Annex A

STB

Set-Top Box: A box that sits on top of a television set and is the

 

interface between the home television and the cable TV company.

 

New technologies evolving for set-top boxes are video-on-demand,

 

video games, educational services, database searches, and home

 

shopping. The cable equivalent of the IRD.

SFN

Single Frequency Network: The SFN technique allows large

 

geographic areas to be served with a common transmission

 

multiplex. All transmitters in the network are synchronously

 

modulated with the same signal and they all radiate on the same

 

frequency. Due to the multi-path capability of the multi-carrier

 

transmission system (COFDM), signals from several transmitters

 

arriving at a receiving antenna may contribute constructively to the

 

total wanted signal. The SFN technique is not only frequency

 

efficient but also power efficient because fades in the field strength

 

of one transmitter may be filled by another transmitter.

SI

Service Information: Digital information describing the delivery

 

system, content and scheduling (timing) of broadcast data streams.

 

DVB-SI data provides information to enable the IRD to automatically

 

demultiplex and decode the various streams of programmes within

 

the multiplex. Specified in ISO/IEC 13818[1]. (DVB)

Single Packet Burst A burst of ASI bytes (either 188 or 204, depending on packet length)

Mode

is contiguously grouped into an MPEG-2 transport stream packet.

 

Stuffing data is added between the packets to increase the data rate

 

to 270 Mbps. See DVB Document A010 rev. 1, Section B3.3, (ASI)

 

Layer-2 Transport Protocol.

Smart Card

A plastic card with a built-in microprocessor and memory used for

 

identification, financial transactions or other authorizing data

 

transfer. When inserted into a reader, data is transferred to and from

 

the host machine or a central computer. It is more secure than a

 

magnetic stripe card and it can be disabled if the wrong password is

 

entered too many times. As a financial transaction card, it can be

 

loaded with digital money and used in the same way as cash until

 

the balance reaches zero. The file protocol is specific to its intended

 

application.

SMATV

Satellite Mast Antenna Television: A distribution system, which

 

provides sound and television signals to the households of a

 

building or group of buildings, typically used to refer to an apartment

 

block.

SMPTE

Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers.

SMS

Subscriber Management System: A system which handles the

 

maintenance, billing, control and general supervision of subscribers

 

to conditional access technology viewing services provided through

 

cable and satellite broadcasting. An SMS can be an automatic (e.g.

 

Syntellect) system where subscribers order entitlements by entering

 

information via a telephone. Alternatively, an SMS can be a manual

 

system, which requires subscribers to speak with an operator who

 

then manually enters their entitlement requests. Some systems

 

support multiple SMSs.

SNG

Satellite News-Gathering.

SNMP

Simple Network Management Protocol.

EN/LZT 790 0005 R1A

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