Harris has received an order for a range of its high definition and standard definition broadcast products from Euskal Irrati Telebista (EiTB), the leading media group in the Basque Country. The equipment is to be installed at EiTB’s new 25,000 square-metre digital facility in Bilbao, writes Fergal Ringrose.
The order includes more than 500 units of Harris 6800+ modular converters for core processing applications incorporating Harris Q-SEE thumbnail functionality. The QSEE6800+HST customisable monitoring modules can be installed into any existing broadcast facility to allow immediate enhancement of the user’s signal quality monitoring abilities.
EiTB also selected the Harris CCS Pilot and CCS Navigator monitoring and control software and three NUCLEUS user-configurable network control panels to support centralised operational control of the facility’s conversion, processing and routing equipment. Signal quality monitoring will be carried out with a variety of Harris Videotek test and measurement equipment, including 11 Videotek TVM-840 multiformat SD-SDI video and audio signal analysers and five Videotek VTM-3100 multiformat test and measurement instruments. The sale to EiTB was completed by the Harris reseller in Spain, Broadcast Meditel.
“The ability of the Q-SEE thumbnail to provide realtime monitoring was one of the key drivers behind the decision to purchase the Harris digital glue and test products,” said Igor Jainaga, project engineer at Euskal Irrati Telebista. “The Harris brand stands for quality and reliability, and our latest investment has allowed us to create a state-of-the-art facility that provides top-class programming for the Basque people.”
“Incorporating the new Q-SEE thumbnail functionality into the new workflow at EiTB will enable operators to obtain detailed information on the signals moving through their network from anywhere at anytime,” said Dave Dougall, vice president of sales for Europe, Middle East and Africa for the Harris Broadcast Communications Division. “The Q-SEE functionality provides operators the ability to quickly and easily monitor their entire network, address specific operational issues, and significantly improve their response time to any problem that might arise.”
The CCS Pilot and CCS Navigator monitoring and control software, together with the NUCLEUS network control panel, unify and streamline the operation of routers, processing products and remote monitoring products at EiTB. The CCS Navigator system provides a central monitoring tool that cost-effectively monitors and evaluates audio and video signal performance across the entire Bilbao facility, while the Harris test and measurement devices provide the tools necessary to analyze the signal performance.
EiTB now has four terrestrial and satellite television channels and five radio stations covering the whole Basque territory. The majority of its programming is made in Euskara, the local Basque language from this region. The new digital facility at Bilbao is part of the company’s move to replace its ageing analogue facility in Lurretta that was built for the company’s launch in 1982.
