Here's a $20M plant that will send DirecTV 20 channels of digital video...................................
biz.yahoo.com
Thursday August 13, 2:48 pm Eastern Time
Company Press Release
EABC To Build State-of-the-Art $20 Million Broadcast Nerve Center
Uniquely designed to deliver foreign language TV programming, industry-leading facility to be built by industry leaders such as The Systems Group and Hans Knutzen Associates
FORT LEE, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 13, 1998-- Ethnic-American Broadcasting Company (EABC), the first truly national television network in the United States dedicated to the production and distribution of multi-ethnic programming, today announced that it is building a state-of-the-art $20 million EABC Broadcast Center scheduled for completion in May 1999. Located at Fort Lee, NJ, the new 25,000 square foot facilities will be the nerve center of EABC's 20 currently planned foreign language channels, and is designed to be fully scaleable to accommodate the company's future growth. The new facility will be the successor to the company's existing Fort Lee broadcast center, which currently provides 10 foreign language networks.
The EABC Broadcast Center will be an all-digital operation with state-of-the-art equipment and world-class capabilities. EABC has engaged the services of a team of expert firms with established track records as the very best in their fields, each with a well-known reputation for television industry know-how, plus engineering and technical excellence. These include:
The Systems Group (TSG), which offers a full range of system integration services, including project planning and consultation, engineering and design, project management, documentation equipment and materials control, systems fabrication and systems installation, testing, and training. Among the clients that TSG has worked with are such well known names as NBC, CBS, MTV and VH1, MSNBC, Tribune Broadcasting, American Movie Classics, Smith Barney and Primestar.
Hans Knutzen Associates, Inc. (HKA) is an architectural firm specializing in high quality buildings and environments for the domestic and international television industry. Versed in every aspect of technical, functional and aesthetic design, HKA's exceptionally qualified team, state-of the art CAD equipment and dedicated groups of engineering consultants is well known for meeting tight ''on-air'' deadlines. HKA's recent clients include CNBC, Lifetime Cable Network, NBA Entertainment, NBC, NTV (Malaysia), USA Networks, and WPIX (New York).
''When the new EABC Broadcast Center goes live next spring, we will be providing high-quality television signals using the latest technology on the most advanced digital platform ever built for foreign language programming in North America,'' says Richard Ramirez, EABC's Executive Vice President -- Broadcast Group. ''Our new facility will be a pioneering accomplishment because it is also the first in the country specifically designed and built from the ground-up to serve multiple language groups and services.''
The new facility will continue EABC's use of the high-quality signal processing and transmission technology now used by its existing Fort Lee broadcast center, which currently provides 10 EABC channels delivered on the new DIRECTV(R) expansion satellite platform via transponder capacity leased by DIRECTV on PanAmSat's Galaxy III-R satellite platform at 95 degrees West longitude (WL). The EABC networks offered on the new platform are available to homes equipped with the new DSS-II satellite receiving system, manufactured by Hughes Network Systems. DSS-II is also capable of receiving more than 185 available channels from the core DIRECTV digital television service at 101 degrees WL.
EABC has now secured twelve channels of foreign-language programming aimed at serving America's ten million foreign language households:
-- WMNB-TV (Russian)
-- Network Asia and Sony Entertainment Television (Hindi)
-- Ukrainian Broadcasting Network (Ukrainian)
-- Ciao TV (Italian)
-- Egyptian Satellite Channel and Nile Drama (Arabic)
-- ECom and The World Channel (Chinese: Cantonese/Mandarin)
-- ERT (Greek)
-- VIVA Cinema and GMA (Filipino)
The new EABC facilities will be a comprehensive, integrated production, post-production, broadcast nerve center that is being custom-built to deliver these and other foreign language services.
Using the latest digital equipment, the EABC Broadcast Center will boast:
twenty automated fully redundant master control rooms with cart capability for long-form programming and disk storage for commercial insertion;
two production studios with state-of-the-art camera, DVE, CG and switcher capabilities;
-- four online digital edit rooms for post-production;
-- eight off-line cuts-only formatting studios;
network master control for monitoring incoming and outgoing signals, fine tuning levels;
an acquisition room for processing all incoming program materials (i.e. tape or fiber link);
-- an insert studio with chroma key background;
-- an expandable radio studio facility designed to produce twenty national radio stations;
-- on-demand Internet access for use in productions; and
-- fully redundant back-up systems throughout.
PLJ Construction is building the facilities to structural, electrical, and mechanical design specifications provided by HKA and its sub-contractor, Lakhani & Jordan Engineers, PC. TSG is providing systems integration.
EABC Broadcast Center suppliers and equipment providers include:
-- JVC, for videotape machines, monitors and cameras;
-- Leitch/ASC/Tekniche, for video servers, conversion and switching equipment;
-- Teleglobe, for domestic and international signal transportation;
-- Orion/Intelsat, for satellite signal transport;
-- Chyron, for graphics and character generation equipment;
-- Bell Atlantic, for uncompressed digital fiber connections; and
-- ATS-Micronet, for downlinking and local signal transportation.
The quality and efficiency of the signal path between the EABC Broadcast Center and the PamAmSat uplink at Spring Creek, Brooklyn, NY is assured by the use of fully redundant advanced uncompressed fiber lines at 2.4 GBPS.
''From initial conception to final completion, the new EABC Broadcast Center will be the first-rate product of the talented team we have assembled. Together, we are building what we are confident will be known as one of the industry's most innovative and high-quality broadcast facilities,'' says Ramirez.
Ethnic-American Broadcasting Company
Ethnic-American Broadcasting Company (www.eabc.com) is the first truly national television network in the United States dedicated to the production and distribution of multi-ethnic programming. EABC is a media company that currently delivers 10 foreign language channels designed to serve the more than ten million U.S. households where a language other than English or Spanish is spoken.
A vertically integrated digital Master System Operator, EABC offers programming, ad sales, distribution, customer service and billing to foreign language networks in North America. The company acquires, produces and packages ethnic services for the nation's largest satellite provider, DIRECTV, and for local cable operators. Through its SkyView(R) division, EABC markets and installs DSS-II receiving equipment for multiple dwelling units. The company is privately held with offices in major cities nationwide and corporate headquarters in Fort Lee, New Jersey.
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Contact:
EABC Environics Communications
Murray Klippenstein Bob Pickard
201/242-3230 (203) 325-8772, no. 15
mjk@eabc.com rpickard@environics-usa.com
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