Test & Measurement Feature | Harris Broadcast
TAM FROM TOGO TO TANZANIA
Adam Birch, Test & Measurement product marketing manager for Harris Broadcast, explains the strategic role the technology plays at major projects in Africa.
Adam Birch, Test & Measurement Product Marketing Manager, Harris Broadcast
Test & Measurement is regarded by many as the ‘Cinderella’ of broadcast technologies. While it’s not as glamorous as many of the bigger ticket technology components in a broadcast workfl ow, it plays a critical role in ensuring the safe and reliable operation of production and transmission systems. A good illustration of this important Test & Measurement function is illustrated within a number of large scale projects that Harris Broadcast is currently supporting throughout Africa.
In many parts of Africa, regional governments are seeking to harness digital broadcast technology to empower and enrich the lives of their population.
With its extensive experience throughout the region, and the company’s proven ability to construct complete integrated technology solutions spanning content capture, production and transmission, Harris Broadcast is playing a leading role in supporting many of these new and exciting projects.
Sahara Media Group, a leading independent media company in Tanzania, has announced its intention to develop a wide- ranging digital television service across the country. Enabling this service is a DVB-T2 transmission network from Harris Broadcast including multiple DTV transmitters, over-the- air encoding and multiplexing systems, and test and measurement products to analyze signal integrity and compliance. The project also includes Harris
26 | May/June 2013 |
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Broadcast infrastructure and support equipment.
In the regional centre, Mwanza, we have installed a complete video headend based around the Selenio media convergence platform to reduce complexity and costs, and dramatically increase fl exibility and scalability. Selenio will initially perform the compression, multiplexing and conditioning of one national multiplex of 10 services to broadcast free-to-air. The next phase will add two more multiplexes, each combining free- to-air and encrypted services, creating more than 50 channels. The confi guration will also include Selenio XD conversion modules to perform the critically important task of processing all services prior to compression, further enhancing the service offering of Sahara Media Group.
From the headend in Mwanza the transport stream is distributed by microwave to the transmission sites, each equipped with Harris Broadcast Maxiva digital television transmitters. The whole system uses integrated DVB-T2 Gateways in the Selenio DVB multiplexors at the head end which enables a direct connection from Selenio to the transmitters with a resulting reduction in system complexity.
Initially the network will cover the main cities in the country, including Dar es Salaam, Mwanza, Arusha, Mbeya and Dodoma. Later this year the network will bring extended services to many other parts of the country, and will also include main contribution links back to the Mwanza main
Without this technology, how can a broadcaster recognise and identify a problem - having Test & Measurement may not prevent an issue arising but it will help identify the problem quickly and defi nitively.
headend for regionalized DVB-T2 services.
Maxiva UAX air-cooled UHF solid state transmitters, installed at four sites in 1kW and 2kW confi gurations, incorporate Harris PowerSmart and Apex M2X multimedia exciter technologies, with PowerSmart ensuring that power consumption is among the lowest in class. The high-powered Dar es Salaam transmitter is a 3.4kW Maxiva ULX, which retains all the technical advances of the UAX in a liquid-cooled architecture.
Adam Birch | Harris Broadcast
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