[opendtv] Working for a Painless Transition

From: "Manfredi, Albert E" <albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Mon, 15 Dec 2008 17:56:46 -0500
In this market, I am still anxious about ABC 7 and CBS 9 going back to
VHF, but this bit is very good news indeed:

"Ion Media Networks and Gannett Broadcasting have cooperated on a novel
solution to Ion's final digital channel in Washington, D.C. Ion is
changing from channel 43 to channel 34, which is currently the channel
used by Gannett for their digital signal. When Gannett reverts to
channel 9 on Feb. 18, Ion will take over Gannett's channel 34-by
literally taking over Gannett's channel 34 transmitter and transmitter
site."

That's a 1 MW transmitter, the easiest to receive in many locations. And
their tower throughout the transition period has been out to the west,
entirely in the wrong direction, compared with most other towers. At the
new location, they will be co-located with CBS 9, ABC 7, and PBS 26.

"In other cases, the boxes do not appear to have the receive sensitivity
of their analog TV sets, requiring more substantial outdoor antennas to
receive the digital signals."

That doesn't sound right. More like, the digital channel is most likely
much lower power, coupled with the existence of a digital cliff, make it
seem like sensitivity has been reduced.

Bert

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http://www.tvtechnology.com/article/71482

Working for a Painless Transition
by David Glidden, 12.15.2008

ALTON, N.H. Less than three months from the Feb. 17 switch-off of
full-power analog television in the United States, the decade-long
effort is nearing completion. Although most broadcasters are ready, it's
also clear that the industry is working steadily to ensure that the
switchover is smooth and on-time.

For many broadcasters the switchover involves turning off the analog
transmitter at midnight on Feb. 17. These stations have been operating
for up to 12 years on their final digital channel and many have already
reached their maximum authorized power, so no work remains on the
digital side.

However, 642 stations are moving to a different DTV channel for
operation after the transition, so efforts remain to get their
transmission plants ready.

MANAGING THE REST

A top-mounted, omnidirectional ERI TRASAR traveling wave UHF DTV antenna
was installed at the Richland Tower facility in Oklahoma City for
KTUZ-DT, Channel 29.

Ion Media Networks and Gannett Broadcasting have cooperated on a novel
solution to Ion's final digital channel in Washington, D.C. Ion is
changing from channel 43 to channel 34, which is currently the channel
used by Gannett for their digital signal. When Gannett reverts to
channel 9 on Feb. 18, Ion will take over Gannett's channel 34-by
literally taking over Gannett's channel 34 transmitter and transmitter
site.

David Glenn, president of engineering for Ion Media Networks, said the
cooperation with Gannett is an example of a creative solution for some
digital transition issues. However, he also said that the analog
switchover is "proving to be more challenging than we had planned, even
though we had planned for a difficult time. We scheduled everything
early. We met with the manufacturers and riggers and had timetables for
everything. But the closer the transition approaches, the tighter the
squeeze gets.

"We have no real issues at this point," he added, "but there is tight
timing for getting RF components and we can't order elbows and
interconnects until the transmission line and antenna are in place. So
the RF system manufacturers are tasked with heavy loads to get things
done."

Myron Fanton, chief engineer of RF technology for ERI, a Chandler,
Ind.-based provider of broadcast antennas, said that strong project
management is key to ensuring that unforeseen problems don't cascade
into delays. "We make sure that we are on top of these issues every day,
managing the schedules, making sure people are on site to offload trucks
when they arrive, coordinating power crews-it all requires constant
attention."

As of October, Roger Cote, vice president of sales and marketing at
Dielectric said they were still receiving orders for RF systems
requiring January deliveries. "Customers who do have their digital
equipment in place need to make sure that everything works well prior to
going live," Cote said. "Some may find performance characteristics that
are different from what they expected."

Transmitter manufacturers are concentrating on keeping up with the
demand for new and reconfigured transmitters. "Border issues and other
interference questions have delayed building out some facilities, making
this last minute work challenging," said Jim Adamson, vice president of
sales and marketing for Lafayette, Colo.-based transmitter provider
Larcan.

Availability of experienced installation crews is the top concern for
transmitter makers. Many are rotating factory personnel out to the field
through the February transition. In addition, "we're increasing our
capacity through grouping installations by regions and by bringing in
contract crews that are experienced with Harris transmitters," said Paul
Ratcliffe, director of the transmitter product line at Harris Broadcast.
"By supplementing these contract crews with our internal resources, we
have been able to handle the demand."

Dick Fiore, senior director of sales for transmission and mobility for
Thomson Grass Valley, said that their biggest concern is sufficient
staffing for field operations. "We've been working with customers and
the RF system manufacturers for 18 months to prepare for the final
transition to digital. That advanced effort has been a critical part of
our success in managing the transition."

Mike Rosso, vice president of sales for Axcera said they're adjusting
their workforce to deal with the crunch. "The industry is challenged to
fully support stations," he said. "We also build S band and L band
transmitters, so we can move people from one market to another when a
market spikes. Now, we're moving people into the VHF transmitter area to
support customers going back to VHF for their final digital channel."

WHAT HAPPENS FEB. 17?

Many broadcasters and manufacturers plan to have a large number of
people in the field to support the Feb. 17 transition. "We have been
working on this for a long time and we don't need to ask everyone to be
available," Glenn said. "They want to be there for the switchover."

Yet concerns remain. Earle Connors, director of engineering for the
Oklahoma Educational Television Authority, notes that many rural cable
television systems have not yet upgraded their headends to receive
digital TV channels. Connors is also concerned about some new set-top
boxes.

"We've received more than 100 phone calls from people having problems
with new DTV convertor boxes," he said. "Many of the boxes do not pass
analog, so people can't view their analog channels today. In other
cases, the boxes do not appear to have the receive sensitivity of their
analog TV sets, requiring more substantial outdoor antennas to receive
the digital signals."

After years of operating dual analog and digital facilities, many
broadcast engineers are looking forward to operating just their digital
infrastructure. However, some broadcast stations will continue to have
significant transition efforts after February.

"Quite a few of our stations have been granted maximization, so we will
be running around to stations after February to increase power," said
Steve Hastings, network RF manager for the Trinity Broadcast Network.
"We're also converting some of our analog transmitters to digital and
moving them into redundancy roles."

Larcan's Adamson remains confident, about the industry's readiness.
"Broadcasters have done a stellar job responding to the challenge and
the vast majority will be ready," he said.
 
 
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[opendtv] Working for a Painless Transition

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