In a device and an associated method, an x-ray source and a digital x-ray detector to generate digital x-ray images of an examination subject or of a sample. Product code encoding may be combined with additional error correction code or forward error correction coding thereby generating coded bits for use in generating a signal to be launched into a communication channel Various ECCsFECs may be employed including a BCH code, a Reed-Solomon code, an LDPC code, etc. The shell has one or more elastic arms that extend into contact with the housing. Alternatively the legs could extend from the base into sockets in the top member. The method also can include transmitting a current sentinel in the commutated bitstream, the current sentinel identifying a current commutation format of the commutated bitstream.