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TELE-satellite International — The World‘s Largest Digital TV Trade Magazine
— 06-07-08/2012
— www.TELE-satellite.com
1. 8 QAM chanels generated by one BluBox module
2. 16 QAM channels generated by two BluBox modules
3. Excellent output signal quality
4. Individual QAM channel level can be adjusted
the very top connector is al-
ways just a satellite IF input,
its lower companion can be
configured as an input num-
ber 2 or a looped through
output of input 1.
To do this and all other
configuration settings, you
need to connect the BluBox
to your computer network.
After hooking up an Ethernet
cable to the RJ45 connector
on the front panel, you can
run an Internet browser on
any computer connected to
the same computer network
and enter its IP address:
192.168.1.250. In a second
or so, you can see a web
page generated by BluBox
and you can set everything
on the sub pages. All pages
are available either in Ger-
man or in English.
Just below the Ethernet
connector in every module,
you can see two connectors
dedicated for DVB-C QAM
signals. The very bottom
one is just the output where
the digital cable TV signal is
generated and can be fur-
ther fed to your cable net-
work. The connector above
is an input where you can
insert a signal from another
BluBox unit. In such simple
way, you can sum up the
outputs of two modules of
BluBox 16. In the same way,
you can sum up signals from
separate BluBoxes units.
And now, the most ex-
citing information about
SPAUN BluBox 16. Every
signal module of the Blue-
Box 16 can convert not few-
er but 8 different satellite
transponders to 8 fully con-
figurable DVB-C QAM chan-
nels. In other words, one
BluBox 16 is able to convert
16 transponders to 16 QAM
channels! We could not be-
lieve it. But, yes, BluBox 16
has in fact 16 independent
satellite tuners and 16 inde-
pendent QAM modulators!
And everything is fully con-
figurable. Can you imagine
that? That’s why we call it a
giant leap forward in head-
end technology.
The BluBox 16 design is
based on special integrated
circuits called FPGA (Filed
Programmable Gate Ar-
ray). To put it simply, they
are a kind of digital signal
processors in which many
features are implemented
in the very complex hard-
ware rather than software.
Thanks to that, they are sig-
nificantly faster than tradi-
tional processors relying on
programs. But that’s not all.
This sophisticated hardware
made it possible to achieve
such a clear output signal
that you can simply connect
QAM outputs in series with-
out any filtering. SPAUN’s
user guide gives an example
of connecting the outputs of
three BluBoxes 16 and gen-
erating 48 QAM channels
in total (approx. 350 SD/
HD programs of high qual-
ity). And all this without any
combiner or filter – just 3
BluBox 16 units and a few
pieces of coaxial cable with
F connectors on both ends.
The BluBox 16 is accom-
panied by a single page in-
struction explaining how to
connect it to the PC network
and download a full operat-
ing manual. We followed the
instructions and in a minute
we were looking at the
web page generated by the
BluBox 16. We downloaded
the operating manual and
found out that it was very
comprehensive and detailed
but at the same time organ-
ized in a logical manner. It
was really easy to follow
it and lots of screen shots
made the reading and un-
derstanding even easier.
We skimmed the manual
but as soon as we realized
how logical and intuitive
everything was arranged,
we put it aside and started
setting up the box with the
wizard that pops up at the
beginning and helps in ini-
tial installation. Later, we
all about: to be save against
failure. What else is worse in
a tv distribution system than
subscribers loosing their sig-
nals. The second power sup-
ply gives the SPAUN BluBox
an outstanding feature in
high reliability and up-time..
Satellite IF signals are
connected to the F connec-
tors located in the upper
part of every module. You
can connect signals either
from individual LNBs or from
different outputs of a twin/
quad/quattro LNB. While