Magna Systems and Engineering, systems integrator and supplier of technology to the broadcast and communication industries, has announced details of its successful tender to supply TVNZ with a DTH satellite head-end system.
According to TVNZ Transmission Manager Doug Stevens, every available option was investigated and assessed before a decision was made. He explained, "The DTH tender was issued as we were looking for a MPEG-2 SD satellite head-end system for TVNZ's satellite channels TV One, TV2, TVNZ Sport Extra, plus Maori Television Service. Harmonic is one of the leading suppliers of such systems globally, so we entered into discussions with them via their local NZ agents Magna Systems."
Magna Systems NZ Manager Steven Clemesha said, "Magna Systems had several meetings with TVNZ over a period of time to explain the advancements of the Harmonic kit and we referred them to our reference site in Australia (SelecTV) for their DTH solution. It became evident that TVNZ were insisting on the highest quality solution with bandwidth efficiency full monitoring/control and redundancy switching. They also wanted it to be extremely cost-efficient."
The TVNZ DTH head-end went live on 19 September 2007 and on 22 September the broadcaster began TVNZ widescreen transmission. Another major expansion was the 30 September launch of TVNZ6 through the head-end to compliment TV One, TV2 and TVNZ Sport Extra.
