. Realistically, most full RF channel application will operate in the 15-20 Mbps range and Half RF channel systems will operate in the 8-10 Mbps. The Full RF channel systems will have sufficient bandwidth to support MPEG-2 HD transmissions. However, Half RF channel systems will need to consider MPEG-4 for its improved compression capability and consequent reduction of occupied bandwidth.