The latest version of its satellite communications controller is being showcased at IBC by Hiltron Communications. The company is demonstrating the HCS4 (Hiltron Control System version 4) which provides a range of facilities including easy switchover between main and backup devices such as downconverters, high-power amplifiers, waveguide switching systems, MPEG digital video broadcast encoders/modulators and integrated receiver/decoders. The HCS4 can also be used to power, control and monitor optical-fibre transceivers.
The controller is housed in a 2 rack-unit high 19-inch chassis which can be equipped with dual AC or DC power supplies for redundant protection. The HCS4 can be operated locally via a front-panel touch-sensitive LCD display, or remotely. Two communication card modules (type HCS3:PSC) housed in slots A1 and A13 each provide a RS422 serial interface for remote control. Alternatively, slot A1 can be equipped with a network interface card module (type HCS3.PSN) providing both an Ethernet interface and a serial interface.
The remaining 11 interface connection slots (A2 to A12) can be equipped with different hot-pluggable card modules such as switch cards and I/O cards, which are programmable. They include monitoring, control and power supply for fibre optic modules; fibre optic switchover systems; LNB redundancy systems for C band and Ku band; HPA redundancy systems; redundancy systems for DVB MPEG encoders/modulators/IRDs; and other applications for monitoring and control.
