Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

Broadcasters Extoll BAS Transition Benefits

03/12/2014

WPSD-TV received a supply of RF filters annually.

SEATTLE The transition of the Broadcast Auxiliary Service, now several years completed, could be viewed by many who it affected as an enormous visit from Santa Claus. After all, something around a billion dollars worth of microwave equipment and its installation was delivered free to broadcasters to allow them to use narrower channels in the 2 GHz band. (Channels were narrowed from 18 to 12 MHz.) The freed up spectrum was for Sprint, which paid the BAS bill.

Also having a sleigh with eight tiny reindeer land on their roofs were primary suppliers MRC (now Vislink), Nucomm and RF Central (both now part of Integrated Microwave Technologies), NSI, Troll and GMS, as well as integrators, tower folks and truck builders.

It was not an entirely smooth process, especially when lawyers got involved over tax questions. It took years longer than anticipated, and required affected broadcasters to undergo a leap-of-faith that the digital radios they would receive would provide the reliability that their trusted if long-in-the-tooth analog gear had provided. Most television markets were already using the new digital BAS a couple of years into using their narrowed channels when the Anchorage, Alaska market finally tuned-over to the new band plan in the summer of 2010, signaling the end of the transition.

A LEVEL PLAYING FIELD

So how's it going?

We're very happy with the way it works, said Karl Sargent, chief engineer at California Oregon Broadcasting, Inc. Though COBI operates in smaller markets, two stations in the Eugene, Ore. market and two in the Medford/Klamath Falls, Ore. market, the company's BAS equipment replacement was the second largest in the nation, due to 20 translators spread over southern Oregon and northern California. Sargent estimated all of COBI's 2 GHz microwave paths sum to 2,400 miles.

It not only provides multiple ENG pickups throughout our coverage area, but switching from analog allowed us to provide a lot more bandwidth for the ancillary services that we do, such as data, and IP links, Sargent said. We have a data link, T1 of data available, plus we have multiple ASI. We can do a lot more remote monitoring. It's been a really good thing.

Greg Thies, news operations manager at Seattle's KING-TV said one of the benefits of replacing BAS equipment in such a short period of time is that it is putting everybody on the same playing surface. As market frequency coordinator, I'm the above-one-gig guy. He said replacement of analog gear some dating back as much as 30-plus years with digital equipment all of the same vintage, has paid operational dividends.

It just puts everybody at the same point technically, we are all capable of doing the same things, working within the same parameters. A lot of what we do is all gentlemen handshake' stuff, based on our frequency coordination. We're all able to operate and stay out of each other's way, or help each other in cases where we need to, such as a pool situation.

Joey Gill, chief engineer at WPSD-TV in the Paducah, Ky./Harrisburg, Ill./Cape Girardeau, Mo. market, said there's a huge advantage to having a fresh flush of microwave gear when it comes to maintenance. Rather than stock parts and spares for equipment acquired over 30 or more years, it allows us to keep one stock of parts, one stock of spares, he said.

One of KOBI'sTV's 2 GHz relocation tower sites at Gold Beach, Ore.

That said, Gill credits the station's maintenance people with the large amount of replacement gear it received. One reason it was so big was because we had a strong maintenance staff that kept gear going for 30 years, he said. When [the inventory checkers] showed up, if the power light would come on, you got a new one.

Gill pointed out that not all the new gear they received were microwave transmitters and receivers. His station has two microwave towers located so remotely that the only utility they have is power, which required control telemetry to the sites to replace the 455 MHz data links they were using. If I had a tower an hour away that had north, south, east and west antennas on it, and we had a train wreck south of that site, then I would need to select the south antenna to receive video from the microwave truck at the story, he said.

Sprint engineers came up with a better solution, according to Gill. They paid for HughesNet data dishes at these sites, and got all of our control on IP-based control, he said. And not only did they put in the HughesNet dishes, but they also paid for five years of data. They paid the bill for us for five years. It was cheaper for them to do that than to put in an antiquated terrestrial, 455 MHz telemetry link back in.

FILTERS FOR FREE

One annual ongoing gift-giving to BAS relocation stations are RF filters. The filters are needed to strip off all out-of-band RF, especially important for the BAS channels adjacent to frequencies occupied by cellular operations.

About once a year AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon send the stations papers to fill out for filters. I now have a stack of filters that would flatten a pickup truck's springs, said Gill. He finds the filters built into his digital radios adequate to the task, but KING-TV's Thies suggests hanging onto the filters sent each year.

You never know when you might need to have that filter, and gosh, why didn't I take the filter when they were offering it to me for free?

Though the cellular backpacks are all the rage for liveshots currently, Thies said there's nothing like a signal path where you don't have to rely on someone else's infrastructure, especially in a natural or other disaster. If you're providing a service and it's an important informational service, then you need the reliability,
LINK: http://www.tvtechnology.com/news/0110/broadcasters-extoll-bas-transiti...
See more stories from tvtechnology

Most recent headlines

13/03/2025

Evolving EO/IR Technology For All-Domain Airborne Law Enforcement

Every time airborne law enforcement (ALE) teams fly, they expect their equipment to perform. Whether airborne units are conducting support for ground teams, bor...

13/03/2025

Craft Interview: Jamie McCombs, Audio Consultant / Sr. Audio

Sunday February 9 saw the annual return of the US' biggest television event, the Super Bowl LIX. Jamie McCombs, Fox Sports Audio Consultant / Sr. Audio capt...

13/03/2025

Craft Interview: Paul Sandweiss, Production Sound Mixer/Audio Director

On Sunday March 2, stars across the film industry gathered at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles for the 97th Academy Awards. Production Sound Mixer Paul Sandweis...

13/03/2025

Riedel To Showcase New StageLink Smart Edge Devices At 2025 NAB Show

WUPPERTAL, Germany Riedel Communications will feature its new StageLink family of smart edge devices, Smart Audio and Mixing Engine (SAME) and Virtual Smart Pan...

13/03/2025

TAG Video Systems and Harmonic Partner to Deliver Enhanced Real-Time Monitoring for VOS360 Streaming Workflows at the 2025 NAB Show

TAG Video Systems and Harmonic Partner to Deliver Enhanced Real-Time Monitoring ...

13/03/2025

DigitalGlue Invites NAB Visitors to Experience New Features in Managed Storage Platform that Empowers Video Teams to Scale Effortlessly

DigitalGlue Invites NAB Visitors to Experience New Features in Managed Storage P...

13/03/2025

FOR-A America Theme - Connecting the Present, Building the Future - Comes to Life at NAB 2025 Exhibition

FOR-A America Theme - Connecting the Present, Building the Future - Comes to Lif...

13/03/2025

Ajit Pai Appointed President of CTIA

CTIA, the wireless industry association, has named former FCC Chairman Aji Pai as its President and Chief Executive Officer, effective April 1. He replaces Mere...

13/03/2025

NAB: FCC's 60 Minutes Investigation Is Unconstitutional, Invalid

he National Association of Broadcasters is urging the FCC to end its investigation of that controversial CBS interview with Kamala Harris stating there is no ...

13/03/2025

CBS Miami to Launch AR Coverage of Weather and Sports for March Madness

MIAMI CBS News & Stations continues to expand its use of augmented and virtual reality technologies with the planned launch of an augmented reality/virtual real...

13/03/2025

Meet the co-founder and chief customer success & innovation officer

Srividhya Srinivasan, co-founder and chief customer success & innovation Officer at Amagi, tells TVBEurope how staying ahead of the latest trends is essential f...

13/03/2025

FCC Chairman Carr Launches Massive Deregulation Initiative

WASHINGTON FCC Chairman Brendan Carr announced that the agency has launched a massive, new deregulatory initiative that could potentially subject virtually all ...

13/03/2025

SDVI Integrates Rally With Spectra Vail

SUNNYVALE, Calif. SDVI has announced that it has integrated its Rally media supply chain management platform with the Spectra Vail multi-cloud data management s...

13/03/2025

FCC Approves Gray's Acquisition of KXLT

ATLANTA Gray Media has announced that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has granted a waiver of its local ownership rules to permit Gray Media to acqu...

13/03/2025

NAB Show 2025 Exhibitor Insight: Blackmagic Design

TV Tech: What do you anticipate will be the most significant technology trends at the 2025 NAB Show?...

13/03/2025

Watch Student Naomi Soleils Folk Pop Performance on The Voice

Watch Student Naomi Soleils Folk Pop Performance on The Voice The songwriting major sang Stars by Grace Potter and the Nocturnals during the blind auditions. ...

13/03/2025

The ICG Marketing Survey 2025

We asked the questions, analysed the answers and now we're excited to share the results of the fifth edition of the ICG Marketing Survey. Our 2025 survey p...

13/03/2025

Harmonic Amps Up Video Streaming Efficiency with New Origin Capabilities

SAN JOSE, Calif. - March 13, 2025 Harmonic (NASDAQ: HLIT) today announced a breakthrough in video streaming innovation with the launch of new origin capabilitie...

13/03/2025

Haivision Showcases Mission-Critical Video Solutions at SOF Week 2025

Haivision Showcases Mission-Critical Video Solutions at SOF Week 2025 Haivision's video wall systems, ISR technology, and DoDIN APL-certified video distri...

13/03/2025

FOR-A America Theme Connecting the Present, Building the Future Comes to Life at NAB 2025 Exhibition

Company Leads the Way with New Software-Based Production Platform, 12G Switcher,...

13/03/2025

2025-03-13

A new Apple Immersive concert experience, Metallica, is coming to Apple Vision Pro this Friday, March 14. Filmed in Mexico City during the sold-out second-year ...

13/03/2025

Italia 90 Republic of Ireland Squad, Riverdance, Cian Ducrot & B*Witched on Friday's Late Late Show

Here is your host, Patrick Kielty! Shake your Shamrocks, Patrick Kielty will be...

13/03/2025

RT Celebrating all things Irish this St. Patrick's Weekend

This St. Patrick's weekend, RT invites you to celebrate all things Irish, showcasing the very best of Irish sport, entertainment and live coverage from the...

13/03/2025

GTC 2025 - Announcements and Live Updates

What's next in AI is at GTC 2025. Not only the technology, but the people and ideas that are pushing AI forward - creating new opportunities, novel solution...

13/03/2025

T-Mobile, Thales and SIMPL ease IoT deployments with a flexible and secure connectivity solution

Facebook Twitter LinkedIn By combining T-Mobile's robust network, Thal...

13/03/2025

Relive the Magic as GeForce NOW Brings More Blizzard Gaming to the Cloud

Bundle up - GeForce NOW is bringing a flurry of Blizzard titles to its ever-expanding library. Prepare to weather epic gameplay in the cloud, tackling the genr...

13/03/2025

Gaming Goodness: NVIDIA Reveals Latest Neural Rendering and AI Advancements Supercharging Game Development at GDC 2025

AI is leveling up the world's most beloved games, as the latest advancements...

13/03/2025

Drop It Like It's Mod: Breathing New Life Into Classic Games With AI in NVIDIA RTX Remix

PC game modding is massive, with over 5 billion mods downloaded annually. Mods p...

12/03/2025

Como o Impacto Cultural e Financeiro da Indstria Musical Define Seu Sucesso em 2025

O Spotify acaba de lan ar o relat rio Loud & Clear deste ano, uma vis o transpar...

12/03/2025

Cmo el impacto cultural y financiero de la industria musical define su xito en 2025

Spotify acaba de presentar el informe Loud & Clear de este a o, una mirada trans...

12/03/2025

Nourish Mind, Body, and Soul This Ramadan With Spotify

Ramadan, a period of profound spiritual significance for Muslims worldwide, is a time for fasting, prayer, reflection, and community. Enrich your experience thi...

12/03/2025

How the Music Industry's Cultural and Financial Impact Define Its Success in 2025

Spotify has just unveiled this year's Loud & Clear report, a transparent loo...

12/03/2025

FAST now transcends back catalog content

More than 70% of FAST programming has been produced since 2010, according to new Gracenote report NEW YORK March 12, 2025 Gracenote, the content data busin...

12/03/2025

Viamedia Adopts ShowSeeker Pilot To Streamline Ad Workflows

GEONA, Nev. Independent digital and linear advertising rep firm Viamedia will adopt cloud-based ShowSeeker Pilot as its primary ad campaign and order management...

12/03/2025

Mediagenix Appoints Wael Yasin as Sales Director Central Europe

BRUSSELS Mediagenix has announced that Wael Yasin has joined the company as sales director Central Europe....

12/03/2025

Omdia: Global Online Consumer Expenditure to Hit $6.6 Trillion by 2029

LONDON A new study highlights opportunities for shoppable TV and the massive impact online consumer spending is having on the economy, with Omdia predicting tha...

12/03/2025

Comcast Technology Solutions Upgrades to Interra Systems BATON Version 9

CUPERTINO, Calif. Interra Systems has announced that Comcast Technology Solutions has integrated recent updates to BATON Version 9 into its operations....

12/03/2025

Nevion announces new 400G addition to its eMerge SDN media fabric offering

Nevion announces new 400G addition to its eMerge SDN media fabric offering Brie Clayton March 12, 2025 0 Comments High-capacity switch enhances existi...

12/03/2025

DaVinci Resolve Studio Delivers Cinematic Sound for Adam Bol

DaVinci Resolve Studio Delivers Cinematic Sound for Adam Bol Brie Clayton March 12, 2025 0 Comments Feature film relies on DaVinci Resolve Studio for ...

12/03/2025

SVT Leverages Ateliere Live to Pioneer 100% Software-Defined Production at Rally Sweden 2025

SVT Leverages Ateliere Live to Pioneer 100% Software-Defined Production at Rally...

12/03/2025

Berklee Awards Fenway Neighborhood Improvement Grant to Four Organizations

Berklee Awards Fenway Neighborhood Improvement Grant to Four Organizations A total of $17,000 will be distributed among the Boston-based nonprofits. By Madd...

12/03/2025

Offering a broad umbrella for IP standards

TVBEuropes Jenny Priestley sits down with new SMPTE president Richard Welsh to discuss his aims for the organisation going forward, its efforts to attract a you...

12/03/2025

Warner Bros Belgium takes a new approach to its post production workflows

The new process has significantly enhanced operational efficiencies, with automation freeing up creators to concentrate on higher value tasks By Matthew Corrig...

12/03/2025

Another VFX company suspends operations

Jellyfish Pictures, which has offices in London and Sheffield, said it has been battling hard in the face of strong headwinds over the last 12 months By Jenny ...

12/03/2025

Bitcentral to Showcase AI-Powered Innovations for Smarter...

Visit Booth #W2213 to Experience the Latest in AI-Driven Content Discovery and Workflow Automation Bitcentral, a leader in media workflow solutions, is set to ...

12/03/2025

Jeff Lilly Named WGN-TV Director Of Technology

CHICAGO Jeff Lilly has been named WGN-TV director of technology effective March 17, 2025, according to Ric Harris, WGN-TV vice president and general manager....

12/03/2025

Survey: Consumers Want More Shoppable TV Experiences

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. A new study from LG Ad Solutions indicates that consumers want more features that would allow them to shop for products on the connected T...

12/03/2025

IP Showcase To Focus On IP, Broadcast Tech Convergence at 2025 NAB Show

BOTHELL, Wash. The Alliance for IP Media Solutions (AIMS), Advanced Media Workflow Association (AMWA) and the Video Services Forum (VSF) will once again present...

12/03/2025

Comcast Boosts Internet Speeds for More Than 20 Million Customers

PHILADELPHIA Comcast announced that it has upgraded Xfinity Internet speeds for more than 20 million customers for no additional cost....

12/03/2025

Create with Maxon: Cinema 4D Fundamentals Workshop - March 12-14

Create with Maxon: Cinema 4D Fundamentals Workshop - March 12-14 Brie Clayton March 11, 2025 0 Comments Makin' Waffles with Elly Wade During Marc...