Basic HTML Version
06-07-08/2012
www.TELE-satellite.com/12/07/spaun
26
TELE-satellite International — The World‘s Largest Digital TV Trade Magazine
— 06-07-08/2012
— www.TELE-satellite.com
16 Satellite Tuners And
16 QAM Modulators in One Unit
TEST REPORT
Satellite Headend
Headend equipment usu-
ally comes in 19” units to
be fitted in a standard 19”
rack. And we expect a sat-
ellite headend to consist of
several devices: a profes-
sional satellite receiver with
a transport stream output,
a re-multiplexer and a QAM
modulator. Imagine our sur-
prise when SPAUN’s new
BluBox arrived at our lab; we
had to revise our thinking
about how a headend sys-
tem has to look like. We are
often impressed by the pro-
gress in commercial satellite
receivers and now the same
happens with headends.
SPAUN’s BluBox 16, when
compared to a traditional
head end equipment, is not
just a technological step, it
is a giant leap forward.
The BluBox16 is not de-
signed for a 19” standard
rack. It is housed in a quite
small metal enclosure - 32
x 24 x 22 cm (about 13.5”
x 9.5” x 8.5”) and it is sup-
posed to be installed on the
wall with four screws. The
box is blue (the standard
color for SPAUN) and has
very clear labels and a ta-
ble with basic parameters
printed on the front panel
(what is also very typical
for SPAUN). BluBox 8 and
BluBox 16 come in the same
enclosure but the latter has
greater possibilities.
BluBox 8 has one signal
module and BluBox16 (such
unit was in our test) has two
signal modules. BluBox16
has 8 signal connectors: 4
for satellite signals (DVB-S/
S2) and four for cable TV
signals (DVB-C QAM). There
are also 2 RJ45 Ethernet
connectors and 24 status
LEDs on the front panel.
A power socket is placed
on the bottom side of the
box, which leads to two
power supply units inside
the box. Yes, that’s right,
SPAUN added redundancy
here: even if the main power
supply breaks, the BluBox
keeps working with the
spare power supply. This is
what true professionalism is
SPAUN BluBox 16
Great leap forward in
headend technology