TSBroadcaster 2 is a headend server which automatically encodes and plays out OCAP (tru2way) and ETV applications according to a defined schedule. It is suitable for live transmission or lab use. [View screen shot of TSBroadcaster 2].

The delivery mechanism for ETV applications is a data carousel. The carousel is either a DSM-CC Data Carousel or an Alternative Constrained Data Carousel (DigiCypherII) where the section size is limited to less than 1KB. The DSM-CC Data Carousel is required for Cisco (S-A) set-to-boxes running ETV user agents and DigiCypherII is required for Motorola DCTs.

TSBroadcaster generates data carousels (and object carousels for OCAP), encodes them into MPEG-2 transport streams, which are delivered by TSPlayer.

TSBroadcaster also generates the appropriate signalling, which makes the ETV User Agent aware of the existence of an application.

TSBroadcaster servers are accessed by a web browser. All aspects of TSBroadcaster's functionality can also be accessible via an API. This allows easy integration with other headend software.

TSBroadcaster can build multiple transport streams simultaneously. Delivery of these transport streams requires a TSPlayer software module per transport stream and the default is two outputs per TSBroadcaster system. The number of TSPlayer software modules which can be run on a single TSBroadcaster or TSPlayer Server depends on a number of factors such as bit rate utilised. Typically we recommend a total of two outputs per TSPlayer Server with no TSPlayer software running on the TSBroadcaster system which operates three or more simultaneous transport stream play-outs.