ATSC 3.0 Performance Tests Arrive From Rohde & Schwarz

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Digital TV receiving equipment and terrestrial tuner chipset manufacturers can now test the performance of their products for compliance with the ATSC 3.0 standard using only a single unit.


To do so, Munich-based Rohde & Schwarz offers an ATSC 3.0 realtime coder and a waveform testing library for its R&S BTC broadcast test center.

As a reference signal generator, the R&S BTC generates the globally used TV and audio broadcasting standards, simulates transmissions and analyzes the audio/video functions of DUTs in realtime.

As the first high-end signal generator, the R&S BTC includes a purely software-based realtime coder for ATSC 3.0. As a realtime option, transmission parameters can be directly changed, which immediately influences signal characteristics and structure.

The R&S BTC delivers a complete signal chain, from internal playout of an ATSC 3.0 signal via its modulation to simulating a transmission. The R&S BTC has two RF paths and additional means of synchronization via the STL protocol by using timestamps and a 10 MHz and 1 pps reference connection.

This makes it ideal for testing equipment for compliance with the new requirements for using single frequency networks (SFN) in ATSC 3.0 networks, the company says.

The R&S BTC supports internal and external sources with corresponding interfaces such as MMGen, IP (ROUTE/DASH, MMT, TS) and STL.