Commercial launch of HDTV using DVB-T2 in Sweden


HDTV services transmitted via DVB-T2 were officially launched on the 1st November 2010. At launch two multiplexes began HD broadcasting to two thirds of TV homes. Coverage will reach 70% of the population by the end of 2010 increasing to 90% over a further 12 month period and 98% by the end of 2012.
Viewers will have access to two free to air services, SVT1 HD and SVT1 HD as well as the Pay TV channels MTVN HD, National Geographic HD, TV4 HD (as of 18 December), Canal+ Sport HD from the Pay-DTT service provider Boxer.
The HD services use both UHF and VHF channels for HD broadcasting.
On UHF channels multiplex 6 is completely HD whilst a combination of spare UHF and VHF channels are used for the second multiplex, designated “multiplex 7”.
8 MHz channels are used on UHF and on VHF the channel bandwidth is 7 MHz due to previous standardisation.
The resulting capacity on multiplex 6, is 36.6 Mbit/s and on multiplex 7, 30.8 Mbits/s.
The parameters used initially in the DVB-T2 networks will be single-PLP, 32K FFT, 256 QAM and a code rate of 2/3 although these parameters may be varied for different SFN sizes.
MPEG-4 HE-AAC audio compression is used for all MPEG-4 services. HD services will typically be accompanied by 5.1 surround sound.
Main source: Boxer website
Item added: 8th November 2010