ENENSYS selected by SBS (Seoul Broadcasting System) for ATSC 3.0 4K roll-out

ENENSYS working with their Korea partner SMC NS, has been selected by Seoul Broadcasting System (SBS) in Korea to supply its new ATSCheduler and IPGuard products for the launch of ATSC 3.0 DTT services in February this year.

Korea is leading the rollout of the new IP-based digital terrestrial standard, which is in the final stages of development. SBS will launch in the Seoul area, with DTT coverage expanding across the rest of the country in advance of the 2018 Winter Olympics to be held in Pyeongchang.

SBS will operate one ATSC 3.0 multiplex in a 6MHz RF channel with capacity for either one 4K UHD service or one 4K UHD plus one HD service, depending on the nature of the content and the compression applied. It has selected ENENSYS ATSchedulers and IPGuard changeover switches as key components of the new system.

The ATScheduler is the ‘Broadcast Gateway’ of the ATSC 3.0 network, providing IP stream adaption, PLP (Physical Layer Pipe) allocation, SFN timing, in-band control and signalling to all the ATSC modulators.

Located at the broadcast playout centre, the ATSCheduler encapsulates multiple IP Streams coming from HEVC encoders, signalling generators and captioning servers using ROUTE or MMTP protocols. Ensuring the ALP encapsulation, the BBFrame allocation, the different LLS (Low Layer Signaling) generation, it outputs the resulting ATSC-compliant STL (Studio to Transmitter Link) stream protocol over IP.

Crucially, ENENSYS’ ATSCheduler supports single frequency network deployment (SFN), providing the spectrum efficiency required for terrestrial transition.