RTVE launches its new satellite headend for Europe with a Laguna de Sapec multichannel solution

The Corporation has used Sapec's Laguna Media Processor (LMP) coding equipment, which offers great image quality in the lowest possible bandwidth, unifying all coding and multiplexing needs in a single device.

Spanish Radio Television (RTVE) has updated the television and radio satellite headers that provide coverage with their content to Asia, Africa and Europe to incorporate the high definition and thus offer greater quality to the end user.

For these updates, the Corporation has used coding equipment Laguna Media Processor (LMP) of Sapec, which offer great image quality in the lowest possible bandwidth, as well as the ability to unify in a single device all the coding and multiplexing needs of the television and radio channels of each of the headends.

On December 15, 2019, the new European masthead was launched, disseminating two High Definition Television channels (TVE International and 24H) and six digital radio channels (Radio1, Classic Radio, Radio 3, Radio 4, Radio 5 and Radio Exterior).

Laguna has allowed a high level of integration of the solution because in just 1 RU, it has been possible to carry out the encoding of the two HD channels, the ten stereo audio channels, perform the statistical multiplexing of the video channels and the generation of the MPTS that is sent to the satellite teleport.

It is noteworthy that Laguna is a universal platform that allows different functionalities depending on the client's needs through licenses: encoding, decoding, multiplexing,…

The LMP solution has the possibility of being able to update later (through licenses) to incorporate new TV and/or Radio channels or even upgrade to HEVC (H.265) if necessary. Sapec has supplied two pieces of equipment since the chosen architecture has been in 1+1 redundancy in order to guarantee 99.999% availability of transmissions.

Jose Manuel Lopez, commercial director of Sapec, highlights that "it is a pride that RTVE has Sapec technology not only for its viewers at a national level but also internationally. The fact that a channel like RTVE renews its headers for Asia and Africa again with a Sapec solution, and also trusts in our new Laguna solution to encode all its content for the rest of Europe, is a clear sign that we are doing things well, and this motivates us to continue along this technological path."

For this project, Sapec has also supplied equipment from its representative in Spain Nevion. This equipment has consisted of a system composed of the solution Flashlink to distribute and embed teletext and audios in video channels to be processed later in Laguna.

In addition, they have been suppliedmodel CP525 multiplexors with ASI and IP interfaces to remultiplex the frame generated by the Laguna equipment with the DVB subtitles of the TVE Internacional and 24H channels.

Sapec has carried out the entire project in a turnkey mode, carrying out the installation and configuration of the entire system until its commissioning. Sapec will carry out the maintenance and technical support of all the headers supplied over the next few years.

This project has been proof of RTVE's confidence in Sapec and its new developments, since during 2019, the headends in Asia and Africa were updated with equipment from Sapec's Altum-II family, which allows both the Television channel (HD, H.264 4:2:2) and the Radio channels to be generated and multiplexed in a single piece of equipment, greatly simplifying installation and maintenance, allowing substantial savings in space and consumption.