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Technology Stocks : C-Cube -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Clarksterh who wrote (40363)	5/1/1999 9:06:00 AM
From: John Rieman	Respond to of 50808

Comark gets 31 more stations. Will they use Divicom encoders??????????????????????????????? broadcastingcable.com Date Posted: 4/30/1999 Raycom taps Comark Group will install DTV transmitters in 31 stations By Karen Anderson Raycom Media, the nation's 22nd largest TV group, will offer DTVwith Comark transmitters, it was announced last week. Comark, a division of THOMCAST Communications, will provide Raycom's 31 stations with Advantage and DCX IOT tube-type transmitters as well as Ultimate and Optimum solid-state units. The first of the transmitters will go to WOIO-TV Cleveland, among the stations in the top 30 markets that the FCC says must launch DTV by Nov. 1, 1999. WXIX-TV Cincinnati also is scheduled to begin broadcasting in November, but will be using a Harris transmitter that was purchased by the station's former owner, Malrite Communications. Raycom will roll out Comark transmitters to its other stations through 2002. "We looked at everybody in fairness, and it came down to a short list," says Raycom Technology Vice President David Folsom. "Comark showed that it had the flexibility and the technology; they were very cost-competitive, and were the most willing to work with us in both in the business part of the deal and the technology part of the deal. "Their transmitters have a very sophisticated remote control that is built in. They were also one of the first to be able to meet the FCC mask [that prevents adjacent channel interference] that was announced right before NAB last year. In addition, they have a very sophisticated digital correction circuitry, which is critical." Although Folsom would not say precisely how much the group is spending. "It's a tens-of-millions-of-dollars kind of deal." Folsom has been investigating several DTV encoders' including DiviCom's, which are being sold through Comark. The DiviCom encoders "have a unique matrixing structure which allows you to put the encoder together in building blocks," he said. "But each encoder manufacturer has something unique to bring to the table." Folsom says the encoder decision ultimately is going to be based not on the technology itself, but on how the encoder will facilitate an individual station's business plan. "Here's the dilemma," he said. " The jury is still out on whether there is a business model for multichannel. Do you pay far more for an encoder that is capable of multichannel or do you, at least on this first pass while you are just trying to do pass-through, go for something that is less expensive and is only capable of [HDTV]?" Folsom adds that he was surprised at the abundance of encoder manufacturers at NAB this year. "It's good because that makes the pricing far more competitive."