BALTIMORE—Broadcast industry consultant Kessler and Gehman Associates (KGA) is using Acrodyne Services’ Progira plan broadcast network planning software to help broadcasters develop their NextGen TV strategies, particularly to assist with single frequency network (SFN) planning,  Acrodyne announced.

“We purchased Progira plan for a variety of projects around spectrum planning and optimization, but there’s no question that the main scope is for ATSC 3.0,” said Ryan Wilhour, consulting engineer at KGA.

The planning tool is used around the world by consultants and broadcasters to design broadcast networks with optimum reception probability. Over the past few months, Acrodyne has experienced increased sales of the tool in the United States as broadcasters near the end of the TV spectrum repack and begin planning ATSC 3.0 deployments, the company said.

Many broadcasters are considering SFNs for 3.0 as a transmission model—a stark change from the high-power big stick approach employed for ATSC 1.0 transmission. Progira plan offers a sophisticated toolset for SFN planning and helps consultants plan networks with multiple transmitter sites designed to reinforce each other for consistent market-wide reception and interference avoidance, said Andy Whiteside, general manager of Acrodyne Services and president of Dielectric. The tool assists users in understanding reception conditions and network timing requirements for mobile users, he added.

“The main benefit [of Progira] is the amount of time we save in planning SFN sites,” said Wilhour. “The software interfaces with the FCC LMS database and exports studies to TV Study for final FCC presentation.

“It automatically defines the appropriate antenna patterns and network timings,” he said. “No longer must the broadcast consultancy pull in antenna patterns, apply them to contours one by one, and evaluate if they remain within allotted coverage areas.

“The software integrates seamlessly with ArcMap geographic information systems (GIS) as well, and allows me to very quickly generate contours and their population counts,” he added.

However, not all broadcasters are considering SFNs for 3.0 deployment; some will rely on their conventional tall tower. The Progira plan is appropriate for reception prediction of both approaches, said Whiteside.

To date, KGA has put the Progira plan to work on a variety of projects, including SFN planning in San Francisco to model potential reception plans for several UHF TV channels and to plan a studio-to-transmitter microwave path profile for an ATSC 1.0 broadcaster.

“There is no question that we are finding new business and making money by using this software,” said Wilhour. “We have one client that is looking at ATSC 3.0 SFN plans for all major markets, and they understand the requirement for accurate coverage models. We can start with the basic metric analysis and then provide very detailed theoretical data that will help them accelerate network buildouts, from identifying proper antenna patterns to gaining construction permits. This software opens up many new business opportunities,” said Wilhour.

More information is available on the Acrodyne Services website.

BALTIMORE—As the transition to ATSC 3.0 is just over the horizon, Acrodyne has announced the first sales of its Progira broadcast network planning software to U.S. customers. The Merrill Weiss Group and Marsand are among the first companies to acquire the software.

Featuring ATSC 3.0 and 1.0 options, the Progira software offers CRC-Predict and other propagation models, which are designed to predict true reception probabilities.

Acrodyne, a subsidiary of Sinclair Broadcast Group, became the exclusive distributor of Progira in September of 2016. 

BALTIMORE—Sinclair Broadcast Group subsidiary Acrodyne has come to terms with Progira to be the exclusive distributor of its broadcast and network planning and design tools in North America. This will include the PROGIRA plan software, as well as training and support.

“After working with PROGIRA plan software for the last year, it became clear to us that PROGIRA was dedicated to delivering a solution tailored for what is widely anticipated to be the next U.S. broadcast standard, ATSC 3.0,” said Andy Whiteside, general manager of Acrodyne Services and president of Dielectric.

Acrodyne and Dielectric plan to work with One Media 3.0 and use PROGIRA plan to build out a national footprint using ATSC 3.0, according to the company’s press release.

BALTIMORE—With the new ATSC 3.0 standard on the horizon, Sinclair Broadcasting Group has chosen to use Progira Plan, a software-based networking planning tool from Sweden-Based Progira, to help implement the new standard across the SGB TV network. One part of this implementation strategy will include single frequency networks.

ATSC 3.0 is not backwards compatible to its single carrier predecessors, instead using a multicarrier OFDM like DVB-T/T2, ISDB-T and DTMB standards. Progira has prior experience planning and provisioning OFDM based multi frequency networks and single frequency networks. Progira announced that added support for ATSC 3.0 in December 2015.

According to Sinclair, the Progira planning/design tools complements the Sinclair Engineering group and the Acrodyne and Dielectric teams, both of which are Sinclair subsidiaries. The vertical implementation by Progira “will help us extract the optimum capabilities of ATSC 3.0, including widespread implementation of SFNs,” said Andy Whiteside, president of Dielectric and general manager of Acrodyne Services.

Progira is a provider of network solutions in the areas of network coverage, infrastructure investment optimization, digital dividend possibilities, frequency planning and digital cartography.