DVB Fosters DVB-S2X Patent Pool

DVB announces that it is fostering the formation of a licensing program covering patents essential to the DVB’s specification “Second generation framing structure, channel coding and modulation systems for Broadcasting, Interactive Services, News Gathering and other broadband satellite applications; Part 2: DVB-S2 Extensions (DVB-S2X)”.
The initial meeting of holders of DVB-S2X technology is scheduled to occur on Wednesday, 25 March, at 14:00 in the Hilton Copenhagen Airport Hotel, Ellehammersvej 20, 2770 Copenhagen. The meeting is open to anyone – whether a DVB Member or not – that has a well-founded belief that it holds patents essential to the DVB-S2X specification. The DVB-S2X technical specification was finalized and approved by the DVB Steering Board in March 2014 for formal standardization by ETSI.

For the agenda of the meeting and further information, contact the DVB’s Legal Director, Carter Eltzroth (eltzroth@dvb.org).

As part of its policy governing the licensing of patents essential to its specifications, DVB fosters the formation of voluntary licensing programs (pools). It is expected that the patent holders will promptly select a commercial facilitator to take forward the pooling effort. Participation in any licensing program that develops from this process will be voluntary and non-exclusive. This encouragement of patent pools, and DVB’s policy on intellectual property rights, are described on the DVB website (https://dvb.org/membership/).

About DVB-S2X
DVB-S2X is an extension of the DVB-S2 specification that provides additional technologies and features. DVB-S2X is to be published as ETSI EN 302 307 part 2, with DVB-S2 being part 1.
S2X offers improved performance and features for the core applications of DVB-S2, including Direct to Home (DTH), contribution, VSAT and DSNG.
The specification also provides an extended operational SNR range to cover emerging markets such as mobile applications. The most relevant features for DTH are channel bonding and finer granularity of modulation and FEC options combined with sharper roll-offs of 5 percent and 10 percent (in addition to 20 percent, 25 percent and 35 percent in DVB-S2).

Channel bonding of up to 3 satellite channels will support higher aggregate data rates and allow for additional statistical multiplexing gain for high data rate services such as UHD. The mandatory implementation of VCM (Variable Coding and Modulation) in receivers offers the possibility of increasing the spectral efficiency for UHD services, while guaranteeing service continuity during heavy rain by simulcasting highly protected SD components. A finer granularity of modulation and FEC options allows for improved operational flexibility.

DVB-S2X has been introduced at the same time as the new efficient HEVC video coding scheme. It is expected that new satellite receivers will combine these two technologies to make the delivery of HD and especially UHD services more efficient.