C o m pa n i e s
TV signal
transmission for
Turkmenistan
Ashgabat expands its communications
infrastructure with a new teleport /
By Wilhelm Novy
Fig 1: Turkmenistan’s National Television Building in Ashgabat
T
he recent selection of Turkmenistan’s capital city Ashgabat to host
the 2017 Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games, has accelerated expansion of a massive new sports complex,
the largest in Central Asia. Part of the
project is a new state-of-the-art satellite
communications teleport. The critical
signal-switching and transmission subsystem between the space-to-earth antennas and receivers at the new satellite
facilities employs state-of-the-art technology from DEV Systemtechnik, based in
Friedberg, Germany.
In 2002, Turkmenistan, flush with rich
oil and gas resources, opened the hypermodern Ashgabat Olympic Stadium. In
2009, the Turkmenistan government decided to expand the spectacularly architected site with additional sports parks.
A new winter sports complex was inaugurated in 2011.
Following the selection of Turkmenistan’s capital as the official host of the
Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games,
2017, a US $1.4 billion project was initi-
XII
Cable!Vision International 3/2013
ated to expand the multi-purpose sports
facility. The Turkish construction firm,
Polimeks, was selected as prime contractor for the project, which includes
Case Study:
Istanbul-based Bilgipark, a broadcast system integrator, was tasked with building a new satellite facility for Turkmenistan’s National Television.
The Challenge:
10-channel downlink L-band signal switching and distribution system:
• Ability to mix coaxial and fiber optic plant
• High RF signal reliability and performance link between distant satellite
antenna farm and receiver building
• Easy, browser-based control and monitoriing
• Modularly expandable system
• Lightning protection system – to keep high value indoor electronics safe
High signal performance L-band fiber optic link over 120 km distance without
amplifier/repeaters.
The Solution:
A DEV Systemtechnik satellite signal distribution system:
• DEV 7113 Optribution® RF-over-fiber/coax transmission systems – with
L-band inputs, LNB power.
• DEV 1996 Distribution Matrix with 64 x 16 ports (expandable to 1024 x
1024 channels and iPad-controllable)
DEV Top Performance Optical Link for a repeater-less120 km distance signal
connection
C o m pa n i e s
the construction of a new broadcasting
center for Turkmenstan’s National Television (Fig. 1) with facilities to receive the
signals of international communications
satellites such as Yamal and Turksat.
Polimeks tasked its subcontractor, Istanbul-based broadcast technology systems integrator Bilgipark, with building
the new satellite transmission facilities.
The Challenge
Bilgipark’s plans called for a satellite antenna farm with 13 antennas, and the
ability to redundantly receive, route, and
distribute 10 channels. To address the
complex critical path system between
the satellite antennas and separately located indoor signal reception equipment,
Bilgipark chose DEV Systemtechnik of
Friedberg, Germany.
The project required an easily expandable and future-proof matrixbased solution.
After assessing different options on
the market, and cost and performance
trade-offs, Bilgipark turned to DEV for its
technology and because of its expertise
in RF signal transmission and distribution via both coaxial and fiber optic cable.
The antenna signals are transmitted
by an optical transmitter and receiver
system DEV 7113 and distributed to ten
professional Harris multi channel receivers by an L-band matrix DEV 1996 with
64 x 16 ports (Fig 2 and 3). Operators can
Fig 2: Front-end
of the teleport.
The electrical
RF signals from
the satellite
antennas pass
through DEV’s
lightning
protection units
to the DEV
7113 Optribution® systems,
which consist
of transmitters
and receivers.
The RF signals
are converted
to optical
signals by the
DEV 7113’s, and
transmitted to
the separate receiver building
via fiber optic
cable. There,
signals are
converted back
to electrical
RF format and
distributed to
the TV program
receiver/decoders (IRDs)
by a DEV 1996
matrix.
easily switch, route and distribute incoming program feeds at the click of a mouse.
Fig 3: Installation in the receiver building. The rack with DEV equipment (not fully visible) is on the far left side, adjacent to the receiver rack the engineers are working on.
The DEV 1996 is an L-band signal
switching and distribution matrix that is
modularly expandable from 16 x 32 to
1024 x 1024 channels. Its advantages include superior RF performance, a robust,
proven design with full fan out matrix
distribution, hot-swappable modules for
interruption-free operation and expansion, and an easy, intuitive, and flexible
graphical user interface control system.
For control via the web interface option,
DEV is providing free iPads to configure,
monitor, switch and manage DEV 1996
systems with 32 x 32 or more channels.
Only 3RU high, the DEV 7113 offers
a chassis with 20 optical module slots.
Equippable to a maximum of 20 twin
cards at two channels per card, the chassis is able to transmit up to 40 optical
signals. The unit can be completely controlled and monitored via a user-friendly
web interface. Two 300 W power supplies deliver sufficient power to feed up
to 40 LNBs. DEV offers transmitter and
receiver modules in three different ranges of cost and performance, designed to
meet requirements for a variety of transCable!Vision International 3/2013
XIII
C o m pa n i e s
mission distances and technical specifications. All modules occupy only four
depth units, allowing for an extremely
high system packing density.
Performance Beyond
Expectations
At the beginning of acceptance tests,
Bilgipark engineers did not believe
the signal quality measurements they
were taking. “We actually thought our
instruments were defective or needed
re-calibration because the signals received were so strong and clean,” says
Bilgipark’s Nuriye Gungor. “But it turned
out that the cause of this was simply the
excellent transmission characteristics of
DEV’s systems.”
“This was another case of what sets
DEV solutions apart according to our
customers: the superior RF performance
that our Optribution® transmission and
distributions deliver,” says DEV Area
Manager Joerg Sommerschuh. “That is
About DEV Systemtechnik
DEV Systemtechnik develops and produces a complete range of products and
systems for the optical and electrical transmission of radio frequency (RF) signals via coaxial cable or fiber for satellite, cable, and broadcast television head
ends. DEV products include distribution amplifiers, splitters and combiners,
switching systems, distributing matrices, routing products, multiplexers, and
fiber-optic RF signal transmission systems.
About Bilgipark
Bilgipark is a broadcast system integrator which was founded in 1997 by
Askin Erdemir. Bilgipark is distributor for Avid, Harris, Vinten!sachtler,
Litepanels, and other international broadcast technology companies in Turkey.
About the author
Wilhelm Novy (www.novypartners.com), Munich, Germany, is a free-lance
trade journalist and PR consultant.
because whether it is billions watching
TV for sports like Olympics, or a single
local broadcast, we understand that signal quality and uptime are the name of
the game.”
Continuing plans for the teleport at
Ashgabat Olympic Village include adding satellite uplink capabilities, says Bilgaprk’s Gungor, “And of course we will
partner with DEV again.”
WISI at IBC: Professional Broadband Solutions
The accelerating merger of TV and IP and
the delivery of high resolution content to
various fixed and mobile end devices are
increasingly posing a challenge for network operators. At this year’s IBC WISI
will demonstrate how these challenges
can be managed in a very efficient way.
Under the motto “Professional Broadband
Solutions”, the leading system provider
and pioneer of reception and distribution
solutions will be showing its next-generation Chameleon and Tangram headend
systems. Another highlight is the new
end device combining Hbb TV with
classic IPTV in one set-top box. The new
optical platform Optopus and WISI’s fibre
node and amplifier portfolio completes
the innovative product offering.
Chameleon
WISI’s future-proof software-based
headend system is the solution for network operators, broadcasters and IPTV
platform operators. Utilizing a single
hardware, all Chameleon modules are
configured and programmed by software
only. The software modules available for
Chameleon include DVB modulators for
XIV
Cable!Vision International 3/2013
different inputs, transmodulators, IP- and
ASI streames as well as re-multiplexes.
Chameleon has also been received a
technical innovation award in the “Best
digital processing solution category from
the Society of Cable Telecommunications
Engineers (SCTE)”.
New modules for Tangram
WISI has extended its Tangram product
family with the addition of new modules:
the new DVB-IP Gateway IP streamer
GT 31, the switch extension board GT
12, the decryption module GT 42, the
Edge-COFDM module GT 24, the ASI
input/output module GT32. Tangram
is a high-density platform for extremely
cost efficient “Edge” applications (IP
gateway, Edge-QAM, Edge-COFDM,
Edge-PAL and Edge-FM) and the answer
to the ongoing digitalization of networks
and the fact that more and more video
signals are transported via IP. In order
for these IP encapsulated video signals
to be fed into the analog access networks
like RF Overlay or HFC, they need to be
converted in QAM, COFDM, PAL and
FM. Tangram offers all required features
to be used in professional networks like
redundant power supplies, 1+1 and
n+1 redundancy, time sharing, SNMP
management, hot plug replacement of
modules, fans and power supplies and
much more.
Optopus and the new amplifier LX 35
The Optopus access platform fits into
optical networks such as FTTx with RF
Overlay, RF over Glass architectures as
well as HFC applications. WISI presents
the new optical high performance amplifier (EDFA) LX 35 that has a very high
packing density. This device offers the
performance of two conventional amplifiers. This reduces costs for the operator
and reduces the overall power consumption of the network.
Set-top box combines HbbTV
with IPTV
WISI will also be showing a set-top box
working with the ETSI DVB-IP standard
that is able to process and display HbbTV
functionalities and content (multicast TV
channels) via an IP net.
Stand: Hall 4 / B50