Glossary
Reference Guide: TT128x High Definition Professional Receiver/Decoder Page A-9
ST.RE.E10141.5
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.
STT System Time Table (ATSC).
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 Mode A burst of ASI bytes (either 188 or 204, depending on packet length) is contiguously grouped into an MPEG-2
Transport Stream packet. Stuffing data is added between the packets to increase the data rate to 270 Mbit/s. 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
authorising 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 Societ y 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.
Spatial Redundancy Information repetition due to areas of similar luminance and/or chrominance characteristics within a single frame.
Removed using DCT and Quantisation (Intra-Frame Coding).
SPI Synchronous Parallel Interface.
Statistical Redundancy Data tables are used to assign fewer bits to the most commonly occurring events, thereby reducing the overall
bit-rate. Removed using Run Length Coding and Variable Length Coding.
TAXI Transpar ent Asynchronous Tx / Rx Interface: A proprietary high-speed data interface.
TCP / IP Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol: A set of communications protocols that may be used to
connect different types of computers over networks.
TDM Time Division Multiplex: One common, communications channel carrying a number of signals, each with its own
allotted time slot.
TDT Time and Date Table: Part of the DVB Service Information. The TDT gives informat ion relating to the present time
and date.
Temporal Redundancy Information repetition due to areas of little or no movement between successive frames. Removed using motion
estimation and compensation (Inter-Frame Coding).
Time-stamp A term that indicates the time of a specific action such as the arrival of a byte or the presentation of a presentation
unit.
TOT Time Offset Table: This optional SI table supports the use of local offsets as well as the UTC time/date
combination.
The purpose of the table is to list by country the current offset from UTC and the next expected change to that
offset (to track when daylight saving occurs).
The offset resolution is to within 1 minute over a range of ±12 hours from UTC.