Ericsson Enables Tata Sky to Launch HD in India
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Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC) has equipped Tata Sky, the Indian leading direct-to-home (DTH) operator, with a head-end upgrade that enables it to launch high definition (HD) channels and also increase its standard definition (SD) channel offering. The Ericsson solution achieves dramatic bandwidth savings that allow the launch of multiple new services for 5 million Tata Sky connections.
With bandwidth being such a vital commodity when launching HD services, the savings that are achieved through Ericsson’s EN8190 MPEG-4 AVC HD encoder are extremely valuable to operators. The deployment of Ericsson’s solution at Tata Sky has enabled it to offer its subscribers many HD channels with the highest picture and sound quality, further enhancing the user experience. Tata Sky has also deployed Ericsson’s EN8100 MPEG-2 SD encoder, which has enabled it to increase its SD channel capacity without the need for swap-out of legacy MPEG-2 consumer set-top boxes (STBs); this has been achieved by a combination of encoding improvements and other system wide optimizations.
“With Ericsson’s head-end, we have an advanced solution that dramatically increases the number of channels our subscribers can receive, as well as enabling us to now offer high definition programming to enhance the viewing experience,” said Yigs Riza, Chief Technology Officer, Tata Sky. “The bandwidth savings that we achieved through the EN8100 were essential in being able to deploy these services. We were delighted to benefit from Ericsson’s expertise and experience in delivering high performance television solutions.”
“This deployment marks an exciting development for Tata Sky and for the Indian television market,” said Eric Baron, Head of EMEIA Region, Solution Area TV, Ericsson. “Viewers now have access to a top range of programming in high definition, as well as an even greater variety of SD channels. The EN8100 enables all this to be achieved in the same number of encoders, maximizing the efficiency of both Capex and Opex.