Rohde & Schwarz Can Test ATSC 3.0 Applications

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.

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 real time.

The R&S BTC includes a purely software-based realtime coder for ATSC 3.0. As a real-time option, transmission parameters can be directly changed, which immediately influences signal characteristics and structure. The R&S BTC offers simulation functions in an all-in-one solution.

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

As a reference signal generator, the R&S BTC “exhibits excellent RF performance with required parameters,” according to R&S. Another feature is the interruption-free modulation of ATSC 3.0 signals with real audio/video/data content in real time.

It also supports internal and external sources with corresponding interfaces such as MMGen, IP (ROUTE/DASH, MMT, TS) and STL. One of the main tasks when developing broadcast equipment is to test the equipment under realistic and complex transmission conditions. The R&S BTC covers this by simulating a variety of interference such as noise and fading, and wireless signals such as LTE and mobile TV. For the SFNs now possible with ATSC 3.0, it generates different scenarios, for example two transmitting stations.

Thanks to ATSC 3.0-specific test cases, the R&S BTC can also be used for validating and verifying receivers. 

The ATSC 3.0 real-time coder (R&S BTC-K520 software option) and the R&S WV-K818 ATSC 3.0 waveform library are now available from Rohde & Schwarz.