Kabel Deutschland began transmission of the new DVB-C2 standard on cable channel D794 (794 MHz center frequency) at ANGA. This formed part of the extended DVB-C2 field trial on its CATV networks in Berlin, Hamburg and Munich. The field trial will become a regular service as soon as compliant receivers are widely available.

"The essential advantages of DVB-C2 are the excellent spectrum efficiency and the flexibility to adapt the parameters to the characteristics of the individual network or application", said Lorenz Glatz, Chief Technology Officer of Kabel Deutschland. The key building blocks of DVB-C2 are the new OFDM modulation scheme and the powerful LDPC error protection system, which will also be used in the DOCSIS 3.1 standard. DVB-C2 will allow an increase in the maximum downstream capacity of an 862 MHz cable network from its present 5 Gbit/s to up to 8 Gbit/s. "The introduction of this new standard will further improve the competitiveness of our already very powerful cable infrastructure and allow for the extending of the service offerings significantly. Our customers can look forward to a new range of products and services", Glatz added.

This is the first time a DVB-C2 1024-QAM modulation scheme, at 3/4 FEC-rate, has been deployed in a CATV network, improving spectrum efficiency by 46 percent over DVB-C at the same signal level. "We now hope that the CE industry will equip their digital TV receivers with combined DVB-C2/DVB-C front-ends, enabling us to extend our DVB-C2 offering", said Frank Hellemink, Vice President Network Engineering at Kabel Deutschland.