Low Cost MPEG Decoders Support Audio Description for UK DTT Services

NEC Electronics devices which support this include, among others EMMA2SL (upD6121x-series for STB and iDTV), EMMA2SL/P (uPD61215 for Secure Pay TV), EMMA2SV (uPD61023 for iDTV), EMMA2SW (uPD61025 for Dual STB), EMMA2SE (uPD6114x-series for DVR), and EMMA2SE/P (uPD6114x for Secure Pay TV DVR and Dual View).

Audio Description is used by several Digital Terrestrial channels in the UK and Europe to provide additional descriptive audio commentary for partially sighted people. This special service can greatly enhance the viewing experience for partially sighted people and is one of a number of benefits of moving to digital, especially in the terrestrial markets. Until recently it was not easily possible to decode this secondary audio channel inside the integrated Digital TV (iDTV) or Set-Top-Box (STB). The only method of accessing the additional audio stream had been via the Common Interface (CI), using relatively expensive external equipment to support this service.

With the drive to migrate current analogue broadcast entirely to digital services, the ability to easily and cheaply support such services is increasingly important. Until today, CI modules have been necessary to decode the Audio Descriptor outside of the decoder, adding cost and complexity. Furthermore, most low cost UK DTT STB do not support CI, rendering Audio Description services inaccessible on the majority of STB sold today. Alternatively, iDTVs, containing a digital TV decoder must, as required by law, support CI, but this still means an external module must be purchased and connected. What NEC Electronics is providing allows large cost and implementation savings on all future UK DTT STB.

“NEC Electronics already has customers in development with these devices and we look forward to these products coming on the market soon” said Daniel Tannière, General Manager of NEC Electronics Europe’s Communication and Consumer Business Unit. “The announcement of these features ties in closely with recent UK government tenders making Audio Descriptor Services support mandatory in STB required in area where full Analogue Switch Off is implemented today, and with the considerations by UK DTG to request this function in future DTT products.”