Tiernan buys from both C-Cube and IBM............................
broadcastingcable.com
Date Posted: 4/16/1999
ABSAT begins shift to digital
By Glen Dickson
ABSAT, ABC's Ku-band newsgathering system, has begun implementing its digital satellite newsgathering (DSNG) technology with the installation of mobile MPEG-2 uplinks at ABC-owned KTRK Houston and affiliate KOMO-TV Seattle. Up to 30 of ABSAT's 100 member-stations will get the new Tiernan-supplied DSNG systems by the end of 1999.
ABSAT is moving to digital compression to squeeze more feeds through its existing satellite capacity, says Richard Wolf, ABC vice president of telecommunications. ABC owns two transponders on Loral Skynet's Telstar 4, leases another full-time, and leases other capacity as needed. ABC has been sending two analog feeds on each 54 Mhz transponder. With DSNG, it will be able to fit eight MPEG-2 feeds, each encoded at 7.1 Mb/s, into the same space.
"Our goal with digital compression is to rely far less on occasional capacity and rely on our full-time capacity for the larger amount of our newsgathering feeds," says Wolf.
ABSAT will phase in DSNG over a two-year period. "We'll start off by allocating one half of a 54 Mhz transponder to digital, and we'll load 4 digital channels in that 27 Mhz resource to get our foot in the door." says Wolf. Loral has upgraded its satellite scheduling software to handle the additional feeds, he says.
KTRK has installed a Tiernan DSNG uplink in its satellite truck but is still waiting for a DSNG receiver, says News Director Bill Bouyer. Nonetheless, Bouyer is excited about the new technology. "When there's a big story, it's going to mean a lot more satellite space to go around. When there's a big spot news story like the Oklahoma City bombing, or even a planned event like the John Glenn shuttle launch or the elections, there's never enough satellite time to do all the tape feeds and get all the live windows you want."
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