MaxLinear’s corporate headquarters. Photo: MaxLinear

[Via Satellite 09-16-2015] MaxLinear has released a new family of four-channel Full Spectrum Capture (FSC) tuner-demodulator devices for Ultra-High Definition (Ultra-HD) Personal Video Recorders (PVRs) in the satellite pay-TV market.

The new four-channel Integrated Circuits (ICs) include the MxL541C, with a single L-band (950 to 2150MHz) Radio Frequency (RF) input and the MxL542C, with dual wide-band (250 to 2350MHz) RF inputs. The MxL541C supports the legacy satellite Unicable Low Noise Block (LNB) standard EN 50494 (also known as SatCR) as well as the second-generation digital channel-stacking standard, EN 50607, which enables up to 32 user bands to be stacked and distributed over a single coax cable.

MaxLinear is also supplying digital channel stacking LNB downconverters based on its MxL803 Ku-band satellite down-conversion RF IC and MxL862 channel-stacking System on a Chip (SoC) in partnership with Wistron NeWeb Corp. (WNC). Together MaxLinear, WNC and Sky Italia have been collaborating on the joint development of this LNB over the last couple of years. Sky Italia’s launch of the LNB opens the door for adoption by other operators.

The new LNB leverages MaxLinear’s turnkey protocol software, which gives Sky Italia the ability to dynamically allocate channels using the EN50494 and EN50607 standard DiSEqC control protocols. As Sky Italia upgrades or expands its transponder capacity, the LNB can be easily reconfigured to accommodate new channel line-ups.