It was a near miss last week for several radio stations as a fire in southern Colorado burned out of control.

The Aspen Acres wildfire came within several hundred feet of the Camp Jackson tower that contains critical emergency and commercial radio equipment, according to reports

The fire near Rye, Colo., has consumed nearly 100,000 acres of the San Isabel National Forest in the Wet Mountains. It also burned hundreds of homes across Pueblo County. As of Monday afternoon it was about 36% contained, according to news reports.

Semi-retired independent broadcast engineer Michael Baldauf, a Radio World contributor who helps maintain the broadcast site, told Radio World the fire came within a tenth of a mile of the mountaintop facility.

Camp Jackson is situated at an elevation of about 8,600 feet. The tower hosts broadcast antennas for KTPL(FM), WAY-FM’s KRWA(FM) and K-Love’s KWRY(FM) and KRNX(FM), all of which air Christian programming.

Baldauf said the stations have been off the air since power was cut to the tower site around July 1, shortly after the Aspen Acres fire started.

The site has achieved some prominence during the Aspen Acres fire, serving as a critical vantage point and infrastructure anchor for containment operations.

Baldauf himself lives about 10 minutes away but he was evacuated from his home two weeks ago.

He says the fire has burned through the foothills and is burning across the mountain face. As of Monday his home and Camp Jackson appeared to be safe barring a change in wind direction.

“The Sheriff’s Department escorted me up there last week. It all looks fine, but everything had a layer of pink dust on it from fire retardant. It was a very close call,” Baldauf told us.

“I turned off all the circuit breakers in the building so when power is eventually restored, the transmitters won’t automatically start back up. That way I can make sure they are ready to go.”

The four radio stations remain off air, Baldauf said, but the site is approximately 60 miles southwest of Colorado Springs, which has FM signals carrying Christian programming that can serve the Rye area.

He serves as a contract engineer for several of the stations. In the winter, he snowshoes into the site to perform maintenance duties.

“I’m the eyes and ears on the ground here. WAY-FM and K-Love have broadcast engineers in Colorado Springs, but this is so remote that it’s hard to get to.”

Camp Jackson was built in the early 1980s. There is no TV on the tower, Baldauf said, but there are several government agency repeaters.

Baldauf says it’s possible that Camp Jackson received protection from firefights because it had been used by the YMCA as a summer camp for underprivileged youth for about 50 years. The site has a medium-size lodge and some additional outbuildings.

“The fire service is looking to protect property and lives, so having the YMCA camp buildings there likely increased their attention to the area,” he said.

The Colorado Sun reported on Monday that the fire could burn for months.

[This article originally appeared in our sister publication Radio World. Their coverage of the industry is available here.]

Two unauthorized climbers who scaled to the top of the spire above the Empire State Building caused the New York City FM and TV stations broadcasting from antennas there to shift to backup antennas, on the same building but positioned lower on the structure, for about an hour Wednesday.

The shift followed building protocols as soon as the daredevils were reported, heavily driven by the extreme RF present on the live tower, two people familiar with the inner workings of the broadcast configuration at Empire told Radio World.

Many NYC FMs maintain backup antennas atop the Conde Nast Building at 4 Times Square.

The couple, identified by multiple reports as Angela Nikolau, 33, and Ivan Beerkus, 32, were seen holding a pro-peace banner atop the spire, 1,454 feet above the ground.

Radio and TV occupants returned to normal operations once the pair was off the spire.

Footage that multiple TV outlets revealed showed the couple dangling from the the former top mount master antenna that, according to Mike Fitzpatrick’s NECRAT website, once serviced the analog signals of WNBC and WNYW.

The couple had to make their way past the master antenna that 15 New York FMs call home, while two more—WPLJ(FM), WQHT(FM) and WCBS-FM—use the “Mini” master, which they also had to scale.

They also had to pass the VHF Hi Master antenna for WABC-TV and WPIX, plus the DTV master for WFUT and WXTV.

Police received 911 calls concerning the climbers around noon on Wednesday, according to reports.

The banner Nikolau and Beerkus hung read, “When the power of love beats the love of power the world knows peace.”

They were wearing masks during the ascent but were neither harnessed nor wearing any parachutes.

Visitors to the observation deck were also cleared as a safety precaution, according to reports.

After spending approximately half an hour at the top, the couple moved onto a platform where they embraced. Beerkus dropped to one knee and proposed to Nikolau, who accepted.

About 10 minutes later, they began descending.

Police officers from the NYPD’s Emergency Services Unit climbed up the spire to meet the two and placed them into custody just before 1 p.m.

The NYPD is reviewing surveillance from the Empire State Building, WABC-TV said. The two appeared to access the spire from a 102nd floor hatch used for maintenance, possibly by breaking a lock, WABC said.

Nikolau and Beerkus are known for their daredevil “rooftopping” climbs around the world. They were profiled in the 2024 documentary “Skywalkers: A Love Story,” currently available on Netflix.

Potential charges could include trespass and reckless endangerment, police sources told WCBS-TV.

[This article was originally published by our sister publication Radio World.]

CHICAGO—For more than four decades, Installation Services has been synonymous with RF atop Chicago’s Willis Tower. From early collaboration with the late and esteemed broadcast engineer Jeremy Ruck to coordinating antenna systems and transmission lines to helicopter lifts and structural upgrades, our team has worked on nearly every major broadcast installation on the building since the 1980s.

Most recently, we completed one of the most complex projects in the tower’s history: replacing an aging Dielectric triple-stack antenna system with two new UHF systems serving WLS-TV, WFLD-TV and WMAQ-TV.

The Importance of Advanced Planning
The original triple-stack system dated back to the industry’s digital transition in the late 1990s. It served Chicago viewers well for more than two decades, but evolving operational requirements and long-term infrastructure planning made it time for an upgrade. The new configuration includes a Dielectric TFU double-stacked slot antenna system for WLS-TV and WFLD-TV, along with a separate single-slot antenna UHF installation for WMAQ-TV. Both systems feature vertically polarized design elements to improve building penetration.

Projects of this scale begin long before anything leaves the ground. Planning alone took roughly one year and involved structural analysis, engineering reviews, fabrication work, Federal Aviation Administration and Federal Communications Commission coordination, city approvals and extensive lift planning. On a structure as prominent as Willis Tower, every component must meet rigorous engineering and Chicago building code requirements. Multiple engineering teams and third-party reviewers evaluated every detail to ensure the systems would meet performance expectations for decades to come.

Before installation could begin, we first had to remove the existing 18,500-pound triple-stack antenna system. Using Helicopter Express’ heavy-lift aircraft, we dismantled the legacy system into sections and safely lowered it from the tower. Preparation work included replacing aging hardware with new bolts ahead of the lift to ensure smooth field operations during the critical removal window.

The replacement systems required substantial site preparation as well. We removed and replaced the original top plate assembly atop the tower with a newly engineered structure designed to current standards. That alone required a separate helicopter lift and additional reinforcement work beneath the mounting structure to properly tie everything into the tower.

Once the site was prepared, the real installation work began. The WMAQ-TV installation included a massive, fabricated transition section—what we refer to as the “wedding cake”—which serves as the primary support structure for the antenna above it. We also installed rigid transmission line systems to extend multiple floors down into the transmission facilities below.

The Big Lift
Coordinating the helicopter lifts is one of the most demanding aspects of projects like this. We shut down more than a dozen city streets, halted pedestrian traffic and coordinated with dozens of workers, engineers and public safety personnel. During lift operations, virtually every major TV and FM station on the building had to temporarily power down. It’s an enormous logistical undertaking that started before sunrise and requires precision from everyone involved.

Once the antennas were installed, the work shifted toward final optimization. Our crews spent weeks torquing hardware, verifying structural integrity and preparing the RF systems for operation. Third-party inspectors reviewed the completed work, after which transmission lines were connected and tuned. Dielectric engineers then performed system sweeps and final RF optimization to ensure peak performance across the entire transmission system.

These are extremely high-power broadcast facilities serving one of the nation’s largest television markets, so every detail matters. Seeing the new Dielectric systems successfully installed and operating atop Willis Tower is something that brings tremendous pride to our entire team. Projects like this remind you how much planning, engineering and teamwork go into keeping over-the-air television operating reliably for millions of viewers every day.

For more information, visit Dielectric’s website.

TOLEDO, Ohio—At WLMB-TV 40, our mission has always been to serve Northwest Ohio and Southeast Michigan with family-friendly, devotional programming. Since our founding in 1998, we’ve worked hard to deliver high-quality content while being careful stewards of our resources as a nonprofit broadcaster.

When we won a bid for UHF Channel 35, we faced a major transition: We needed to move from the VHF band to UHF, requiring a higher-frequency transmitter capable of delivering increased power. This was not just a technical upgrade; it was an opportunity to expand our audience reach and improve broadcast quality. But as a nonprofit organization, we had to ensure that every dollar spent would provide strong value for our community.

Lower Cost, Larger Audiences
We raised the necessary funding through an on-air donation drive, knowing our viewers trusted us to invest wisely. Our next step was finding a transmitter that could maximize efficiency, reduce operational costs and support our long-term goals. We conducted extensive research, spoke with respected broadcast engineers and met with manufacturers at trade shows.

In addition to performance and efficiency, service and support played a key role in our decision. Rohde & Schwarz provided excellent presale guidance and remained engaged throughout the installation process. Its team worked closely with our engineers to ensure a smooth and timely transition, answering questions promptly and providing clear technical information whenever needed. That level of responsiveness gave us confidence not only in the product but in the partnership itself. For a smaller, mission-driven station like ours, having direct access to knowledgeable support was especially important.

After a thorough review, we chose the Rohde & Schwarz R&S TE1 liquid-cooled transmitter. Its energy-efficient design stood out immediately. Liquid cooling significantly reduces the need for energy-intensive air conditioning, lowering overall energy costs. As we calculated projected savings, we realized the R&S TE1 would pay for itself within three to four years—a critical factor in our decision.

The installation of the transmitter took approximately two weeks. Since going live with the R&S TE1, we have seen a remarkable 28% increase in audience reach, expanding from 1.8 million to 2.3 million households, with half of those households able to receive our signal with a simple indoor or outdoor antenna. Additionally, about 1.24 million people in neighboring TV markets can now more easily receive our signal.

Ready for NextGen TV
Beyond energy savings and expanded reach, the R&S TE1 has positioned WLMB-TV for the future. It is ATSC 3.0-ready, ensuring that when we decide to adopt next-generation broadcast technology, we’ll be prepared without needing another major equipment investment. For a nonprofit like ours, this future-proofing offers both financial security and strategic flexibility.

Reliability was another major factor in our choice. With any broadcast operation, equipment downtime can impact not just technical operations but the trust we’ve built with our viewers. Knowing that the R&S TE1 is designed for high reliability and a long service life gives us peace of mind that we can continue serving our community without interruption.

Looking back, selecting the R&S TE1 was the right decision for WLMB-TV 40. We have improved the quality of our broadcasts, expanded geographic reach, significantly reduced operational costs and set the stage for future growth—all while staying true to our commitment to be responsible with our donors’ support.

The transition from VHF to UHF could have been a daunting and expensive undertaking, but with careful planning and the right technology partner, it has been a tremendous success for our station and the community we serve.

For more information, click here.

QUINCY, Ill.—During its 72 years on the air, WGEM-DT has continuously operated through several transitions, including ownership and network affiliate changes. Licensed to the city of Quincy, Illinois, we had been operating from a broadcast tower situated in a residential neighborhood.

Seizing the opportunity to relocate, we shifted to a shared tower site that has allowed us to take better advantage of our 1 MW of effective radiated power (ERP). In addition to an improved tower position and better sight lines, the move also laid the groundwork to move from VHF Channel 10 to a UHF frequency.

Now broadcasting over UHF Channel 19, these changes have improved coverage to the north and east for WGEM—Quincy’s NBC affiliate—adding three counties to our DMA, while blanketing populated areas such as Burlington, Iowa, that were difficult to reach.

Move to UHF
The move to UHF also required an entirely new RF infrastructure. As WGEM is based in Quincy, we naturally have a strong relationship with GatesAir, which operates its manufacturing center here. About seven months ago, we installed a Maxiva ULXTE-80 UHF transmitter along with a new antenna and combiner, all working together to power our 46 kW TPO with exceptional performance.

The transition to UHF, which included a power increase, also marked our introduction to a liquid-cooled operation. This required a substantial redesign of the existing plant to house new filters, transformers and pump modules, along with the ULXTE transmitter. GatesAir engineers helped design the system to ensure it was up and running, and properly functioning, within our tight timeline.

Moving from air-cooled to liquid-cooled does require a learning curve. Where air-cooled systems are mostly dependent on consistent air conditioning and proper circulation, liquid-cooled systems bring together chillers, pump modules, valves and tubing that circulate coolant to keep high-power transmitters cool and operating consistently, with outdoor air handlers to efficiently expel heat from the room.

GatesAir’s solid-state liquid architecture is fully modernized with a sensible workflow that helped us quickly adapt. That comfort level soon extended to system maintenance, which includes a biweekly review of pump and flow pressure (40 psi), power levels and alarm thresholds to confirm operational stability.

We occasionally add coolant to the system, which requires a complete flush every three to four years when the hue of the existing liquid turns green. While this technically adds up to more maintenance than an air-cooled system that requires quarterly maintenance, working with a liquid-cooled system invites more activity, keeping our skill sets sharp while being far from an engineering burden.

Dual Exciters
The ULXTE transmitter is equipped with dual Maxiva XTE exciters. During maintenance, we switch to the secondary exciter to ensure system redundancy is in order. With no backup transmitter in place, the redundant exciter architecture is an important fail-safe for on-air operations, with automatic switchover when needed.

Like GatesAir’s air-cooled transmitters, the ULXTE liquid-cooled solid-state infrastructure features amplifiers and power supplies that are quick to replace. For liquid systems, the transmitters are carefully designed to prevent leaks and damage upon removing and placing a module.

The XTE exciters reliably take in and amplify our DTI and ASI signals to produce a robust over-the-air signal coming out of the transmitter. The exciters also include GatesAir’s RTAC real-time adaptive correction technology to eliminate frequency drift and remain within our RF 19 specifications.

Its GUI, along with the transmitter’s GUI, provides us with all the monitoring intelligence we need to ensure our power level, modulation error ratio and other readings are clear, accessible and within approved thresholds. And with NextGen TV broadcasts on the horizon, the XTE also provides a direct path to the ATSC 3.0 standard via a firmware update.

More information is available here.

CINCINNATI—GatesAir has announced that it will continue its successful in-house financing program for its North America TV and radio customers. The initiative provides a range of flexible financing options to fund a broadcaster’s investment in modern, high-efficiency transmission equipment.

New as of this month, broadcasters also have the option to finance GatesAir Care services into their contracts, providing customers with a managed service layer to monitor and maintain their transmission systems.

“Our in-house financing program has proven to be a winning formula for all of our customers from the independent FM broadcaster to the biggest networks and station groups,” Mark Goins, vice president of global sales at GatesAir. “The broadcaster’s annual technology budget continues to tighten, and these plans help our customers make the most of their capital expenditure. And while all plans include our world-class customer service and technical support, the option to work our GatesAir Care managed services into all plans ensures that your transmission systems are protected through our engineering teams. This is especially relevant for broadcasters that lack the in-house RF engineering talent to monitor and maintain their system from basic service and support up through disaster recovery strategies.”

All financing plans can be tailored to meet the specific needs of each customer, GatesAir said.

Options range from financing a single transmitter purchase all the way up to a complete refresh of existing transmission infrastructure, including new FM systems and ATSC 3.0 DTV solutions.

Click here for more information.

Customers can request a quote and download equipment financing applications by following the simple instructions and prompts detailed on the page.

MONTREAL—Haivision has begun shipping the latest version of software for its low-latency live video Haivision Pro transmitter and will show it at NAB Show, April 5-9, at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

The new software version has a redesigned, streamlined user interface that leverages the same UI design as that of the company’s Makito X4 video encoder. Haivision Pro is well-suited for transmitting live video over both public and private 5G networks. Its new interface provides enhanced usability to ensure users with any level of technical proficiency can manage and monitor live broadcast video transmissions, it said.

“User interface design is at the core of how Haivision develops products. The new Haivision Pro UI is part of our initiative to provide a consistent and enhanced user experience across our ecosystem of broadcast products,” Jean-Marc Racine, chief product officer at Haivision, said.

“With this release, we aim efficiency to make it easier to get new users up and running quickly, help all customers increase their operational efficiency, and allow customers with multiple Haivision products to benefit from a more seamless experience across their suite of solutions,” Racine said.

At the root of the redesign was a desire to improve the ease with video professionals, ranging from camera operators and field talent to broadcast engineers, can use Haivision Pro. The new browser-based interface is highly functional and visually compelling. It simplifies configuration and enables users to manage live video transmission remotely, it said.

Haivision provides a complete ecosystem of broadcast products to get live video feeds from any event to the broadcast production environment, whether on-premises or in the cloud. The Haivision Pro video transmitter is a core component of this broadcast contribution ecosystem. The consistency of the new Haivision Pro UI with the user face of Makito X4 and other Haivision products fosters greater ease of use, reduces training requirements and enables efficient management of complex broadcast contribution workflows involving wired (SRT) and wireless (SST) video streaming, it said.

The new interface offers reorganized navigation, familiar user experience, confidence monitoring at a glance, a versatile design and one-tap filtering, it said.

The new user interface is included in all versions of the Haivision Pro series of video transmitters as well as with Haivision Air video transmitters and Haivision Rack video encoders, it said.

More information is available on the company’s website.

See Haivision at 2025 NAB Show, booth W2221.

Designing transmitter sites for sustainability can be a challenge. This month, I’ll offer some tips on items to consider when upgrading old transmission facilities or building new ones.

Today’s solid-state transmitters using LDMOS (laterally-diffused metal-oxide semiconductor) devices and Doherty amplification are more efficient than yesterday’s tube transmitters. However, at many stations that gain in efficiency has been offset by the need to put more radio frequency (RF) signal in the air to reach indoor antennas.

In most urban and suburban areas, it is unusual to see outdoor TV antennas. Reaching indoor antennas and antennas in attics requires more power. Adding vertical polarization takes additional power—up to 100% more power for circular polarization.

Antenna and Line Efficiency
There are a few ways to reduce the required transmitter power. One is to use a higher-gain antenna; that, however, increases antenna size and directivity. Increasing elevation gain results in a narrower beamwidth that will reduce signal strength in some areas. Even if a narrow elevation pattern and its electrical and mechanical beam tilt are optimized for the coverage area and terrain, if the tower or antenna flexes, that pattern will shift.

Distant viewers in the direction of the tilt may lose the signal. One thing I discovered early in my career was that having some power at higher elevation angles is important in areas with mountains, as the signal will diffract over the edge of the mountain to the area behind it only if there is sufficient power hitting the top of the mountain.

Rather than compromise on the elevation pattern, it may make sense to look at the azimuth pattern to determine if a higher-gain, more-directional pattern will reach the population centers. Consider where population growth is occurring: Revisiting areas around Orlando, Fla., this month, I saw new subdivisions full of houses in areas that were vacant land when I was doing measurements there two years ago.

Assuming we don’t want to give up elliptical polarization or a wider elevation pattern and can’t sacrifice coverage in some areas with a more directional azimuth pattern, is there anything else we can do to reduce the transmitter power required?

Another option is to improve the efficiency of the transmission line. This will have little impact on short towers but at Channel 30 with a 2,000-foot line, the difference is significant. A 6 1/8-inch, 50-ohm line will require 88.6 kW of transmitter power into the line to have 50 kW at the antenna, compared with 79.2 kW for a 7 3/16-inch, 75-ohm line. In addition to power savings, the lower power may allow use of a smaller transmitter, offsetting some of the cost of the larger line.

Transmitter Efficiency
When comparing transmitter efficiency, is the quoted efficiency for the amplifier alone, the entire transmitter or the transmitter and cooling systems? All components should be considered.

To achieve maximum efficiency, transmitters use adaptive pre-correction to obtain more power from an amplifier with less DC input power. As efficiency increases, the amplifier will generate more distortion and the output signal’s signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) will increase, even with pr-correction in the exciter.

If transmitter power consumption is a concern, consider allowing worse SNR. In the past, an SNR of 27 decibels was considered the minimum acceptable level. With today’s transmitters, an SNR of over 30 decibels is easy to obtain. Poor SNR will impact coverage, but once the ratio is in the mid-30-dB range, any additional improvement in SNR will have little if any impact on coverage and may not be worth the increase in power consumption.

A chart from a Rohde & Schwarz report (Fig. 1) shows the impact in dB and power on modulation error ratio (MER), which is related to SNR. The paper refers to COFDM (coded orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing) but results will be similar with 8-VSB (vestigial sideband modulation). The “falloff level” is the required receiver threshold, so 16 dB above a 15-dB “falloff level” matches a 31 dB MER.

High-power, solid-state transmitters require many amplifiers and these require combiners, which require reject loads. How these loads are cooled will affect transmitter efficiency. Normally, there is no power into the load, but if an amplifier fails, the load must be able to handle the reject power immediately without burning up.

Spinner and Dielectric sell loads are designed to operate with minimal cooling power until RF is applied. If liquid cooling is used for the load, the heat exchanger can be placed outside, reducing heat in the building when the load is in use. Air-cooled loads with thermostats to control the cooling fans require no power when there is no RF into the load, but will add heat to the building when in use.

How much heat does the transmitter generate and where does it go? Some transmitters use liquid-cooled power supplies, so the heat goes outside. Others use air-cooled power supplies that put heat into the transmitter room and add fan noise.

Beyond Efficiency
Besides efficiency, sustainability includes environmental impact. Many transmitter sites were designed with an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) using a large string of lead-acid batteries to keep the equipment in the transmitter facility running in the event of a loss of utility power until the generator starts, usually 15-45 seconds. That was important with tube transmitters, as it could take 15 minutes for an amplifier to warm up after a power loss.

Today, if utility power is stable and the transmitter is solid state, consider whether a full-sized UPS is needed. If it is only required for outages, having a smaller UPS connected only to the equipment that requires time to start up after a power outage, like computers and the transmitter exciters, may be sufficient. The solid-state amplifiers will return in seconds after power is restored.

If power is unstable, prone to brownouts or frequent dropouts, a flywheel UPS may make more sense than a battery-based UPS. Though noisier, it requires less maintenance and no hazardous material is involved. Lithium batteries are more compact and last longer than lead-acid batteries, but may not be suitable for locations where fire is a possibility.

What about a solar-powered transmitter site? I could see this working for LPTV or translator sites. While it would be difficult to find space for a sufficient number of panels for a high-power transmitter at most mountaintop or building sites, it could be an option for owners of sites with large guyed towers with lots of land under the tower. It probably wouldn’t work in areas with snow or lots of cloudy days and, if not grid-tied, the solar power capacity and battery storage would have to be designed for the worst-case scenario.

LAS VEGAS—Rohde & Schwarz will unveil the new R&S®TE1 liquid-cooled transmitter during the 2024 NAB Show at its booth SU4039 in the Las Vegas Convention Center between April 14 to 17. 

Rohde & Schwarz is billing the new R&S®TE1 as ushering in a new era of transmission. It is the first liquid-cooled transmitter design post Repack. As an ATSC 3.0 native transmitter, it is made for sustainable broadcasting in the connected world, turning critical challenges into opportunities for broadcasters to unlock new and engaging revenue-rich digital services. Further refined, it is a true peace-of-mind solution that reduces operational costs, minimizes the carbon footprint of transmission, and creates new business opportunities. 

“With ATSC 3.0 now reaching 75% of all US households, broadcasters are faced with three critical challenges and opportunities. They must reduce energy costs and carbon footprint to become more sustainable; cut operational costs through higher resilience and decrease reliance on the industry's limited supply of engineers; and they need to explore new business opportunities and revenue sources,” said Manfred Reitmeier, vice president broadcast and amplifier systems at Rohde & Schwarz.  “The R&S®TE1 builds on our proven skills and experience in transmitter design, and delivers against these three key requirements.”

“Our transmitter solutions deliver functionality, reliability and quality; by adding RMTX to the service level agreement, it maximizes risk mitigation for the operator, and it provides an affordable and predictable cost of ownership over a typical lifetime of 10 years or more,” said Claudia Goerig, service product manager for broadcast and amplifier systems at Rohde & Schwarz.

The company said that the transmitter at least 15% more energy efficient than even the best current designs, and 40% more efficient than the average installed base. 

The proven Rohde & Schwarz liquid-cooled transmitter technology ensures heat from the amplifiers is efficiently dissipated outside, eliminating the need for power-intensive air conditioning. The design eliminates single points of failures, and the intelligent software control layer ensures that over the lifetime of the transmitter the optimal efficiency is maintained throughout self-adaptation.

Through its unique architecture, the R&S®TE1 also simplifies maintenance and operation significantly. It combines high reliability with easy troubleshooting and remote support capabilities, increasing efficiency for network operators. All parameters can be monitored and controlled remotely, reducing the need for transmitter staff to be on site, the company reported. 

Rohde & Schwarz is also introducing a unique service: RMTX (Remote Transmitter Monitoring). Through this service, customers can rely on Rohde & Schwarz expert support to have their transmitter systems continuously monitored. This allows rapid responses in case of serious issues, remote technical support and guidance, fast shipment of spare parts, and routine preventative maintenance actions to be scheduled most efficiently. 

The transmitter will be launched at an event on Sunday, 14 April at 2 p.m. at the Rohde & Schwarz NAB Show booth SU4039. 

More information is available at www.rohde-schwarz.com. 

CINCINNATI—GatesAir, a subsidiary of Thomson Broadcast, has announced that it is one of several key suppliers supporting NextGen TV, aka ATSC 3.0 research, testing, and deployment within the Broadcast-Broadband Convergence B²CLab infrastructure at Humber College in Toronto. 

The B²C Lab, which features six GatesAir Maxiva UHF transmitters was established as North America’s first 100% front-facing industry research lab to explore multi-sectoral applications of the ATSC 3.0 standard including convergence with 5G networks. 

Its work includes active participation with industry stakeholders and ATSC 3.0 technical teams, including the Tower Network Implementation team (TN-IT5), whose aim is to connect broadcast transmission towers to form an IP and 5G-based scalable and configurable Inter-Tower Communications Network (ITCN). The lab’s work incorporates joint research and development efforts with the Communications Research Center in Ottawa, the University of the Basque Country in Bilbao, Spain, and the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute in Seoul, South Korea.

“ATSC 3.0 is the world’s most efficient one-to-many data delivery system, and we’re happy to be part of an auspicious global group of research scientists working together to advance NextGenTV and data delivery applications,” said Orest Sushko, director for the B²C Lab. “In Canada, we work with a variety of industry stakeholders that are interested in developing both television and non-television applications using the standard, which includes the deployment of datacasting services to support smart city initiatives offering public safety and first responder applications. Here in Toronto, we operate through Canada’s first ATSC 3.0 experimental/developmental license, and Humber College actively participated in the process of helping develop the necessary requirements for 3.0 experimental operation in Canada.”

Humber B²C Lab’s engineering manager, Willie Perez, has designed a unique OTA test bed that spans three tower sites to deliver NextGenTV services airing on UHF channels 22 and 28, with two GatesAir Maxiva transmitters at each site enabling content and IP data delivery. The configuration includes two UAXTE-3P-C, two UAXTE-2P-C, and two UAXTE-50 transmitters. The transmitters operate at low power (between 15 and 400 Watts TPO) and are well suited in leveraging ATSC 3.0’s physical layer to extend coverage from each tower site.

“This helps us optimize specific datacasting use cases where we don’t need to send a lot of data, but need to ensure that the data is very robust in its transmission properties,” said Sushko. “What we like about GatesAir is their ability to tailor a transmission solution that met our initial requirements while enhancing the overall functionality of our OTA testing services. GatesAir supports our development of new and novel applications using ATSC 3.0 in meaningful ways that will help foster long-term sustainability for the broadcast industry.”

The Humber B²C Lab will soon add a seventh Maxiva transmitter to a fourth ATSC 3.0 experimental site atop the CN Tower in downtown Toronto, which Sushko says will expand the lab’s reach of testing services to approximately 25 percent of the Canada’s marketplace. “GatesAir is helping us build a world-class ecosystem that allows us to undertake extensive testing with reliable performance, ensuring the best possible success,” said Sushko.

Further information about the Humber B²C Lab can be found at https://b2convergence.ca. 

BATON ROUGE, La.— Broadcast engineering and commercial AV solutions provider Technical Services Group (TSG) will install Rohde & Schwarz solid-state transmitters for two Louisiana-based PBS member stations, preparing the stations for a future ATSC 3.0 transition. 

WLPB in Baton Rouge is part of Louisiana Public Broadcasting, the state network of six PBS stations offering three channels of programming operated by the Louisiana Educational Television Authority. TSG will also provide transmitter services for WYES, a PBS member station serving New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast that is owned by the Greater New Orleans Educational Television Foundation, TSG said. 

Both will be upgraded with R&S THU9-24 high-power, liquid-cooled transmitters. TSG will provide turnkey decommissioning, inside RF, installation and commissioning as well as electrical and mechanical services. The new units will be sized for new antennas with vertical polarization (VPOL) to improve ATSC 3.0 transmission. WLPB’s new transmitter will be on-air this summer, while WYES is scheduled to be live before autumn, it said. 

“It’s always special when we’re asked to work with and support public television,” said TSG CEO Bo Hoover. “These new transmitters will help WYES and WLPB deliver programming and services to Louisiana PBS viewers for years to come, as well as equip them for the move to NextGen TV. Plus, the R&S transmitters use liquid cooling to minimize heat load, so air conditioning requirements are far more cost efficient.”

More information is available on the company’s website. 

LAS VEGAS— Sustainability will be a main focus of Rohde & Schwarz at the 2023 NAB Show in Las Vegas, April 16-19 as the company touts its high efficiency THU9evo transmitter and conducts a live demonstration of 5G Broadcast at its booth.

Energy efficiency represents a major challenge for the broadcast industry, but one which must be addressed to achieve a more sustainable future for everyone, the company said. R&S’s THU9evo is a flexible, software-defined transmitter platform which delivers the high power density on the market, which for ATSC broadcasting, means energy efficiency of as much as 43% according to the company.

Rohde & Schwarz says “this unprecedented high efficiency performance means an equally dramatic reduction in operating costs.” This is further enhanced by the liquid-cooled design, meaning that much of the heat can be dissipated in the outside atmosphere rather than requiring expensive air conditioning in the transmitter building. Together, it is a dramatic reduction in the carbon footprint, ensuring that terrestrial transmission is the sustainable delivery route in a connected world, according to the company.

Rohde will also return with a 5G Broadcast demo in partnership with Qualcomm Technologies. 5G Broadcast serves content to mobile devices without using cellular bandwidth, enabling new services like localized and pop-up channels. The company says 5G Broadcast also opens up valuable new revenue opportunities for transmitter network operators, like IoT data multicasting, for example to the automotive industry. 

“Minimizing the carbon footprint is a vital mission for everyone,” said Thomas Janner, Director R&D Broadcast Application at Rohde & Schwarz. “Transmitters have traditionally been power hungry devices, but we have been tirelessly working to refine the electronic architecture to maximize operational efficiency and minimize the power consumed. Added to that, the ability to introduce new services like 5G Broadcast to the industry, which will enable new business models, makes terrestrial transmission even more interesting,” he added. “We look forward to showing NAB visitors how R&S transmitters pave the way to a sustainable future.”

Rohde & Schwarz will be in Booth N1949 in the North Hall of the LVCC.

COLUMBIA, Md.—Broadcast engineering solutions provider Technical Services Group has installed new transmitters in the Rohde & Schwarz Training Center at its corporate headquarters.

The transmitters, which are not on-air, are fully functional and give students the opportunity to receive hands-on training in a typical broadcast environment.

“Rohde & Schwarz approached us about updating their training center to include the latest models,” said TSG CEO Bo Hoover. “We basically designed a system that is very similar to what any broadcaster would find at their transmitter site. We mirrored a typical infrastructure, but it’s in a showroom.”

The project began with TSG removing the older systems to make room for the new transmitters. TSG installed the newest R&S THR9evo liquid-cooled FM radio and R&S TMU9evo air-cooled UHF transmitters.

Rohde & Schwarz’ two-day training program gives students the chance to troubleshoot potential problems and work directly with transmitters. “The upgrade to the facility really made these transmitters more real-world, as if they’re installed at a customer’s location,” said Hoover. 

Installing the transmitters in a corporate office was challenging, requiring TSG to hide parts of the infrastructure. For instance, the cooling lines were run above the finished ceilings, and the heat exchanger infrastructure was installed in a way that was hidden from visitors and employees, he said.

“We’re known for our detailed, high-quality work in the field, but we weren’t working at a dirty old transmitter site,” he said. “The finished product had to be showroom grade. We’re proud that Rohde & Schwarz trusted TSG for this high-profile project.”

More information is available on the TSG website.

CINCINNATI—Thomson Broadcast announced today that it will acquire GatesAir, a leading provider of radio and TV transmission systems. Thomson is buying GatesAir from an affiliate of The Gores Group ("Gores"), which acquired the Harris transmission business in 2012 and rebranded it as GatesAir.  The transaction is subject to certain regulatory filings and is expected to close in the second half of 2022. Details of the transaction were not disclosed.

The acquisition comes after Thomson Broadcast's announcement in 2019 that it was expanding its focus in the U.S., anticipating a strong market for the spectrum repack (which was completed in 2020) as well as for ATSC 3.0 transmission systems. It opened a New York office and distribution center to meet demand for its low-power to high-power transmitters.

GatesAir has a storied history in the broadcast industry over the past 100 years and  has recently seen strong growth from the spectrum repack program. GatesAir worked with Bowen Inc. to find a buyer, eventually settling on Thomson Broadcast. 

The combination of GatesAir with Thomson Broadcast will create a scaled, comprehensive platform with greater capabilities in innovation, design and product efficiency and an expanded portfolio of holistic, turnkey broadcast solutions, the companies said. 

“GatesAir is already an undisputed leader in the broadcast industry, and our combination with Thomson Broadcast will create a combined company of larger scale even better suited to meet the ever-evolving needs of our customers all over the globe,” said Bruce D. Swail, CEO of GatesAir. “I am very proud of the GatesAir team for its stewardship of and innovation in this industry over the past century and look forward to entering the next 100 years as an even stronger business leveraging the strengths of two legendary broadcast brands. On behalf of everyone at GatesAir, I’d like to thank Gores for their strategic guidance which was invaluable in growing our business and driving innovation.”

“Over the course of our successful partnership with Bruce and the management team, GatesAir has driven tremendous growth and transformation through organic and inorganic initiatives, establishing itself as a premier, independent broadcast company with market leading technology and service,” said Edward Johnson, Senior Managing Director at The Gores Group. “We have no doubt GatesAir will continue on its successful trajectory and strengthen its market leadership alongside Thomson Broadcast.”

Based in France, Thomson Broadcast has been in existence for more than 100 years, and has extensive experience in DTV and AM Radio, including DRM. Over the past two years, Thomson Broadcast has received awards for providing exceptional DTT turnkey solutions to large-scale digital migration projects in Africa.

“In 2018, we have set the goal to establish ourselves in the US Market. With Thomson Broadcast and GatesAir now united, these two companies will make us stronger in America and globally as well,” says Ylias Akbaraly, Chairman of Thomson Broadcast.

"Thomson Broadcast and GatesAir together can bring innovative and revolutionary products to the broadcast industry in the centuries to come,” says Aby Alexander, President of Thomson Broadcast USA.

“We are delighted to have reached this point,” says Amine Oubid, CEO of Thomson Broadcast. “From the start we were excited to work with the GatesAir team and saw the obvious fit of the two companies. The transaction closing can’t come fast enough for us. We’re very proud to participate in the rallying of two century-old companies and excited to start working together.”

WASHINGTON, D.C.—PILOT, the innovation wing of the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB), has announced the development of a NextGen TV Transmitter ID (TxID) table for voluntary use by broadcasters using the ATSC 3.0 transmission standard. 

The table and TxID codes can be used to identify individual transmissions for testing, measurement, interference identification and other differentiation purposes, the NAB said. 

“ATSC 3.0 stations are rapidly launching all over the United States and this TxID table is an excellent resource for broadcasters,” said Sam Matheny, NAB’s chief technology officer. “It’s important for each main and SFN transmitter to have a unique identifier, and NAB is proud to provide this table to help ensure a consistent format and regional uniqueness. We invite and encourage all ATSC 3.0 broadcasters to use this important tool.”

The ATSC 3.0 suite of standards provides a mechanism for assigning an optional TxID code for each individual NextGen TV transmitter, including main transmitters of full-power and low-power stations, as well as TV translators and on-channel low-power transmitters that are part of single frequency networks (SFNs). No specific methodology for assigning or registering these identifying codes is documented in the ATSC 3.0 standards, but they must be regionally unique.

Under contract from NAB PILOT, Cavell Mertz & Associates, Inc. and The Merrill Weiss Group developed the TxID code table to serve as a voluntary register for the TxID transmitter identification system. NAB PILOT will act as the registration authority for the table.

In the table, TxID code values are assigned to licensed facilities in blocks, providing each station the resources needed to identify multiple transmitters operating under its single license. Each block of TxID codes is selected to be regionally unique for its channel number.

The table can be accessed at TxID.NABPILOT.org.

SAINT-GREGOIRE, France—Aviwest is unveiling its new PRO3-5G and AIR-5G Series lightweight bonded cellular transmitters, offering faster speeds and lower latency. 

"5G networks are expected to bring many improvements to the current bonded cellular transmission scenario," said Ronan Poullaouec, CTO at Aviwest.

"Gigabit speeds and reduced transmission latencies are the initial advantages broadcasters can realize from 5G. Beyond the new capacities and services that 5G networks enable, our Aviwest field units will help to maintain a consistent quality of service and make the best use of 5G network performance."

The PRO3-5G, which can be camera-mounted or used in a backpack, offers six embedded 3G/4G/5G modems that are compliant worldwide with a high-efficiency, patented custom antenna array, the company said. 

The AIR-5G is a compact, advanced transmitter with a long-life internal rechargeable battery and a large array of audio and video interfaces. Both use the company’s Safe Streams Transport (SST) protocol that aggregates multiple IP network connections and dynamically adapts video bitrates according to network bandwidth fluctuations, the company said.

Aviwest has been a part of several 4K/UHD and full-HD/HEVC video delivery tests via 5G since 2017. Recently, the company demonstrated use of the transmitters via 5G at a major tennis championship at Roland-Garros in France as part of the IBC Accelerator Program.

The PRO3-5G and AIR-5G are scheduled to ship in December.

More information is available on the company’s website.

ATLANTA—Georgia Public Broadcasting (GPB) operates a state-wide PBS TV network using nine full-power DTV stations and a handful of low-power translators. All but two of our high-power stations were already using high- band VHF channels prior to the FCC repack, so it was reasonable to assume most of these stations were safe from having to move from the pre-repack channels to new ones. 

As luck would have it, five of the state’s seven VHF stations were repacked and therefore required new transmitters. Two of our stations that operated on UHF channels opted to sell their spectrum and switch to VHF low-band (WJSP and WNGH).

TALKING OUT OUR NEEDS

GPB only had one DTV station in the early phase of the repack (WJSP). We thought air-cooled transmitters would be the best way to move forward so we ordered a 12kW air-cooled unit from Hitachi-Comark for this station on VHF Channel 5. We also looked at the remainder of our station’s requirements for repack, most of which were in the later phases of the process. Upon further discussions with Hitachi-Comark, we chose the company’s Parallax liquid-cooled DTV transmitters to satisfy our remaining requirements.

Hitachi-Comark’s Parallax series offers several advantages, including high efficiency, minimal requirements for in-building air conditioning and low acoustic noise levels inside the transmitter facilities. We ordered the balance of our repack DTV transmitters from Hitachi-Comark and swapped out the original air-cooled transmitter at WJSP for a Parallax liquid-cooled replacement.  All of the Parallax transmitters deployed use a single cabinet design, varying from 4.3kW “V3” (three PA’s) through 15.9kW “V11” (eleven PA’s). Each transmitter is paired with a separate indoor cooling module with dual pumps and an outdoor dual-fan liquid-to-air heat exchanger.

THE INSTALLATION

Field deployments went very smoothly. Hitachi-Comark assigned a program manager who oversaw our entire project from start to finish. First, they performed comprehensive site surveys at all our transmitter facilities to ensure all details were documented prior to actual on-site work. New transmitter equipment and associated accessories were deployed systematically to each repack transmitter site directly from the vendor’s facility. Hitachi-Comark’s installation crews were highly professional and extremely efficient with their on-site work.  

One of our most difficult site locations was WGTV, with a transmitter facility located on top of Stone Mountain Park. The mountain has an elevation of just under 1,700 feet AMSL—great for broadcasting, but difficult and highly dependent on weather conditions to access. Additionally, we could not modify the building to accommodate new equipment.

We installed two new Parallax transmitters (main and standby) in the basement of the building at WGTV. Each transmitter included a separate cooling system for complete redundancy. Speaking of cooling systems, the outdoor heat exchangers needed to be mounted to the roof of the building—three stories above the transmitters. Hitachi-Comark even designed and supplied a custom mounting frame for both heat exchangers, utilizing existing mounting points from the previous analog systems. It was also extremely difficult to route the interconnected cooling system hoses between the outdoor heat exchangers and the indoor equipment.

Even with all these constraints, the team at Hitachi-Comark did a great job. They delivered the equipment on time and on budget. We are glad we chose to work with Hitachi-Comark, and would recommend them to anyone looking for new equipment and field services.

Adam Woodlief has served as the chief technology officer for GPB since 2018. He currently serves on PBS’s Engineering Technology Advisory Committee (ETAC) and is co-chair of the ETAC Public Safety working group. He can be contacted at awoodlief@GPB.org.

For more information, visit www.comark.tv or contact 800-345-9295. 

SOUTHWICK, Mass.—Hitachi Kokusai Electric Comark has introduced two low-power members of the E-Compact family of air-cooled transmitters.

The high-efficiency EC705LP-AT1 50W and EX720LF-AT1 125W solid-state UHF DTV transmitters are designed to meet the needs of LPTV operators during their TV spectrum repack, the company said.

Both integrate an ATSC exciter, driver and final PA into a single rack-mountable chassis. The EX720LF-AT1 also includes a slot for a backup power supply. Front-panel connection on the power supplies makes for quick service, said Comark.

The air-cooled PA includes automatic cooling fan speed control to reduce acoustic noise while operating, save electricity and extend fan life. The transmitter can be mounted in an existing equipment rack cabinet or an optional 10RU rack from Comark. 

The EC700LP-AT1 series of transmitters feature System-on-Chip (SoC) technology that integrates multiple system elements into a compact architecture delivering high processing power and offering superior reliability, the company said.

SoC embeds software such as MER measurements, IMD measurements, as well as linear and non-linear automatic digital pre-correction. 

The transmitters include front panel controls, comprehensive web-GUI and SNMP for remote control and monitoring. An optional off-air receiver is available so that these units can be operated as a translator.

More information is available on the Comark website.

MUNICH, Germany—Rohde & Schwarz is touting early ATSC 3.0 transmitter deployment market share numbers it says reveal the company accounts for nearly 90% of NextGen TV transmitters installed around the world.

More than 60 ATSC 3.0 transmitters from Rohde & Schwarz are in commercial operation in South Korea, and during the U.S. TV spectrum repack the company has provided hundreds of transmitters that are NextGen TV-ready.

In South Korea, ATSC 3.0 has been the centerpiece of its drive to broadcast 4K UltraHD to viewers. The nation’s broadcasters transmitted 2018 Olympic Winter Games from Pyeongchang-gun, South Korea, in 4K UHD using 3.0, and the country is targeting 2027 to have all of its programming offered in UHD. In the United States, ATSC 3.0 deployment is voluntary.

”KBS [Korea Broadcasting System] and Rohde & Schwarz have worked together developing our new terrestrial UHD service based around R&S THU9 TV transmitters since 2014,” says Sungho Jeon Ph.D., manager, Department of Media Distribution Management at KBS. “Today most of South Korea’s ATSC 3.0 TV transmitter sites operate R&S THU9 transmitters—not only KBS, but also other broadcasters in Korea. For three years, the system has been operating, and KBS is very happy.”

Rohde & Schwarz transmitters support core ATSC 3.0 features, including multiple physical layer pipes (PLP), multiple subframes and single frequency networks (SFN) capabilities, the company said. They also support ATSC 3.0 layered division multiplexing (LDM).

For 3.0 single frequency network (SFN) deployments, Rohde & Schwarz offers the R&S RelayCaster that enables public internet connections to feed stream inputs to transmitters at individual SFN sites, the company says.

Rohde & Schwarz also provides a translator solution to simplify extending ATSC coverage and eliminate the expense of the transport stream feeding infrastructure to LPTV transmitters. 

“Next Gen TV is bringing wide-scale terrestrial broadcasting into the IP age,” says Manfred Reitmeier, vice president, Transmitter and Amplifier Systems at Rohde & Schwarz. 

More information is available on the Rohde & Schwarz website.

CINCINNATI—GatesAir announced it shipped its 400th transmitter to stations affected by the TV spectrum repack in October and anticipates it will pass 500 by the end of the year.

To date, it has shipped 17,000 power amplifiers, or more than 11.2 Megawatts for transmission power, it said. Further, 60% of the equipment shipped has been installed and is now on the air.

“GatesAir has successfully met all shipping deadlines thanks to detailed capacity planning, resulting in key manufacturing initiatives to handle the volume,” says Bryant Burke, vice president of Operations, GatesAir. “I’m very proud of the work our team has done. Many of our shipments are well ahead of the customer phase requirements, which reduces uncertainty around planning.”

Only a handful of higher power repack orders remain to be filled, said GatesAir CEO Bruce Swail, adding that the company will now pivot to meeting the needs of low-power television broadcasters affected by the repack.

GatesAir has expanded its range of LPTV transmitters. More than 2,000 stations are being displaced by the channel reassignment of full-power broadcasters in repack phases 0 through 10, the company noted. The filing period for LPTV broadcasters is underway and will continue through the middle of the month.

More information is available on the GatesAir website.

For more information on the repack, visit TV Technology's repack silo.

IBC 2019, 13-17 September, Hall 10 Stand C25: DTC Broadcast will feature its entire wireless AEON transmitter range, including the acclaimed AEON Lite transmitter and the PRORXD-AEON receiver, all at a new location during IBC 2019 in Amsterdam from 13–17 September.

DTC Broadcast has relocated to Hall 10 this year to ensure the highest visibility for its AEON transmitter range as well as the latest developments for other new DTC Broadcast products.

According to DTC Vice President, Broadcast Sales, JP Delport, “A few years ago the SNG market was core business for us, but bonded SIM technology has changed the game for newsgathering. However there has been growth in OB and live event production, so overall we have seen an increased requirement for our technology and our move to Hall 10 reflects the shift in our customer base.”

DTC’s AEON Lite is the lightest and smallest HEVC 4K transmitter currently on the market and is highly regarded for exceptional RF and picture performance. Designed to offer future-proof connectivity, the unit supports quad 3G-SDI video inputs which enable the user to transmit up to four simultaneous HD signals over a single RF channel.

AEON Lite will be demonstrated with the PRORXD-AEON, an integrated eight-way diversity 4K receiver/decoder that includes maximum ratio combining across all eight RF inputs.

DTC will also feature its industry-leading IP Mesh technology. Multiple RF nodes serve as both transmitters and receivers and are combined into a wireless ad-hoc IP network – DTC’s fluid, self-forming, self-healing mesh. Unlike other wireless options, Mesh constantly readjusts itself as nodes move, working out which are in range to determine the best route to send data between them. With genuine non-line-of-sight coverage, superb penetration, and wide bandwidth in difficult environments, the system is truly mobile. It supplies a network with extended range – one which will deliver in environments too tough for other radio solutions to cope with.

Finally, yet important to professionals in the video assist market, is the introduction of DTC’s CineVue, which combines DTC’s Nano HD camera-back transmitter with a purpose-built handheld visual receiver. The CineVue system takes an HD-SDI video feed from a film camera; encodes the signal to a low bitrate; modulates that signal on an RF spectrum; and transmits it to the handheld monitor to provide high-quality visibility of what is taking place on a shoot in real-time, including highly valuable metadata such as colour lookup tables, lens data, and time stamps.

###

About DTC Domo Broadcast - Broadcasting without boundaries

DTC Broadcast (Domo Tactical Communications) is at the forefront of wireless broadcast communication technologies. DTC has developed its cutting edge technologies for the broadcast market providing real technical and operational benefits that empower users to broadcast without boundaries.

A world-class supplier of wireless links globally and a leader in the MPEG4 wireless technology revolution, DTC offers high-quality, DVB-T low-delay broadcast transmitter/receiver systems and IP solutions designed specifically for electronic news gathering, outside broadcast, satellite newsgathering, motor and extreme sports coverage, portable field monitoring and video assist applications.

Backed by more than 50 years' experience in the military and surveillance market, DTC’s broadcast portfolio benefits from the ultra-high build quality and ruggedness these markets require.

For more information www.domobroadcast.tv

Media enquiries

Manor Marketing
Kara Myhill
+44 (0) 789 9977222
kara@manormarketing.tv

COLUMBIA, Md.—Sinclair Broadcast Group has selected Rohde & Schwarz to supply more than 100 high-power transmitters for 90 television stations around the country, the transmitter manufacturer said today.

Rohde & Schwarz will supply Sinclair with R&S THU9evo liquid-cooled transmitters, which are easy to upgrade to ATSC 3.0 operation, as well as guidance and a turnkey solution to make sure the broadcaster meets its FCC repack transition deadlines. The high-power transmitter can save up to 50 percent in energy cost when compared to conventional transmitters, the company said.

“We partnered with Rohde & Schwarz for the installation of the R&S THU9evo to commence our repack efforts about a year ago. This is a very nice product, and Rohde & Schwarz has proven to be an incredible partner for Sinclair by providing a great service and support from comprehensive consulting and site surveys all the way to installation, commissioning, proofing and after-sales services,” said Harvey Arnold, VP of Engineering at Sinclair Broadcast Group.

For all the latest news and insight on the repack, visit our repack silo.

CINCINNATI—GatesAir has appointed Felipe Luna as managing director for the Caribbean and Latin America (CALA), the company announced today.

Luna, who will work under the leadership of GatesAir managing director, International, Rich Redmond, will manage all sales and business development initiative in the region and oversee the company’s in-region sales team and partner network, GatesAir said.

“We are lucky to welcome Felipe back to the GatesAir family, where his industry knowledge, sales expertise and emphasis on customer relations will help GatesAir expand on its regional momentum throughout the Caribbean and Latin America,” said Redmond.

Luna joined Harris Broadcast (GatesAir’s predecessor) in 2002 and spent 12 years as a regional director for the company. Before that, Luna was an account and sales manager with Electro Equip Telecom for six years.

Prior to rejoining GatesAir, Luna focused on business development outside of the broadcast industry. He located to Miami and joined the Hayman Woodward law firm as business development director.

“CALA remains a dynamic and exciting market with strong business opportunities, as many countries are just beginning their digital TV transitions,” said Luna.

“My goal is to amplify our level of service throughout the region and deliver turnkey over-the-air solutions that solve problems and create new revenue opportunities for our TV and radio customers,” he said.

ALEXANDRIA, VA.—The Great TV Channel Auction and Repack is now underway, with television and FM radio broadcasters doing the necessary work to change frequency assignments and install new equipment. It is a lot of work, but progress is being made daily.

In addition to the repack project work now underway, the FCC is currently asking for comments about the repack process and reimbursement for affected Class A stations, low-power TV stations, translators and FM broadcasters; deadline is Oct. 26. In addition to the full-power repack, as many as 1,000 smaller stations are being moved in 10 phases, which will cause dislocation and incur some expenses for LPTVs and translators that were not protected in the repack. This also affects some FM stations colocated on TV towers.

In the event you’ve been lost in space for the past two years, the Channel Auction and Repack exists to shift TV broadcasters to VHF and lower-UHF channels, with the goal of freeing up spectrum for wireless services for mobile devices. A distant model was the BAS Relocation program from 2005 to 2010, which also had broadcasters giving up a slice of spectrum for the benefit of a cellphone company.

Since the process began in the spring of 2017 after a spectrum auction that yielded approximately $20 billion to the federal government, more than 120 full power and Class A television stations have moved off their pre-auction channels, according to Jean Kiddoo, chair of the FCC’s Incentive Auction Task Force.

“Approximately half of those stations chose to move before the first formal transition deadline,” she said. “The other half consists of stations that won incentive payments during the auction but elected to continue broadcasting by sharing a channel with another station, and have now implemented those channel-sharing agreements.”

NOW UNDERWAY

By the time you read this article, the first formal phase of the Channel Auction and Repack is now underway. Kiddoo said that the testing period for Phase 1 of the repack began Sept. 14 and ends Nov. 30. There are 82 full-power and Class A television stations scheduled to transition during Phase 1.

[Read: Transitioning To New Channels—Phase 1 Deadline Looms]

Obviously, re-assigning channels of TV broadcasters and radio stations is an expensive proposition, fraught with complex engineering challenges as well as concern about changes in propagation and coverage. Congress appropriated funds to pay for this work, and broadcasters have been receiving reimbursement.

“The initial reimbursement fund totaled $1.75 billion, and as of April 16, 2018, virtually all of that [$1.742 billion] has been allocated by the FCC,” Kiddoo said. “That represents 92.5-percent of total estimates for each station. “Stations have been able to draw down against their allocation by submitting invoices for eligible costs incurred since October 6, 2017.”

As for the remaining 7.5-percent of the projected costs and additional expenses, it appears to be on the way.

“Congress provided additional funding in the 2018 Omnibus Appropriations Act to reimburse reasonable costs incurred by full power and Class A broadcasters as well as previously-ineligible LPTV/TV translator and FM stations,” Kiddoo said. “The rulemaking to adopt rules and procedures to reimburse the latter is anticipated to be completed in the first quarter of 2019.”

How does this translate to the real world of actual broadcasters going through the repack work? Dale Scherbring, a regional director of engineering for Sinclair Broadcast Group and the company’s repack manager, said the project is keeping him busy.

“The Sinclair Broadcast Group’s engineering team has been working on 100 repacks for the company-owned stations and fulfilling contracts with our partner stations,” Scherbring said. “Phase 0 stations and one Phase 1 station have made the transition and are on the air.”

Phase 0 stations on the air include:

• WCHS (Charleston, W.Va.)
• WDSI (Chattanooga, Tenn.)
• WICD (Champaign, Ill.)
• WNUV (Baltimore, Md.)

The only Phase 1 station moved so far is KJZZ (Salt Lake City).

Scherbring said that the company’s Phase 1 stations currently in progress for repack work are:

• KBTV (Beaumont, Texas)
• KFDM (Beaumont, Texas)
• KMEG (Sioux City, Iowa)
• KPTH (Sioux City, Iowa)
• KMPH-CD (Fresno Calif.)
• KRXI (Reno, Nev.)
• WNWO (Toledo, Ohio)

“The remaining 88 stations are in various stages of equipment order, tower studies and overall planning,” he said.

MASSIVE SCOPE

There has been a lot of discussion about the massive scope of this project versus the relatively small size of the broadcast equipment manufacturing industry. In other words, would the manufacturers of transmitters, antennas and ancillary components be able to build high-quality and reliable equipment for the repack in the relatively short time frame for which the project is scheduled? Then, will there be sufficient crews to properly install it?

“The overall planning for our projects is showing no major issues,” Scherbring said. “The implementation of some projects is running into major weather delays for the tower crews, some vendor-delayed shipping issues, and in some cities major delays with local zoning permits.”

The NAB keeps its eye on the big picture across the country. Dennis Wharton, executive vice president of communications for the NAB, said that he is giving special attention to project timing—especially in the latter stages of the work.

“We remain concerned that the 39-month timeframe created by the FCC is simply insufficient to accommodate all the stations that have to be moved,” Wharton said. “It’s going to be especially difficult for stations in later phases that may not have already contracted for repack work. The tragic loss of four talented tall-tower workers reduced an already small pool of qualified tower dogs. In addition, the first couple phases have fairly long transition periods—132 days in the case of Phase 2. However, Phases 3 and beyond are very compressed—just 34 days in Phase 5—and any unexpected delays will affect scheduling like a stack of dominoes.”

Wharton also noted that many stations are linked with one or more other stations and cannot transition until those other stations have also transitioned. And due to cold weather and dangerous weather conditions, there are only so many months of the year that tower work is feasible in the northern states.

NEXT GEN TV

In the past couple of years, there has been a lot of discussion of ATSC 3.0 and Next Gen TV, and stations across the country are keeping this in mind now that repack work is upon them.

“I believe many stations being repacked will upgrade to equipment that can more easily transition to Next Gen TV,” Wharton said. “Some of this new equipment can move from the current standard to Next Gen TV transmission with the flip of a switch, so it does present an opportunity for stations to upgrade for the future.”

Sinclair Broadcast Group has been a avid proponent of ATSC 3.0, so the question came up as to what the company might be doing for the repack to prepare for an ATSC 3.0 future.

“Sinclair has maximized stations’ signal reach and included some vertical polarization elements in all the new antennas that are being purchased,” Scherbring said. “This will enhance ATSC 3.0 [operations], but the costs of these items are not reimbursable, so they are an extra cost to each station.”

STILL NOT CLEAR

There’s no question that the channel auction and repack is big—really big. In addition to the repack at full-power stations (which is fairly well known and documented), the FCC said that the number of affected low-power, translators and FM broadcasters is still not clear.

“We do not yet know how many FM or LPTV and translator stations will be affected by the repack,” the FCC’s Kiddoo said. “To date, construction permits for more than 1,500 of the roughly 2,100 LPTV/translator stations that filed applications in the special displacement window have been granted. The Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that the commission adopted in early August sought comment on eligibility requirements and reimbursement procedures for those FM and LPTV/translator stations that incur costs as a result of the repack.”

Therefore, it remains to be seen exactly what the costs and time schedule will be to complete all repack work. In the meantime, work is proceeding quickly across the country.

When asked if the repack was a good thing or just another regulatory nuisance, one broadcaster replied philosophically.

“We can all be armchair quarterbacks on Monday morning,” Sinclair’s Scherbring said. “These are the new rules we broadcasters must live with—we will make it happen.”

For all the latest news and insight on the repack, visit our repack silo.

CINCINNATI — The South Carolina Educational Television Commission is turning to GateAir for nine UHF and one VHF transmitter to support the statewide repack of 10 of its TV stations to new channel assignments.

SCETV has selected Maxiva ULXTE liquid-cooled transmitters for its UHF stations and is working with GatesAir on choosing a high-power VHF transmitter that will allow its WNTV in Greenville, S.C., to maximize service.

[Read: Hearst TV, GatesAir Ink Deal On Maxiva TXs For 13 Repacked Stations]

The FCC has assigned the public broadcaster, which transmits PBS and NPR programming throughout South Carolina, to four repack phases. More than half of its stations are assigned to Phase 5. Transmitters are due to begin arriving at those stations in the coming weeks to meet the testing deadline in early September, GatesAir said.

GatesAir is working with SCETV to avoid disrupting the broadcaster’s eight FM radio stations as its TV stations are repacked, the company added. Each of the radio stations is collocated with the TV transmitters in common facilities.

“GatesAir’s service department has worked closely with us and our repack antenna supplier, Dielectric, to ensure that none of our TV or FM operations are interrupted as work progresses,” said Mark Jahnke, SCETV VP of Technology and chief information officer.

Jahnke added that the liquid-cooled GatesAir UHF transmitters will help SCETV achieve its goal of reducing its carbon footprint.

“Considering the higher power levels of our stations along with South Carolina’s year-round hot and humid climate, GatesAir’s liquid-cooled transmission systems will clearly deliver the highest possible cost-savings across cooling and electrical costs,” he said. “While we’re still working through the exact calculations, there is no question we’ll immediately downsize our air-conditioning systems by a significant margin.”

The transmitters are outfitted with GateAir ATSC 3.0-ready Maxiva XTE exciters to ensure the broadcaster is ready for Next Gen TV operations, he added.

[Want more information like this? Subscribe to our newsletter and get it delivered right to your inbox.]

WATERLOO, Ontario — Dejero has announced that it will unveil a new, more powerful version of its EnGo mobile transmitter at IBC 2018 at RAI Amsterdam, Sept. 14–18.

The increase processing power gives broadcasters an advantage, especially when capturing high-motion news events and sports content, Dejero said.

[Read: Participate in Future’s 2018 IBC Best of Show Awards]

The unit, which benefits from an enhanced implementation of HEVC, also leverages the company’s auto-transport and adaptive bitrate encoding technology to deliver higher picture quality across a wider range of bitrates, it said.

With enhanced processing, EnGo can provide new dynamic content adaptation, which intelligently adjusts encoding based on how much motion is detected in the content being captured, the company said. As a result, broadcasters can transition from low-motion frames, such as talking heads, to high-motion content without creating compression artifacts or softening the image.

The latest EnGo can encode up to 20 Mbps and now supports 1080p 50/60.

Visit the company at IBC 2018 Stand 11.C15.

[Want more information like this? Subscribe to our newsletter and get it delivered right to your inbox.]

COOKEVILLE, TENN.—Lots of TV towers live on the tops of mountains. In that respect, there’s nothing unique about the location of WCTE’s 800-foot broadcast tower outside Monterey, Tenn., about 10 mile drive from the PBS station’s Cookeville studio over mostly good roads. But when our engineers were having to drop everything and fix issues nearly every day—sometimes more than once—it seemed far too remote.

The trips were wearing us out physically and financially. In addition, we were spending a fortune on amplifiers and the ones we needed were getting hard to come by. The power supplies inside the amps were proprietary and couldn’t be repaired.

We needed something more reliable so last year we took delivery of a new Hitachi-Comark Parallax transmitter. In a week, the site team from Comark had installed the single-cabinet, complete with a new heat exchanger.

MODULAR POWER SUPPLIES

With the new transmitter installed, we’re not driving to the transmitter every day, and operation costs are about half as much as our old transmitter. Our first electric bill was literally half what we’d been spending, resulting in savings of at least $2,000 a month. It was that energy savings that allowed us to replace our old transmitter, though other factors were just as important. One of the biggest-selling points was the fact that Parallax amps have modular power supplies that can be purchased on eBay for about 5 percent of what we’d been paying every time we lost a power supply in an amp.

Since WCTE’s tower facility is located at the end of a road that runs several miles through mountainous woods, power failures are common. The emergency generator always kicks in and there are plans to purchase and install a UPS to carry the whole plant through the moment of failure before power is restored, but the ease with which Parallax recovers from a dip has been beneficial.

The transmitter powers back up within seconds and the web server allows us full control and monitoring from anywhere. We get emails from the Parallax immediately when there’s an issue—in nine months there hasn’t been anything but power company problems—but we can see voltages on each leg, water temperature and flow, error logs... everything you could ask for.

NEW COOLING SYSTEM

After the Parallax was installed, the site’s old transmitter became the backup, and aside from a new three-phase power circuit for the Parallax, the installation of the new cooling system was the only modification needed in the transmitter building. The new cooling system utilizes an indoor tank, further limiting exposure to ice-fall from the tower. The use of flexible hoses allowed for convenient placement of both the tank and the outdoor heat exchanger.

Even the efficiency of the cooling system is surprising. The heat exchanger didn’t run much at all during the fall and winter so I’ll be interested to see how it does in the summer, with the indoor tank and the reduced heat load. It’s gotten up to about 85 degrees outside already this spring, and our air conditioners don’t seem to be having any trouble keeping it cool indoors.

The Parallax has transformed how we work. WCTE only has two engineers, and we were scrambling to move our master control, maintain and operate a production truck and two IT networks and provide technical leadership for the station. When you take into account the cost savings on energy and on our time, it really has made a huge difference.

Craig LeFevre is a 12-year veteran of WCTE with an MBA from Tennessee Technological University and CBTE certification from the Society of Broadcast Engineers. He can be reached atclefevre@wcte.org.

For more information, visitwww.comarktv.comor call 800-345-9295.

SOUTHWICK, MA. — Hitachi-Comark is rushing numerous Comark Parallax and E-Compact UHF transmitters to broadcasters in Puerto Rico so they can accelerate their Spectrum Repack timetable that has been impacted by Hurricane Maria.

The Puerto Rican stations to receive new Comark transmitters include: WNJX, WTIN, WAPA, WVSN, WCCV, WMTJ, WQTO, WJWN, WSJN-CD, and WQSJ-CD. Equipment production is underway, and shipments are expected to reach both repack and non-repack stations in time for their scheduled installations.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, one of the most destructive storms to hit the island, affected DTV broadcasters were facing the prospect of rebuilding their facilities twice over the next year. Earlier this year, the FCC granted their request to accelerate the repack schedule, enabling them to move directly to their new repack channels.

(Since most were originally slated for Phase 3 of the FCC’s repack process, they weren’t even scheduled to begin testing until April of 2019, with completion by June 21, 2019.)

[Read: WGBH/WBGY Taps Hitachi-Comark Transmitters for Repack]

On several occasions, Comark sent field teams to the island to survey the broadcasters’ facilities and draft individualized site construction plans to get them on the air on their post-repack channels. Comark also handled program management, shipping logistics, and on-site labor for installation and proof-of-performance testing.

Designed for high-power, broadband requirements, Comark Parallax solid-state transmitters are high efficiency, repack-ready liquid cooled systems offering Doherty performance and a future proof design. They’re available up to 27.5 kW transmitter power output (TPO) per rack cabinet, or up to 100kW with multiple cabinets.

For low-to-medium power requirements, Comark’s E-Compact high efficiency, air-cooled UHF DTV transmitters provide asymmetric broadband Doherty, solid-state amplifier technology, requiring less energy to deliver more power. With its 950W 3RU amplifier chassis, the compact, rugged E-Compact is available in TPO levels from 850 W to more than 10 kW.

While the transmitters will operate in ATSC 1.0, they can be upgraded to the ATSC 3.0 DTV broadcast standard in the future.

For comprehensive news and information on the repack, visit TV Technology's repack silo.

[Want more information like this? Subscribe to our newsletter and get it delivered right to your inbox.]

SOUTHWICK, MA—WGBH Educational Foundation has ordered two new VHF Parallax liquid cooled DTV transmitters from Hitachi Kokusai Electric Comark LLC for its WGBH Boston PBS station and the WGBY PBS station in Springfield, Mass. Both stations are in the process of a post-spectrum auction channel repack.

At WGBH, Comark will supply a multicabinet Parallax VHF band 1 liquid cooled transmitter on channel D5. The transmitter is designed for initial operation at 7.5kW TPO but allows for future power upgrades up to as high as 55kW should the station decide to maximize their ERP in the future. The transmitter cabinets will be pre-wired to facilitate a quick upgrade with additional power amplifiers and PA combiners.

In addition, Comark will supply another Parallax VHF band 3 transmitter on D13 for WGBY. The WGBY transmitter will be configured for 1+1 redundancy with a main/standby configuration. Each half of the transmitter can fully supply the required 13kW TPO with custom RF switching between transmitter cabinets. Both cabinets will be pre-wired to accommodate future power upgrades.

Comark will manage all aspects of both transmitter installations including program management, equipment delivery, on-site installation, and proof-of-performance testing. Both transmitters are fully upgradeable from ATSC 1.0 to ATSC 3.0 due in part the EXACT-V2 exciter technology.

[Read: Maryland Public TV Chooses Comark Parallax UHF TX]

“We expanded our Parallax product line from UHF to VHF band 3 and most recently to cover VHF Band 1” says Dick Fiore, President and CEO of Hitachi Kokusai Electric Comark, LLC. “WGBH/WGBY has been a long standing customer of Comark for many years, having previously purchased their original UHF DTV rigs from the transition from analog to digital. We are very pleased to be working again with WGBH Educational Foundation on this exciting project.”

“WGBH is looking forward to continuing our long relationship with Hitachi-Comark” says Emeric Feldmar, Director of Engineering at WGBH. “We have received excellent products, and support throughout the years. We purchased these Parallax VHF band 1 and band 3 transmitter systems for our WGBH and WGBY facilities that are being upgraded as a result of the spectrum auction/repack with capability to upgrade to ATSC 3.0.”

For more information on the repack, visit TV Technology's repack silo.

SOUTHWICK, MASS.—Comark is going to be providing its services to Bahakel Communications, after the company signed a Master Purchase Agreement with Comark for new transmitters and services to help with the repack.

As part of the MPA, Comark will help Bahakel install new transmitters and associated services at its six DTV transmitter facilities. Comark will be responsible for providing delivery, program management, on-site installation/proof-of-performance testing and extended warranties on each of the transmitters. Comark is also tasked with providing system design services/site surveys for all of the repack stations to ensure a smooth installation process.

The six stations impacted by the repack and set to receive the new transmitters are WAKA, WBMM, WCCB, WFXB, WBBJ and WOLO-TV.

The transmitter that will be installed at each of these stations is Comark’s Parallax UHF high efficiency unit. Parallax is a liquid-cooled solid-state transmitter that has up to 27.5 kW TPO per rack cabinet, with multiple cabinets able to provide up to 100 kW. It features Doherty technology; vertical high-gain power amplifiers that provide 2 kW per PA module for UHF, 1.6 kW per PA module for VHF band 3; and can dualcast ATSC 1.0 and ATSC 3.0.

CINCINNATI—KTBS, LLC double-dipped on its recent acquisition of Maxiva ULXT liquid-cooled UHF DTV transmitters from GatesAir, installing one transmitter in both its KTBS-TV3 and KPXJ-CW21 TV stations. Built on GatesAir’s PowerSmart Plus architecture, the Maxiva transmitters is a next-generation transmission technology designed to lower energy consumption.

Dave Hopson, GatesAir director of sales, and Dale Cassidy of KTBS next to the Maxiva ULXT transmitter installation at the KTBS/KPXJ RF facility.

KTBS-TV is using the Maxiva ULXT-80 transmitter to broadcast multiple DTV signals at 52.2 Kw. KPXJ-TV, meanwhile, has gone with the Maxiva ULXT-60 to broadcast DTV signals at 34.6 Kw. Both transmitters do not rely on high-voltage cabinets to make the units safer and feature a web interface to provide telemetry back to master control.

The installations was performed by Technical Services Group with a design that includes dual redundancy by leveraging legacy assets and a digital microwave system with an IP backbone to increase bandwidth between the studio and transmitter site.

CINCINNATI—Vietnam is making some moves to boost its transmitter network for digital television, as the country’s national broadcaster Vietnam Television (VTV) has purchased two orders for GatesAir transmitters.

The first order was for four GatesAir Maxiva UHF solid-state transmitters, three ULXT liquid-cooled models and one UAXT air-cooled model. The second order consisted of two Maxiva ULXT liquid-cooled transmitters specifically for VTV5, a channel that serves ethnic minority communities.

These recent acquisition are part of the country’s goal to complete its national DVB-T2 rollout by 2020.

In addition, Voice of Vietnam, the national radio broadcaster, also acquired some GatesAir technology, with the acquisition of five Flexiva air-cooled solid-state transmitters.

HAWAII—The looming repack and stations' aging transmitter plants had broadcast engineers taking a fresh look at transmitters and other RF gear at NAB 2016. Fortunately, they had a lot to see!

TRANSMITTERS

Comark was back in the Central Hall location it shared with Thales in the early days of ATSC 1. I remember Comark displaying UHF IOT transmitter cabinets there. This year, Hitachi-Comark's new solid-state Doherty transmitter, which is capable of generating the same power as one of those turn-of-the-century tube monsters, was easy to miss in its prime spot in the Hitachi exhibit as it occupied only one 30-inch cabinet. A 100 kW transmitter would take only four racks!

The Hitachi-Comark PARALLAX uses the latest NXP/Ampleon transistors in a Doherty configuration. Comark claims efficiency around 45 percent across UHF channels 14–36. The amplifier can be configured to operate on higher channels for export or for those unlucky stations ending up in the wireless band. The bandwidth choice is a good compromise between making the amplifier completely broadband and maximizing efficiency. The amplifiers are water-cooled, with the coolant isolated from the aluminum heat sinks so that standard copper plumbing can be used without worrying about copper ions degrading the aluminum.

Photo 1: Inside the Hitachi-Comark PARALLAX

One nice feature of the transmitter is that the amplifier combining system is flexible enough to allow adding amplifiers if additional power is needed in the future. While the combiners would have to be changed, it looks like it could be done if the plumbing and wiring was in place. You can see the combiners in view of the rear of the transmitter in Photo 1. The amplifiers are powered by the same air-cooled, high-efficiency plug in GE power supplies that GatesAir selected for its solid state transmitters.

The PARALLAX shown included EXACT exciters designed by TeamCast exciters that are ATSC 3.0 ready. Jack McAnulty told me that Comark plans to have a complete transmitter up and running at the factory in October so that attendees of the IEEE Broadcast Technology Symposium in Hartford, Conn. can visit the factory and see for themselves how the transmitter performs.

Comark's new transmitter will be competing against established high-power solid-state transmitters from GatesAir and Rohde & Schwarz. Both companies were showing their transmitters at NAB and describing their ATSC 3.0 capability while touting recent sales and installations.

Rohde & Schwarz has upgraded the amplifiers in its THU9 series transmitters. While equipped with the same NXP/Ampleon transistors as the older amplifiers, Rohde & Schwarz has improved the design of the amplifier and cooling to allow the amplifiers to be used at higher ATSC (single carrier) power. A six-rack THU9 transmitter can now provide up to 108 kW ATSC power (pre-filter).

GatesAir introduced two higher power air-cooled transmitters—the UAXT-12 (10.8 kW) and UAXT-16 (14.4 kW). If sufficient air is available, these transmitters will greatly simplify installation by not requiring plumbing to outdoor heat exchangers. Combining one of these transmitters with a tunable mask filter could make for a very flexible and almost “plug and play” transmitter installation.

FILTERS & RF COMPONENTS

All TV transmitters require “mask” filters that are tuned to the channel being transmitted and reduce emissions outside the channel to FCC limits. Much of the interest in antennas and RF filters is driven by the repack, but smart buyers will be also be making sure the filters will work after they switch to ATSC 3.0. ATSC 3.0's OFDM modulation can occupy more of the channel and has a higher peak-to-average power.

For the repack, stations may decide to install an “interim” transmitter on their existing channel to use while the main transmitter (and antenna) is being switched to the new channel. In such cases, having a tunable mask filter will allow the interim transmitter to be used as a backup on the new channel after the repack is complete. Stations may also have the option of selecting a different channel than the one they were assigned in the repack, if they can meet FCC coverage and interference requirements. A tunable mask filter is useful if a future channel change is anticipated.

I didn't expect to see any radical new filter designs at NAB and wasn't surprised, although I didn't have time to visit every exhibit. The major improvements promoted were less insertion loss, easier tuning, and increased power handling capability.

ERI introduced a higher-power model of its UF tunable UHF mask filter. It is now available for operation up to 20 kW (liquid cooled). For VHF, ERI's new VF-H8600 combiner allows two high-band VHF stations to share a single antenna provided they are at least four channels apart.

Dielectric offered air tunable UHF filters capable of handling up to 50 kW air cooled or 30 kW convection cooled.

RFS tunable UHF filters are compact and can be water cooled for operation up to 50 kW. RFS was touting its shipment of a filter/combiner system for KXAS/KXTX in Dallas and its order for the antenna/combiner system to be installed at One World Trade in New York City.

Spinner was showing a product of interest to owners of high-power broadband panel antenna systems. These systems are shared by multiple broadcasters, so detecting anomalies in the line and antennas before catastrophic failures occur is critical. Spinner showed a product that looked like a directional coupler assembly but they claimed is able to detect arcing and connector problems after the power dividers on broadband systems.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to find any information on it on their web site and Spinner was not willing to reveal how it worked. Another engineer I talked to thought it may work by “listening” for arcs or other disturbances in the line. The system Spinner was showing at NAB was designed for use with 4-inch or smaller transmission line, but I don't see why it couldn't be modified for use with larger line. Based on my conversations with engineers planning high power broadband antenna installations, there is certainly interest in it!

ANTENNAS

Tower structural limits, limited availability of tower crews and equipment, possible zoning/permitting issues and limited resources for designing and manufacturing antennas may reduce broadcasters' options during the short period allowed for transitioning to the new channel. Replacing a top mount stacked slot antenna on a 2000-foot candelabra shared with other stations may be impossible in the time allowed. In such cases, alternatives include using lighter weight, easier to install, side mount antennas or moving to shared broadband antennas.

The good news is that antenna manufacturers are gearing up for the repack by adding staff and boosting manufacturing capacity and providing tools to help broadcasters and their engineers determine what antennas they will need.

ERI announced a deal with T-Mobile that it said will enable it to increase production capacity by 800 percent. ERI had a new broadband VHF panel antenna with a variety of mounting options and a choice of horizontal or circular polarization that should help stations moving to high-VHF. See http://www.eriinc.com/Resources.aspx for information useful in repack planning. I had no problem downloading and installing the ERI Broadcast System Planner V 7.20 on Linux using WINE, although it looks like the software needs to be updated to include the newer antennas.��

Dielectric showed a new lightweight UHF broadband side mount antenna, the TFU-WB, which has 75 percent less wind-load than panels. Azimuth pattern options are limited to two cardioid patterns. Elliptical polarization is available. The antenna's input power rating of up to 60 kW with 24 bays and an azimuth gain of 1.5 or 2.3 (depending on pattern) enable effective radiated power up to the 1,000 kW FCC limit, important if the antenna is mounted lower on the tower.

Dielectric introduced several planning tools, including “Your Guide to the FCC TV Channel Repack”. Dielectric's software for designing antennas is available at http://www.dielectric.com/software/. Once registered, Dielectric's DASP can be downloaded for off-line use or used online. I had no problem using the online version on my Android 5.1 tablet!

RFS presented “Future-proof Antenna Systems” at NAB, outlining some scenarios for the repack, the RF options RFS provides, and some nice photos of the antennas for One World Trade Center and the KXAS/KXTX installation in Dallas.

In this article I've mentioned only some of the more popular companies showing RF products at NAB 2016 that I had a chance to visit and only a few of their products. There are other options for transmitters, filters, and antennas that might better suit your specific needs that you shouldn't ignore.

In my next article I'll cover the ATSC 3.0 innovations at NAB 2016 and the ATSC 2016 Broadcast Television Conference. There's been an amazing amount of progress!

I welcome your comments and questions. Email me at dlung@transmitter.com.

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIF.—TVU Networks will be in attendance at the Content & Communications World Expo from Nov. 11-12 in New York, and with it will be the TVU One mobile IP newsgathering transmitter. The recently launched transmitter will be joined at CCW by TVU’s TVUPack TM8200 mobile uplink backpack transmitter, as well as its MLink cellular uplink transmitter and more.

TVU One

Like other TVU products, the TVU One features Inverse StatMux Plus technology to deliver live HD-quality picture with sub-second latency. It accomplishes this through multiple transmission mediums including cellular, satellite, microwave, MIMO Mesh, Wi-Fi, Ethernet and BGAN. The IP newsgathering transmitter also includes Smart VBR technology and the TVU.264 video codec.

The TM8200 backpack transmitter combines the Inverse StatMux Plus advanced Forward Error Correction algorithm with the TVU264 H.264 encoding engine to provide maximum bandwidth in each network connection to users. The unit supports multiple 3G/4G LTE, microwave, satellite, Wi-Fi and BGAN data connections. It also comes in two alternate versions with integrated Vislink hybrid microwave and MIMO Mesh microwave.

Other TVU products set to be on display include the MLink cellular 3G/4G LTE, satellite and microwave uplink transmitter, TVU Anywhere, TVU Grid, and TVUMe.

Find out more at the TVU Network booth, number 661, at CCW 2015.

SOUTHWICK, MASS.—Two Maryland Public Television stations, WMPB in Baltimore and WMPT in Annapolis, have upgraded their existing digital TV transmitters for Comark’s new EXACT-ATSC digital TV exciters.

The EXACT-ATSC exciters were designed as drop-in replacements for existing Comark transmitters, but they are also able to operate in a standalone mode with third-party transmitters. Built on a 1RU rack-mount hardware platform with ATSC firmware, the EXACT-ATSC features DualCast technology that will be able to upgrade from ATSC 1.0 to ATSC 3.0.

The exciter also features high performing Digital Adaptive Precorrection. DAP automatically corrects both linear and non-linear system distortions inherent to all DTV systems. In addition, simple control and monitoring is included with a front panel backlit LCD display, can be remotely controlled via a built-in GUI, and has the option of a SNMP client to incorporate with a third-party NMS.

A clean, well-lighted transmitter plant — does yours look like this? (photo credit, Hitachi Kokusai Electric Comark LLC)

ALEXANDRIA, VA. — As related in the first part of this article, there was a time when radio and TV transmitting facilities were a station’s pride and joy and continuously staffed. Unfortunately, this is no longer the case. Transmitting plants are now for the most part “out of sight, out of mind” until something “bad” happens (translation: going off the air unexpectedly).

However, with a little of that due diligence we’re always hearing about, there’s really no excuse for a facility to suffer downtime. Part one examined transmitting towers and this installment goes inside the buildings located beneath those lofty structures.

MAKE TIME TO SAVE TIME

Just as with periodic tower inspections, regular preventative maintenance can keep you on the air without interruptions. With fewer and fewer resources available and always more and more to do, it’s tempting to place transmitter PM on the bottom of the list and address the “fun stuff” first, but don’t. Create an inspection schedule/checklist and stay with it. If the facility is remotely located, that’s all the more reason for regular visits to see if something may be going out of kilter from normal wear and tear, or perhaps has had a little help from outside forces.

Building security should be foremost on the list. Hopefully, you’ve got some sort of remote surveillance system or service in place to notify you of an opened door or HVAC failure. However, remote telemetry doesn’t always catch less obvious items, such as locks or outside electrical gear and grounding systems that have been tampered with. It’s a good idea to do a complete walkabout to check for signs that someone has tampered with gear so as to make it unreliable or unusable when it’s really needed.

‘CRITTERS’ NOT WELCOME

Humans aren’t the only intruders you need to worry about. Transmitters and equipment racks work best in comfortable temperatures and humidity levels. Small animals enjoy these conditions too and will go out of their way to seek them, especially when someone else is paying the bills.

Flying and crawling insects somehow have a sixth sense when it comes to accessing protected enclosures. While they mean no harm, wasps, bees and ants can cause damage when they set up shop in power panels, generator control boxes, ductwork, or other out-of-the-way places. It’s a good idea to pull panel covers and access plates on a regular basis to check for squatters. Caution is advised, though, as some of these species don’t like to be disturbed. If colonies are discovered, do your best to identify how access was gained and seal off these “ports-of-entry.”

Critters a bit higher on the evolutionary scale—birds, reptiles, and mice (especially the latter) can be. If “Mickey and Minnie” do take up abode you’ll soon find out how destructive they can be. In addition to unauthorized document shredding, they’re not too meticulous when it comes to bathroom habits, instantly ruining items or setting the stage for eventual ruination by corrosion. They love warmth for themselves and their offspring, and tend to seek out heat-producing gear, sometimes building secret and elaborate nests under a chassis or deck. OSHA safety regs don’t apply to mice and in many cases they manage to connect with a voltage source and zap themselves. This can either cause an immediate equipment failure or create a more subtle and difficult to diagnose condition involving decomposition.

If you notice evidence of a rodent invasion, it’s probably best to bring in professional help. In addition to extermination they also know where to look for ingress ports and know how to make a facility mouse/rat-unfriendly.

Reptiles—snakes in particular—also seem drawn to transmitter buildings, and can enter through very small openings. They can either scare the dickens out of you when you unsuspectingly discover and disturb them, or cause equipment failure.

James Gott, senior maintenance engineer at Paducah, Kentucky’s WPSD-TV, related a transmitter issue triggered by a curious reptile.

After remotely observing that one of the station’s dual Harris TV-30L transmitters had dropped off line, he made the 30 minute drive to the transmitter site and tried resetting the failed transmitter’s high voltage supply several times without success.

It just kept tripping off,” said Gott. “I removed the back panel to get to the high voltage parts…and noticed that a big greenish-brown snake had crawled into the cabinet and had gotten across one of the caps.”

Gott reported that he removed the snake and then cleaned up the capacitor with denatured alcohol. The rig came back up, but the snake turned out to be a total loss.

“I was not gonna try ‘mouth-to-mouth’ with a snake,” quipped Gott.

IF IT CAN HAPPEN, IT WILL!

Transmitter meters are isolated from human contact by a protective glass or plastic cover for good reason. Never remove such covers.

Another area that needs scrutiny—especially if you’re new to a legacy transmitting facility—are undocumented changes made by former employees. Never assume anything!

Fred Krampits, a customer service engineer at Hitachi Kokusai Electric Comark LLC, relates an incident in which a newly hired engineer received a very severe electric shock while checking out a transmitter problem. The cause was a high voltage interlock that had been bypassed by someone in the past and never documented. Fortunately, the victim had followed the rule of never doing transmitter maintenance alone and his co-worker was able to administer CPR and call in emergency medical personnel.

In addition to checking for compromised interlocks, Krampits also strongly suggests investigating the condition of other interlocks and safeguards which might have failed of their own accord, and which in addition to posing safety issues could lead to expensive repairs.

“It’s very easy to quickly destroy a $40,000 IOT if a loss-of-coolant interlock isn’t working properly,” said Krampits.

MAKE TIME TO CHECK THAT DOCUMENTATION

If you’re new to a facility, it also might make good sense to dust off the manufacturer’s installation manuals to see if everything was done properly when the transmitter was first installed. There’s the case of an installation in the good ole NTSC days where the manufacturer’s equipment floor plan was ignored, as the licensee wanted to save some money and had the building contractor shave a few feet off the structure’s suggested dimensions. This necessitated rearranging some of the larger gear once it was delivered. Despite a somewhat cramped layout, everything did go together and all was well until about a year when the visual transmitter’s heat exchanger suffered a massive core leak. Unfortunately, what could have been perhaps a single day’s outage turned into a real nightmare. To gain access to the visual heat exchanger’s core, both the aural transmitter and its heat exchanger had to be disconnected and moved out of the way, killing any notion of staying on the air by multiplexing signals through the aural amplifier. Three days of operations were lost and a very large overtime bill racked up. Need I mention that this outage occurred during a rating sweeps period!

The same sort of “gotcha” can happen when older facilities are modified or original equipment is replaced with newer gear. It’s time well spent to study the relationship of transmitter power supplies, amplifier cubicles, HVAC equipment and other items within your transmitter building to see if easy access to repair/remove/replace an item has been made difficult by placement of other gear. This includes access to outside doorways, which may once have in the clear but is now impeded by added equipment or interior construction. Even if access doesn’t appear to be a problem, try and imagine worse case scenarios regarding large item failures and develop a plan if the unthinkable does happen. Such homework may prove to be very valuable.

Speaking of documentation, do you have a complete set of manuals covering everything at the transmitter facility? Krampits noted that it’s not uncommon for customers to call his company’s help desk for assistance in getting a transmitter back on the air; however, when the troubleshooting steps are suggested it’s learned that the equipment manuals and diagrams are back at the studio, or have just plain “gone missing.”

“It’s awfully hard to try and take someone through transmitter wiring when there’s no schematic available,” Krampits said.

Is your transmitter plant ready for “the big one?” This AM facility was constructed with flooding from a nearby river in mind. Everything is located above a worse-case waterline.

Joe Turbolski, director of sales at Hitachi Kokusai Comark, observed that in today’s world, there’s really no excuse for not having service information available where it’s needed, as his company and others have been issuing such information on CD ROM and memory sticks. Also, in many cases, manuals are available for downloading from the manufacturer’s website. It’s fine if you want to keep transmitter equipment documentation in your office at the studio, but be sure you’ve printed out duplicate information for use at the transmitter site, and do this way ahead of the game. Don’t count on a rarely-used compute or printer at the transmitter to be working when it’s crunch time.

WHEN IN DOUBT, CALL IN AN EXPERT

In today’s environment, on-site transmitter engineers and station employees who did nothing but RF work really don’t exist anymore, so perhaps when some really serious transmitter maintenance is needed it may be better to bring in someone with a thorough background in this area than trying to do it yourself. The potential for personal harm and very expensive consequences can be very high if your skill set isn’t what it should be.

One such specialist is Mark Hills, principal engineer at s2one Inc. He’s been involved in RF work for more than three decades, and a few years ago decided to launch a business to assist those in need of RF expertise.

“A lack of qualified RF people was the reason I started my company,” said Hills. “With the transition to ATSC, I saw a huge volume of transmitters and a shortage of station employees with RF experience. People with transmitter experience have mostly retired.”

Hills visits some 75-80 television transmitter installations in the course of a year, with customers including everyone from mom-and-pop operations to major groups.

When asked about some of the problems he’s seen associated with lack of RF training, he was quick to recall a visit to a major market facility with an IOT transmitter.

“The meters were supposed to be behind a Plexiglas screen, but it had been removed by the operator,” said Hills. “He said that he was fed up with having to remove it to change lamps. He wasn’t aware that there was 36 kilovolts there.”

In another case, Hills related performing an inspection on a station recently purchased by a group owner. He observed that the transmission line flanges were assembled with only about half of the bolts required and that the line was held in place with ordinary rope.

At another site, Hills found the ATSC transmitter grossly mistuned.

“It made a picture, but things were very far out,” he said. “Nobody checked to see if the ‘shoulders’ were in spec. You can do nothing for a while, but it’s going to catch up with you sooner or later.

“Fortunately, there are still some broadcasters who want to do things right. That’s where I can be of assistance. Chief engineers send studio people up to the transmitter to work with me and try and learn something. I always make a point of going through safety issues.”

Hills remarks were echoed by Roz Clark who is director of technical operations with Cox Media Group’s Tampa and Orlando, Fla. radio properties and oversees management of 13 radio stations in those markets.

“There is no such thing as a transmitter ‘guy’ who’s at the transmitter every day,” said Clark. “Those days are long over. Some station operators have gone to a mode of ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t worry about it—just take care of things when they break.’ That’s a risk that some companies take.”

Clark advocates a strict schedule of routine maintenance, with a visit to transmitter sites on a weekly basis.

MAKE SURE IT’S GOING TO WORK BEFORE THE EMERGENCY OCCURS

“The operating condition of everything on line should be noted,” said Clark. “And also the things that are not on-line at that time at the time of inspection such as backup power systems, generator power, alternate transmitters and other systems.”

He stressed that too much emphasis can’t be placed on keeping backup power sources ready to operate.

While locating a backup generator in a transmitter building’s basement may seem like a good idea, there can be some downsides.

“Generators need to be started at least once a month and a check made to be sure everything is operating normally,” said Clark. “And don’t neglect fuel supplies; diesel fuel isn’t what it used to be—shelf life is much shorter due to biofuel and a lack of sulfur. It can break down and grow bacteria and all kinds of things. At least yearly, you should bring in someone who specializes in fuel treatment to filter and purify your fuel. They pump from the bottom of the tank and filter until the fuel is at a specified clarity. They also take samples and send these to a lab for further analysis to determine the fuel’s combustibility and other qualities, and will recommend if any additives are needed to extend the fuel’s life.”

He also pointed out that reliance on in-line diesel fuel filters is not enough.

“Your filter will capture these contaminates, but they will eventually clog it and your generator will not run.”

The physical location of a backup generator and its associated fuel tank is sometimes taken for granted, but this can spell success or failure in times of an emergency. At transmitter buildings with basements, it’s tempting to install the generator down there. However, there are downsides. A big takeaway from the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactor disaster is that backup generators don’t work very well when they’re under water. It’s best to place them on high ground—a pad or other support well above a worse-case flooding scenario.

Inside placement of fuel tanks is also problematic. There’s always the possibility of a leak that could go unnoticed long enough for the tank to completely empty its contents in the enclosed space. In addition to the safety hazard, cleanup is going to be involved and costly. An outside location with a basin large enough to contain a leak is the only way to go.

Electrical power panels at transmitter sites need periodic attention too.

“Best practice is to get a thermal imaging report on all electrical systems,” said Clark. “This is where someone comes in with an infrared camera and can spot areas that are heating. This will help you cure problems before they become a crisis.”

DON’T PUT IT OFF ANY LONGER

We’re all busy in this world of multitasking, however, a little time spent in periodically checking things at your transmitter site and planning for contingencies can pay big rewards. Perhaps pioneer superpower radio broadcaster and quack physician Dr. John R. Brinkley said it best in his appeal to his radio audience to seek his services:

“Don’t wait until it’s everlastingly too late!”

James O’Neal is a retired broadcast engineer with more than 35 years of experience in the field. For the past 10 years he has served as technology editor at TV Technology magazine.

CINCINATTI—GatesAir will be in attendance at the upcoming 2015 IBC Show to showcase new advances to its TV and radio transmitters, including the new liquid-cooled Flexiva FLX range of transmitters.

10kW Flexiva FLX

Based on the Flexiva FM air-cooled transmitter and with advances from the Maxiva model, the 10kW Flexiva FLX incorporates a heat-to-liquid transfer that removes heat from the RF plant without excessive air conditioning. The transfer cools the air in the RF plant, moving transmitter heat to the outside by a liquid-to-air heat exchanger with redundant fan systems.

The liquid-cooled design integrates low-noise pump modules within the transmitter to reduce the transmitter’s footprint. Two fully redundant cooling pumps operate in a closed-loop design, with auto-changeover capability in the event of a failure to ensure proper and constant transmitter cooling.

In addition, GatesAir will demonstrate the Maxiva ULX-T transmitters and its high-efficiency broadband amplifications to ensure broadcasters can streamline frequency and modulation changes through a single-amplifier design.

IBC 2015 will take place from Sept. 11-15 in Amsterdam. The GatesAir booth will be located at stand 8.B20.

Rich Redmond

ALEXANDRIA, VA.—I remember writing a few years about the efficiency advantages of multi-stage depressed-collector IOT tubes used in digital transmitters. At the time, they were state of the art for both power and efficiency, despite their complexity.

Then at NAB Show 2015, it was clear all the transmitter action was in solid-state products, even for high-power UHF applications. Tubes are increasingly hard to find, even for maintenance of older transmitters. This brings up the very real possibility that replacement IOTs may be scarce commodities in five to 10 years.

With the first wave of DTV transmitters reaching the point of increasing maintenance, coupled with possible channel reassignments due to the spectrum re-pack, we wanted to take a harder look at the topic of transmitter efficiency. To learn more, Broadcast Engineering Extra spoke to Rich Redmond.

Redmond serves as chief product officer for GatesAir, responsible for the marketing, product line management and R&D of the company’s transmission products. He is based at the company’s headquarters in Mason, Ohio, outside of Cincinnati.

BE Extra: Solid-state UHF transmitters are now close or equal to the efficiency of IOT transmitters at similar power levels. Is this trend going to continue? Or is there more efficiency to be wrung from MSDC IOTs or some other tube design?

Redmond: As the industry looks for RF systems that are lower maintenance and simpler to operate, the advancements we have seen in high-efficiency, solid-state TV transmitters exemplify that requirement. We believe that is certainly where GatesAir and most transmitter manufacturers are spending research and development efforts, and where supporting manufacturers in power supplies and other RF parts are all investing.

We believe that commercial advancements in MSDC IOT transmitters are unlikely for the foreseeable future. It’s a fairly complex product in a marketplace where the role of the broadcast engineer is evolving, requiring a balance of outstanding IT skills with RF transmission skills. They have as much demand on their ability to have outstanding IT skills balanced with RF wireless TX skills.

BE Extra: What are the key reasons behind the recent improvement in the efficiency of solid-state transmitters? Higher-voltage LDMOS transistors? Better combiners on the amplifiers’ outputs? Something else?

Redmond: Recent developments in high-efficiency solid-state transmitters represent a culmination of many factors. For example, the IT and telco industries really helped to drive advancements in high-efficiency 50-Volt power supplies, reaching an AC-to-DC efficiency of 97 percent. In addition, the wireless base station business has pushed the development of RF device manufacturing to produce higher power and higher efficiency RF devices.

These remarkable efficiency improvements have now been introduced into the DTV world. You take those supporting technologies and combine that with continued innovation on the part of transmitter manufacturers, and the outcome is a high-efficiency transmitter platform like the GatesAir PowerSmart 3D transmitter architecture. In addition, advancements in liquid-cooled transmitter platforms that, in solid-state design, can now evacuate heat from transmitter buildings far more cost-efficiently than in past years, eliminates the need for constant, expensive air conditioning.

BE Extra: If a broadcaster can nurse an existing transmitter along for a couple years, is it likely that efficiency improvement will continue? When does the cost of maintenance exceed the savings (in maintenance and operation) that comes with a new more-efficient transmitter?

Redmond: We’re seeing a lot of broadcasters today who believe the reduced maintenance of solid-state is as important as the power efficiency. The RF engineering base is aging, and few stations want to replace older tube rigs before they understand what ATSC 3.0 and the spectrum repack will bring. But every day you run an older transmitter at lower efficiency, the money spent is not recoverable. The cost of tubes and tube maintenance, the ongoing viability and reliability of tube suppliers, and parts availability compared to 10 years ago make it a risky, and potentially very costly, proposition. Furthermore, switching to a more efficient solid-state transmitter often qualifies for a rebate, so there is potentially an added bonus to the return on investment upon inquiring with your utility company.

BE Extra: Are there any efficiency gains from newer designs for passive RF items, such as mask filters, switches and transmission line? Can tweaking the passive RF components get an extra couple dB at the antenna?

GatesAir 80 kW Maxiva ULXT liquid-cooled, solid-state UHF transmitter

Redmond: There are also some remarkable efficiency gains compared to older power components. We have seen a radical reduction in the footprint of RF output filters, which can now often be hung from the ceiling. For broadcasters who lease space by the square foot in an RF plant, a previously-sized 8-foot wide, 30-foot long RF system that now fits in a 4 x 6-foot space, makes quite a difference in monthly rental costs.

BE Extra: A broadcaster needs a new 35 kW UHF transmitter. What do you recommend: Either solid-state or IOT? Why?

Redmond: We absolutely suggest solid-state over IOT. Solid-state transmitters are significantly simpler to operate, and offer a substantially higher amount of redundancy. In a 35 kW GatesAir Maxiva transmitter, amplification is spread across roughly 40 power amp modules instead of two tubes in an IOT design. Additionally, life expectancy of the solid-state transmitter is easily 15 years at the absolute minimum. If you think about the technical capabilities of your staff 15 years ago versus those of your staff today and project that forward 15 years, the likelihood is that there will be fewer engineers per station comfortable operating liquid-cooled tube transmitters.

Stations and engineers will migrate more to modular components and hot-swappable power supplies that can be easily diagnosed using web browsers and SNMP interfaces. Furthermore, the markedly more compact footprint lowers installation costs, and eliminates beam supplies and building space needs. If I can have a smaller space for my transmitter at my RF site, I am reducing monthly expenditures—especially if I am leasing that space.

BE Extra: There was a recent article that said switching from a UHF channel to a low-band VHF channel would mean the difference between a 25 kW transmitter and a 500 W transmitter to reach the same coverage area. Obviously, there are dramatic propagation differences between the two bands, but the operational savings are significant. Is this something that broadcasters should consider?

Redmond: I would say that the transition from UHF to low-band VHF is something that stations must look at very carefully. There are dramatic propagation differences. You could indeed reduce operating costs quite significantly; however, you must look at the entire delivery chain.

In a low-band VHF operation, the size of the receive antenna on the consumer end needs to be very large to be efficient. Over time, fewer consumers are putting aerials on the roof, and are instead using rabbit ears or integrated antennas inside devices. That consumer behavior makes it more challenging to operate on low-band VHF, in addition to how an increasing amount of man-made noise is rendering VHF frequencies poor for digital TV. That model also makes it more challenging to reach consumers on mobile devices given the needed antenna size. It’s worth noting that there are no DTV deployments globally that use a significant amount of low-band VHF. These deployments are mainly UHF, with some high-band VHF mixed in.

Albert Broadcast Services President Stu Albert poses with Nautel’s model NT transmitter.
FLORENCE, S.C.—Norsan Media is an Hispanic-owned media firm, with its core broadcast and print offices located in Charlotte and Triad, N.C. and Jacksonville, Fla. Recently the company launched the first full-time Spanish language television station for Charlotte, where the Hispanic community makes up nearly 20 percent of a total population of more than a million.

Last year, in preparing for this start-up, Norsan tasked my company, Albert Broadcast Services, a regional broadcast engineering and integration firm, to construct an all-digital low-power high-definition transmission facility for WCEE-LP. Our job was to reconstruct a formerly “dark” analog broadcast facility for digital operations by replacing virtually everything from the station’s content ingest system to its transmitting plant with state-of-the-art reliable, affordable and easy-to-manage and maintain equipment.

LEGACY REPUTATION

In evaluating digital transmitters for this project, we gave special attention to Nautel. Our company has had extensive past experience with their AM and FM transmitter lines, dating from the latest NV series all the way back to Nautel’s original AmpFet AM transmitters, and this was a key reason that we focused on Nautel’s latest broadcast entry—television transmitters for lower power applications—for this Norsan project. We’ve always been impressed with Nautel’s service and support structure, which includes an extensive documentation archives and unsurpassed technical and parts support for new and older models alike. Actually Nautel is able to provide parts for its first broadcast transmitter products. You just don’t find that level of support anymore from other transmitter manufacturers.

With this level of service and support, it was a natural decision to select a Nautel NT series transmitter for the WCEE-LP project. The NT models feature Nautel’s ProTelevision modulator, which offers seamless input failover switching for enhanced reliability, and the transmitters are also equipped with IP integration for monitoring and control with Nautel’s Advanced User Interface (AUI) system. Another factor in going with the NT series for this project was the inclusion of both conventional ASI inputs along with builtin TSoIP capability; the NT series was designed and equipped to operate in both environments.

STATION TAKES TO THE AIR WITH AN NT500

We selected a 500 Watt NT500 unit for the initial installation at WCEE-LP and a 1kW NT1 model has now been purchased and will be installed later this summer. Both of the Nautel NT products selected include the company’s Optipower enhanced adaptive pre-correction technology that optimizes linearity after the mask filter to provide enhanced RF transmission spectral purity.

Norsan Media is now relying on these Nautel NT transmitters to deliver its programming within the Charlotte market. In addition to Nautel’s advanced engineering and long-standing reputation for reliability, the decision to go with Nautel products was strengthened with the company’s unsurpassed four-year warranty on its broadcast equipment products. However, Norsan may never have to take advantage of this warranty, as performance of the NT transmitter at WCEE-LP has been rock-solid since it was first switched on and the company is looking forward to a very long and rewarding continuing relationship with Nautel products.

Stu Albert is president of Albert Broadcast Services, Inc. He may be contacted atsalbert@miller.fm.

For additional information, contact Nautel at 877-662-8835 or visitwww.nautel.com

Maxiva UAX transmitter
SAO PAULO—ISDB-Tb, Brazil’s standard for digital TV, is a CODFM-based modulation scheme that—on a pure signal transmission level—is not dissimilar to the more widely used DVB-T2 standard. However, the ISDB-Tb architecture typically carries a heavier bandwidth signal. That can quickly translate to high transport costs when delivering over-the-air content across very large geographical areas.

This is exactly the case in Brazil, where we broadcast to coastal and interior areas throughout the greater Sao Paulo region. Working with the systems design and integration specialists at Foccus Digital, we deployed a single-frequency network architecture for hybrid analog and ISDB-Tb digital TV. GatesAir transmitters comprise the network and keep our costs manageable en route to a full DTV transition.

REMUX FEATURE

The GatesAir SFN architecture comprises of 31 Maxiva UAX UHF transmitters of varying power levels (50 watts to 1kW), all synchronized to deliver content on the same frequency. From a strictly performance and quality viewpoint, the network performs as assured.

In an SFN configuration, Maxiva UAX transmitters provide an ideal manner to optimize spectrum and bandwidth for TV. GatesAir addresses the previously mentioned higher transport costs with a variety of transmitter input options that enable management and delivery of satellite, L-Band and ASI over IP sources across the network.

The Maxiva design for Brazilian TV networks integrates a multiplexing solution to “remux” the over-the-air broadcast transport stream inside the transmitter. This means that regardless of how the signal reaches the transmitter, the signal is recreated for broadcast in analog or ISDB-Tb DTV.

This is a significant operational benefit given the complex nature of managing many analog and digital signals across long distances. Remux reduces the costs of bandwidth-heavy transport and the architecture allows us to deliver more DTV-associated services, including ISDBTb mobile channels, across the Rede VTV network.

LOW LABOR AND OPERATIONAL COSTS

The plug-and-play GatesAir SFN architecture simplified both the initial rollout and commissioning of the network, as deployed and managed by Foccus Digital. Maxiva transmitters lack the intensive software programming associated with many SFN transmitter networks, often required to remove signal overlap and interference between transmitters of close proximity.

Additionally, the high reliability of these transmitters minimize our current and long-term maintenance requirements. Coupled with a modest set of common spare parts to share across the network—along with the redundant, modular and hot-pluggable architecture of Maxiva UAX transmitters—our labor and operational costs will remain exceptionally low over the life of the network.

Though Brazil has set a national analog TV shutoff for 2018, the main Rede VTV coverage cities of Campinas and Santos will turn off analog programming in 2017. Foccus Digital has designed a turnkey system for hybrid analog and ISDB-Tb programming to help prepare us for this transition. With ERI and Spinner filters and combiners to marry analog and digital signals in common antenna systems, as well as Selenio networking/encoding systems from Imagine Communications to support high-quality, multichannel DTV programming with outstanding bandwidth efficiency, the GatesAir SFN architecture has Rede VTV prepared for the DTV era well into the future.

For additional information, contact GatesAir at 513-459-3447 or visitwww.gatesair.com.

JOHNSTON, IOWA: On Aug. 19, 2005, Iowa Public Television turned on KHIN-DT in Red Oak, Iowa. This station operates on digital Channel 35 with a companion analog station on analog 36. Over a few years, IPTV has replaced the original RCA Channel 36 slot antenna with a new Dielectric two-channel slot antenna.

Last summer we completed construction of a new digital transmitter building adjacent to the existing analog transmitter building. In this building we have installed our "new" Harris three-cabinet Diamond transmitter with its associated test and measurement equipment rack and three port Gysel combiner. Also installed in the building is the new 2-channel transmitter combiner that combines the DTV and NTSC transmitter outputs into a single transmission line run.

HEATING UP

Fig. 1 The DTV transmitter only recently went to full power due to some missing components that had to be fabricated, so although it's been operational since August, full power operation began Oct. 21. On Nov. 20, the DTV transmitter went off the air and engineers at the site discovered that the problem was in the transmission line between the three-port Gysel combiner and the N-1 channel combiner.

Fig. 1 shows the transmission line stack coming out of the Gysel combiner that is made up of the low-pass filter, a line section with a monitoring probe and then a cut transmission line piece to the horizontal run over to the N-1 combiner.

Fig. 2 shows the probe section removed from the output stack. The additional section of inner conductor is the low-pass filter inner conductor. Due to the extreme heating that had occurred, the inner conductor sections were fused and could not be separated. The failure was the result of excessive heating at or near the flange. Given that this particular DTV transmitter is a three-cabinet unit and that after the Gysel combiner, we are generating approximately 21 kW average power, our primary concern about this failure was whether it was due to some reflection or moding in the transmission line.

I have seen similar failures in UHF operations when the 6 1/8-inch or larger transmission line is used and an elbow is inserted in the circuit prior to the low-pass filter. In the 1960s, Bill Smith at Harris wrote a paper on some lab work he did to explain some odd behaviors at various UHF installations. It appears that when a transmission line diameter reached approximately six inches, a UHF signal could generate modes in an elbow, unless the signal was first routed through a low-pass filter.

These modes would then travel with the coax acting as a waveguide. Since a coax low-pass filter works only on a signal traveling on the center conductor, the low-pass filter has no predictable effect on the modes. These high-order modes are typically beyond the frequency range of the monitoring and measuring equipment used at a UHF site and therefore can go completely unnoticed.

Fig. 2 At least that is until they cause a failure. Unfortunately, that does not appear to be a possibility at this site since all of the transmission line feeds coming from the three cabinets are smaller than 6 1/8 inches and the low-pass filter is mounted directly on the output of the Gysel.

ISOLATING THE FEEDS

Another possibility would be that the probe section actually caused the problem. In theory, the actual probe element could have been too close to the inner conductor and set up a resonate circuit, which caused the heating. I have a hard time visualizing how that is possible. Given the obvious indication of how intense the heat was in this area and the relatively small amount of metal that makes up a transmission line probe, I would have expected that the heat would have destroyed the probe element long before it caused the level of damage that is obvious in the pictures.

The third possibility is that the problem is in the Gysel itself. In my efforts to understand what happened, I did some research on the Gysel combiner and quite frankly, the circuit is so simple I would be surprised if the problem is in that device. As I understand it, the basic Gysel design at this site takes the outputs of the three transmitter cabinets in phase and feeds them on equal length transmission lines to the combiner.

Fig. 3 Each of the transmission line inputs splits the signal. Using one-quarter wave line sections, the inputs are fed to a common point for the full-power output. The other one-quarter wave sections feed the reject loads. The loads are also all tied together using one-quarter wave sections to a common point. By doing this, the combiner uses the phase relationships in the signal paths to cancel out any signal in the loads. This provides isolation between the feeds as well as predictable performance when an amplifier is offline or disconnected.

We sent the Gysel and damaged line sections to ERI for repair and diagnosis. Their post-mortem was not really conclusive. The most likely cause is shown in Fig. 3. This close-up that ERI supplied shows a suspicious bulge where the Gysel output mated to the directional coupler section. Since the coupler was added after installation, we cannot determine if the connector was damaged during the install or if it was a result of the size differential between the Dielectric and ERI supplied line sections. Evidently, there is some small difference in the diameter of the inner conductor between these two manufacturers.

REPAIRING THE DAMAGE

In any case, our best course of action is to repair the damaged components, reinstall the hardware and monitor the line section for any further problems.

If you're interested in learning more about the moding work done by Bill Smith, I believe that Harris can still supply his white paper, although I rather enjoyed having Bill explain it to me while working on a UHF transmitter project on Sandia Crest in New Mexico. If you're interested in getting more information on the Gysel combiner and your German is up to it, http://home.zhwin.ch/~gys/ is the home page of Ulrich Gysel. There are also several of his papers available from the IEEE Web site at www.ieee.org.

Bill Hayes is the director of engineering for Iowa Public Television.