TSBroadcaster 2 is a headend server which automatically encodes and plays out OCAP 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 Scientific-Atlanta 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 generate a mixture of both OCAP and ETV transport streams on the same server.

Delivery of multiple transport streams requires either TSPlayer systems with multiple outputs or multiple TSPlayer systems. Typically an additional TSPlayer is required for each pair of outputs, with TSPlayer being disabled from the TSBroadcaster system itself when more than two play-outs are required. For example, four transport streams can be accommodated with one TSBroadcaster and two TSPlayers each with two outputs. Outputs of TSPlayer systems may be either ASI or Gigabit Ethernet or a mixture of both.

TSBroadcaster supports OCAP, ETV, ACAP, MHP and MHEG application definition and play-outs.