Your browser is out-of-date!

Update your browser to view this website correctly. Update my browser now

×

GatesAir debuts new high-efficiency UHF transmitter range at NAB

GatesAir is strengthening its over-the-air content delivery with a new high-efficiency UHF transmitter range to help broadcasters leverage the new business opportunities promised through the Spectrum Repack and the ATSC 3.0 DTV standard.

The new Maxiva ULXTE liquid transmitter joins the recently-announced UAXTE air-cooled transmitter to give broadcasters two design options with market-leading RF performance and the industry’s lowest total cost of ownership.

GatesAir will show both transmitters at the 2017 NAB Show, where the company will exhibit at Booth N2613.

The ULXTE and UAXTE are optimised for channel changes driven by the Spectrum Repack, thanks to next-generation power amplifiers that increase peak power capacity for all ATSC and OFDM waveforms.

According to the company, this design strategy, based on GatesAir’s PowerSmart Plus architecture with broadband amplification, accelerates manufacturing and delivery by simplifying channel tuning; and increases power density for all modulations.

Its high-efficiency power amplifiers and market-leading power density also provides equal power levels for ATSC 1.0 and 3.0, and reduces costs, energy consumption and internal parts to streamline maintenance.

Both transmitters integrate GatesAir’s state-of-the-art XTE exciter to ensure a clear path to ATSC 3.0. Featuring a software-defined modulator, the XTE includes native IP inputs and eliminates the need to retrofit transmitters with additional gear to enable network connectivity, giving broadcasters an out-of-the-box solution to simplify the input and output of multimedia services via a local- or wide-area IP network.

The design provides a direct gateway to the enhanced multichannel DTV, mobile broadcast and streaming opportunities of ATSC 3.0, and centralises advanced IP-based monitoring and control to a single user interface. Both transmitters are also easily adaptable to single-frequency network (SFN) architectures that are expected to become common in ATSC 3.0 deployments.

“The ULXTE brings the same flexibility and operational efficiencies of its air-cooled sibling to higher power broadcasters who want the additional cost-savings that liquid-cooling offers inside the RF plant,” said Rich Redmond, chief product officer, GatesAir.

“This means that broadcasters are not only reaping the benefits of a futureproof transmitter optimised for repack and ATSC 3.0, including equal power levels; they are also getting a solid-state system that will significantly reduce the heavy air conditioning needs and electrical loads of high-power UHF through a highly efficient liquid-cooled approach. And like the UAXTE, our latest liquid-cooling innovation delivers next-gen signal correction and new control and monitoring efficiencies that further enhance reliability and performance for DTV broadcasters worldwide.”