User's Manual

ISO 9001:2000 Cert. N°4500/1
Version 1.1 SDT_ARK6_User_Manual_ENG_vATSC Page 7 of 206
3 Introduction
The SDT ARK-6 Series has been designed as a brand new model of software defined transmitters which
incorporate all the technical and functional capabilities of the previous models of the ARK-1 family (ARK-
1, ARK-R, ARK-T, ARK-ATSC, ECHO-2) together with a complete set of new functionalities that bring the
transmitter at the forefront of the technology edge.
The New SDT ARK-6 Series is the result of years of research and represents the state of the art of the
worldwide transmitter technology. We call it UNIVERSAL DRIVER because of its incredible capability to
modulate in all schemes, just uploading a proper software package. It is perfect for both international
broadcasters which have business in several countries to increase manageability of investment through
reduction of transmitter types and national broadcasters, due for its versatility in operation modes and
configuration. In fact it can be used as a Transmitter, an Heterodyne Transposer, a Regenerative
Transposer and Single Frequency Echo Canceller (proper to Single Frequency Networks), all in a single
hardware.
ARK-6 UNIVERSAL DRIVER is resilient to future evolutions of technology and standardization: this
platform guarantees a perfect upgrade path for new modulation schemes that the researchers will
delivery. Besides ARK-6 UNIVERSAL DRIVER already implements DVB-T/T2, PAL, ATSC/MH, NTSC, ISDB-T
modulations. The SDT ARK-6 allows selection of transmission modes in various ways: remotely, using a
dry contact; via SNMP commands; via TCP/IP, using the Web graphic interface; or even via a dedicated
command inserted into the transport stream. Functional interfaces are available for total remote control
of the apparatus by means of serial protocols or TCP/IP ports. Thanks to the internal Web server the
apparatus can be easily monitored and configured and updated using a LAN connection and a standard
Web browser. Moreover, the built-in SNMP agent allows full automated remote control.
Based on Software Defined Technology, ARK-6 allows the definition of different operative modes on the
same hardware platform. A single software controller allows the ARK-6 to be loaded with up to five
working modes simultaneously and to switch between them preserving each mode-specific
configuration.
The SDT ARK-6 Series specifications can be found in chapter 4.
A brief description of the main features and potentialities of each operative mode follows in next
paragraphs.
The following table shows all the allowed hardware configurations.