Elenos Group — which includes RF component manufacturers Elenos, Itelco, Broadcast Electronics and Pro Television Technologies (PTV) — has taken another step toward fully integrating the companies’ products. The move focuses on PTV’s multi-standard modulator — a key component in certain transmitters.
In typical transmitter architecture, integration between the PTV modulator and the RF parts produced by the other manufacturers is limited. While the parts work together to generate the transmitted signal, the control systems do not fully integrate. This partial integration between the control system of the PTV modulator and that of Itelco and BE TV transmitters encouraged the development of the “PTV Inside” philosophy in the Elenos Group product line.
The Group now wants to standardize the complete management of the control system of a single transmitter or network using PTV’s multi-standard modulator at its core. The Group says this will increase the quality and robustness of the final product in terms of system performance and responsiveness, reliability, fault tolerance, recoverability, maintainability and portability.
The new model Elenos FM radio transmitter will be the first to feature the official “PTV Inside” logo. The future broadcasting systems of Itelco and BE will follow and fully integrate with the control system of the PTV modulator.
The modulator “inside”
The PTV modulator comprises a unified hardware and software architecture based on a Texas Instrument Da Vinci microprocessor running a Linux operating system. It performs high-level system management and the required calculations while an ST Microelectronics microcontroller manages the peripherals.
A central control unit implements the Human Machine Interface, allowing control of the system locally via the touchscreen display or remotely via Web, SNMP, FTP and SSH. The CCU, which connects to the peripherals via a serial bus, is the system master and implements all system configuration control functions.
The input/output power, power supply status, automatic gain control and power derating and the temperature at various points of the system are among the power amplifier parameters monitored and controlled by the new hardware/software architecture. The new architecture includes a cooling controller that uses a proprietary algorithm to regulate the cooling system, a crucial function in today’s high-power transmitters.
The Group says integrating the PTV modulator with the RF parts of Elenos, Itelco, and BE will produce economies of scale. At the design stage, there is one unified environment for the development, software building and debugging of all the Group’s new projects. Testing procedures, purchasing, production and post-sale assistance will also be more effective, quicker and cheaper.
The Group says that while the “PTV Inside” standard will bring significant industrial benefits to its member companies, the benefits for the user will be even more substantial. All the “PTV Inside” products will exhibit a standard, intuitive user interface. From the GUI to the firmware upgrade procedures, the system and report generation configuration process will also be standard across the product line, simplifying all operations and support efforts.