Signaling the growing operator focus and importance of the broadcast, IPTV and cable industry segment, test and measurement company Agilent Technologies Inc. has joined the DVB Consortium and WorldDMB Forum, two broadcasting organizations. The DVB Consortium creates technical standards for digital television and data services delivery, while the WorldDMB Forum promotes the Eureka 147 digital radio standard. Membership in these organizations allows Agilent to provide test and measurement solutions for digital video and audio that are more closely aligned with broadcasting industry needs.
“Agilent is fully committed to meeting the needs of customers who design and manufacture digital video and broadcast audio transmitters, components and receivers,” said Hai-tao Zhang, Agilent’s China Video Operation manager, in a statement. “Our membership in the DVB Consortium and WorldDMB Forum reconfirms this commitment and grants us valuable insight into the evolving needs of the broadcast industry. This insight, coupled with customer collaborations, will enable us to deliver the leading-edge digital broadcast test solutions that today’s engineers demand.”
Agilent’s membership in the DVB Consortium and WorldDMB Forum provides it with direct access to members’ test requirements. As the digital broadcast market evolves, Agilent will use these requirements to create customized broadcast test solutions that are compliant with latest industry specifications and conform to recommended test profiles or test vectors, it said.. By tailoring these solutions to different test scenarios (e.g., product certification and large-scale manufacturing), Agilent hopes to deliver flexible product features, high-performance specifications and increased cost savings.
For now, Agilent offers digital broadcast solutions for both transmitter and receiver test. For transmitter tests, Agilent provides several X-Series advanced measurement applications that offer one-button, standard-based power and modulation measurements for X-Series signal analyzers (high-end PXA, mid-range MXA, economy-class EXA and low-cost CXA). For receiver test, Agilent provides Signal Studio software to create standards-compliant test signals.
The software works with the ESG or MXG signal generator as a low-cost solution for R&D and manufacturing customers. The solution is ideal for high-end R&D and lab customers when used in conjunction with the PXB baseband generator and channel emulator for full-conformance testing. Both the transmitter and receiver test solutions are based on Agilent’s general purpose platforms that not only support most digital video and audio formats available today, but numerous wireless communications standards as well, making them well suited for testing multi-format devices.
