All Australians to get digital free-to-air TV

A new five-year deal between ABC, Australia's national broadcaster, and Ericsson will help hundreds of thousands of Australians living in rural communities who are currently unable to access the same free-to-air, high-quality, digital TV experience as their urban counterparts. Thanks to Ericsson's latest satellite video compression technology, ABC will be able to expand the reach of its high-definition and standard-definition digital TV programming across the country.
As Australia undergoes the switch from analogue to digital free-to-air TV, the government is funding a new satellite service to provide digital television to viewers in remote areas where free-to-air digital TV can't be received by TV antennas. About 247,000 Australian households in these "digital black spots" will benefit from the initiative.
"All Australian households watch free-to-air TV and spend almost three hours a day watching it on average. Since this service is central in the life of Australians, we value being part of digitalising it and ensuring that all Australians can enjoy a rich, high-quality television experience," said Sam Saba, head of Ericsson Australia and New Zealand.
The system uses a range of Ericsson head-end equipment including bandwidth-saving MPEG-4 AVC EN8190 HD and EN8130 SD encoders, Reflex statistical multiplexing for channel bitrate allocation and management, and nCompass Control and Monitoring. Managing bandwidth and maintaining high-quality pictures is critical in such a major digital TV rollout. Deployment of the technology will start in December.