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Special Edition Broadcast Edition 01 l 2016

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LS telcom recommends the move of all EU countries to the use of the DVB-T2 standard LS telcom together with its part- The study examined various policy move to a new standard requires the report) may offer broadcasters further ner VVA has completed a study options for the future use of the UHF replacement of any non-compliant set- benefits in being able to integrate for the European Commission television band including the so-called top boxes. Some countries are already broadcasting and broadband services (EC) on repurposing the 700 700 MHz band (694-790 MHz) which using DVB-T2/MPEG-4 and many tele- into the same spectrum. MHz spectrum. was identified for IMT usage at the vision receivers being sold already have Andreas Geiss, head of the The analysis provided in the recent ITU World Radiocommunication this capability. Therefore, the costs of Commission‘s spectrum policy unit study is informing work by the Conference. replacing the remaining non-compliant said, “We chose the LS telcom and VVA EC on developing a proposal for LS telcom and VVA examined different receivers are heavily dependent upon consulting team for this project as we a decision of the European Par- technical options for continuing DTT the timing of any change over. could see that they had the necessary liament and of the Council on services without the 700 MHz band Notwithstanding the above, the social experience to complete the project in the use of the 470-790 MHz and concluded that without detailed and economic impact on the broadcast- the necessary time-scales. We were frequency band across the multilateral negotiations between ing industry was also considered. The very confident that LS telcom together European Union. neighbouring EU countries, there was implementation of a policy, which pro- with VVA would deliver the quality and virtually no likelihood that existing ser- vides security of tenure for broadcast- quantity of data we needed to inform vices could be accommodated in the ing services in the UHF band, has our decisions for new regulations on remaining UHF spectrum. Instead, the definite benefits for the industry and the use of the 470-790 MHz frequency LS telcom and VVA study team pro- would continue to encourage innova- band in the EU.”  posed a move of all EU countries to the tion. use of the DVB-T2 standard using ei- The option that spectrum could be The report by LS telcom and VVA: ther MPEG-4 or HEVC video encoding used in a flexible way, either for broad- http://ec.europa.eu/newsroom/dae/ and calculated the associated costs. casting or wireless broadband services, document.cfm?doc_id=14175 From a consumer perspective, the if carefully defined (e.g. through a CEPT

Winner of benchmark of broadcast network planning software: CHIRplus_BC by LS telcom Telenor Broadcast Norkring AS, After the benchmark Norkring extends tract signed by Norkring extends over Norway, a long-standing custo- its trust to the winner of the benchmark, several years and includes the software, mer of LS telcom using CHIR- LS telcom, and continues to use CHIR- a licence server, upgraded propagation plus_BC for many years, has plus_BC for the planning of its nation- models as well as on-site support and carried out an extensive techni- wide DTT, DAB and FM services in commissioning. Norkring is the leading cal and commercial benchmark Norway as well as various other coun- provider of terrestrial broadcasting ser- of standard broadcast network tries Norkring is operating in. Telenor vices in Norway and operates one of the planning software. Norkring engineers join training cour- largest networks in Europe. The com- ses on broadcast network technology pany is the owner of 48 main transmitter and software at the LS Training Aca- sites and approximately 1750 smaller demy on a regular basis. The new con- sites spread throughout Norway. 

Edition 01 l 2016 I Special Edition Broadcast 02 BNetzA shows keen interest in mea- SRG SSR extends trust in airborne surements via remotely piloted air- measurements via RPA craft during workshop SRG SSR, the Swiss Broadcasting Cor- environment and the operated service. poration, has placed a third order Above all, the results help SRG SSR to LS telcom’s subsidiary Colibrex The workshop attracted participants within three years with LS telcom’s guarantee the quality and license con- gave a workshop to about 25 from BNetzA’s regional offices from all Colibrex for various antenna radiation ditions of their broadcast operations in broadcast experts from the over Germany and was held in BNetzA’s pattern measurements via remotely close cooperation with their infrastruc- German regulatory authority offices in Göttingen. piloted aircraft (RPA). ture providers.”  BNetzA. The event started with a demonstration The site measurements were carried out of live measurements via remotely in various regions of Switzerland and piloted aircraft, which were carried out included two impressive mountainous at the broadcast tower of Norddeutscher sites, the Säntis site at 2500 m of alti- Rundfunk in Göttingen-Hetjershausen. tude on the edge of a mountain and Afterwards, the measurement methods Grindelwald/Männlichen at 3000 m of and results were presented and altitude. explained, as well as advantages of this Luc Haeberlé, Managing Director of method compared to traditional mea- Colibrex, said “SRG SSR recognises surements. Helpful hints and a question the value of our solution. Compared to and answer session were also part of the measurements via conventional heli-

agenda in addition to a discussion about copter, the RPA solution represents Picture: The remotely piloted aircraft other areas of applications, which may various advantages, such as flexible be of interest to a regulatory body such deployment, higher accuracy, lower as BNetzA.  costs and less disturbance to the

Are you sure, your antennas are installed correctly?

LS telcom has a longstanding planned network. So far, it has been There are a number of typical installa- case the distribution of the power experience in antenna radiation very difficult to actually verify the real tion errors that LS telcom has encoun- between the different elements of the pattern measurements via antenna pattern. The cost for measure- tered during the RPA measurement antenna creates phase errors. remotely piloted aircraft. ments via a manned helicopter is often campaigns: • Severe unwanted mechanical tilt LS telcom has measured over prohibitive and ground measurements • Mechanical offset brackets omitted problem — confirmed at various azi- 500 antennas in Europe, Africa, are not ideal due to ground reflection (mechanical phasing error) — poor ver- muth points due to installation error (a and South America and has and their disturbance to service. tical power distribution/low max ERP fairly common problem). built up a comprehensive data- The LS telcom measurement service (phasing of signal from transmitter to • Orientation fault due to installation base of typical antenna installa- via remotely piloted aircraft system is the panels composing an antenna is error (common problem). tion errors. a revolutionary, quick, and cost effec- very important and depends on the • Dual feeder cable phasing error: due Operators often do not realise tive way to achieve the target coverage length of the way travelled by the sig- to a mistake of antenna manufacturer that their network coverage and optimise the network without any nal. A modification of this distance or installation. does not correspond to the intrusion to service. creates disturbance in the resulting • Swopped cables on faces (note null in antenna diagram.) main beam): the antenna is composed • Phasing problem – poor vertical of several elements in different azi- power distribution. The consequences muths. It is easy to make a mistake are similar to the previous problem but with the cabling of these different ele- arise from a different source. In this ments. 

Theoretical Pattern Measured Pattern Picture: mechanical offset brackets omitted (mechanical phasing error) — poor vertical power distribution/low max ERP Picture: Orientation fault Picture: Example of a well performing antenna Edition 01l 2016 I Special Edition Broadcast 03 Turnkey medium wave broadcast site build for LM Radio

LS of South Africa Radio Com- LM Radio broadcasts in Mozambique A suitable copper earthing- and lightning munication Services was and Lesotho, and now has been protection system will also be installed. appointed by LM Radio to design, granted a licence for Gauteng, South The 126 m grounded monopole antenna supply, install and commission Africa. system forms an integral part of the a 50 kW AM/DRM-compatible The Welgedacht site is located on the “skirt-fed” antenna which addresses medium wave broadcast transmis- outskirts of Johannesburg. The site the necessary bandwidth and matching sion facility. has been in disuse for several years requirements for the two 50 kW and a component of the project is to solid-state transmitters. dismantle an existing 90 m freestand- Other activities include all civil works as ing tower, originally installed in 1936. well as the supply, installation and com- LS will supply and install a Nautel missioning of the feeder cable infra- NX50 transmitter, redundant air-con- structure, program input equipment ditioning systems, along with a 160 (PIE) system, site telemetry system, and kVA standby diesel generating set to the antenna diplexing hardware for two provide standby power into the exist- 50 kW AM/DRM-compatible services. ing buildings, which are to be renovated. LM Radio is scheduled to go ‘on-air’ For the antenna ground plane, LS with analogue AM programming on

elected to use buried PVC-coated gal- 702 kHz in November 2016. An addi- Picture: The existing mast, which is going to be vanised wire as opposed to copper tional service broadcasting at 540 kHz decommissioned Picture: Coverage Prediction of the new LM Radio site at Welgedacht wire to mitigate the risk of theft. The will be added at a later stage.  antenna will have 120 radials, each For further information check out this link: 126 m in length. https://youtu.be/ga0-XqK_bNo

Are you sure, your antennas are installed correctly? CHIRplus_BC now supports standard The broadcast network planning ATSC provides comprehensive capa- tion to the next generation TV digital The ATSC standard is used in the USA, tool CHIRplus_BC now includes bilities for planning OFDM based broadcast technology, the deployment Canada, Dominican Republic, El Salva- the Advanced Television Sys- broadcast networks including cover- of ATSC 3.0 delivers broadband dor, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, tems Committee (ATSC) 3.0 age propagation analysis, interference throughput enabling the delivery of and South Korea.  standard. mitigation, best server determination, custom content, improved streaming and Single Frequency Network (SFN) capabilities and support for a wide planning. A critical step in the evolu- array of on-demand options.

Record participation at the 21st Annual Spectrum Summit and CHIRplus_BC USER- group in Lichtenau/Baden, Germany A record of 200 participants The annual USERgroup which pre- and DTTV as well as aeronautical and project-oriented approach, an inter- from 34 countries attended the cedes the Spectrum Summit every field strength calculations. The new face to OpenStreetMap, it supports 21st Annual Spectrum Summit year unites the organizations that use release version includes amongst new ITU/EBU DVB-T2 planning param- organized by LS telcom together LS telcom’s applications and services. many other new functionality, a more eters and ATSC.  with PolicyTracker. The group allows users to express their priorities and requirements for new software capabilities and devel- opments for the future. This year 33 users from 19 organisations and coun- tries attended the CHIRplus_BC USERgroup to exchange their views on the software and to share best prac- tices with other users. On the agenda of the CHIRplus_BC USERgroup were new functionalities of the latest release, automatic channel assign- ment, interference calculation of LTE Picture: CHIRplus_BC / Interface to OpenStreetMap Edition 01 l 2016 I Special Edition Broadcast 04 CHIRplus_BC training in Canada Visit us at SPOT ON LS telcom provided basic training on our Booth... their software CHIRplus_BC to the More CHIRplus_BC Canadian Radio-television and Tele- SET Expo, São Paulo/ communications Commission (CRTC). for EmiTel Poland Brazil The CRTC is now able to understand EmiTel Poland has signed a new main- 30th Aug - 1st September 2016 the advance simulation techniques tenance contract with LS telcom for that CHIRplus_BC provides for the their CHIRplus_BC assets. EmiTel’s IBC, Amsterdam/ Canadian broadcasting and telecom- broadcast team is also up-to-date Netherlands munications studies. with latest broadcast issues and 9th - 13th September 2016 The training was held in March 2016 Picture: The participant included (from left to right): broadcast software applications, at the CRTC’s premises in Gatineau, François Gauthier (LS telcom), Jennifer thanks to a customized training given Wharram (Manager, CRTC), Gabrielle Larouche ITU Telecom World, Quebec nearby Ottawa.  (CRTC) and Yannick Lacharité (CRTC). recently by LS telcom experts. The Bangkok/Thailand acquisition of further CHIRplus_BC 14 th - 17th November 2016 licences is also on the agenda. 

ABU Digital Broad- Provision of equipment shelters and DVB-T2 Broadcast casting Symposium, Kuala Lumpur/Malaysia equipment installations in Lesotho and Swaziland 6th - 9th March 2017 LS of South Africa Radio Communi- ditions on site where wind speeds of Installations were done in extremely cation Services was commissioned up to 160 km/h occur from time to harsh weather conditions, with tem- by Rohde & Schwarz South Africa to time and where heavy snow is gen- peratures dropping as low as -7 assist in the national DVB-T2 net- eral. In addition, LS designed and degrees Celsius and with deep snow work rollouts in Lesotho and Swaziland provided a heavy duty palisade fenc - on site. Certain sites required a 2.5 Save the date for the for the Lesotho National Broadcasting ing solution that can withstand the hour climb every day. High wind and Services, and Swaziland Television harsh conditions and be deployed on driving snow on narrow mountain Authority, respectively. uneven and rocky terrain. tracks also had to be contended with Where most of the sites were com- The rollout in Swaziland consisted of during these installations.  Lichtenau, Germany pletely inaccessible by road LS was the deployment of 13 sites, which 5th July 2017 faced with the challenge of designing included the supply and assembly of a secure, robust flat pack equipment shelters and installation of palisade shelter which could be transported fencing. The rollout in Lesotho, simi - to sites on remote mountain tops by lar to the Swaziland project, con- hand or mule. The shelters, designed sisted of 19 sites and additionally for two complete transmission sys- included the installation of all tems and system expansion, are mechanical-, electrical- and RF then assembled on site. They are equipment on ground level as well as also specifically designed to with- the commissioning of all broadcast stand the harsh environmental con- transmission systems. Picture: Equipment Shelter LS telcom AG Amtsgericht Mannheim, LS telcom at Broadcast Asia 2016 HRB 211164 LS telcom was present with an exhi- lenges in radio broadcasting after Board: Dr. Manfred Lebherz, bition stand at Broadcast Asia in the WRC-15.  Dr. Georg Schöne, Singapore from 31st May until 3rd of Dipl.-Ing. Roland Götz June 2016. In his presentation during VAT ID Number: DE211251018 the conference, Milos Pavlovic shared his experience about chal- Picture: Milos Pavlovic

Subsidiaries For further information, please visit our LS telcom Limited LS telcom SAS website www.LStelcom.com or contact us: 1145 Hunt Club Road, Suite 100 4 av Morane-Saulnier Ottawa, ON, K1V 0Y3 78140 Vélizy Canada France LS telcom AG Im Gewerbegebiet 31- 33 LS telcom UK Limited Colibrex GmbH 77839 Lichtenau Riverside House – Mezzanine Floor, Victoria Boulevard B109 2a Southwark Bridge Road 77836 Rheinmünster Germany London SE1 9HA, United Kingdom Germany

+49 7227 9535 600 LS telcom Inc. RadioSoft Inc. +49 7227 9535 605 5021 Howerton Way, Suite E 194 Professional Park Bowie, Maryland 20715 Clarkesville, Georgia 30523 [email protected] USA USA www.LStelcom.com LS of South Africa Radio LST Middle East FZ-LLC Communications (Pty) Ltd. Office 101, Building EIB 01 131 Gelding Ave, Ruimsig, Dubai Internet City, Dubai © 2016 for all photos and texts: LS telcom Group, istockphoto Roodepoort, 1724 Johannesburg United Arab Emirates Editor: Christiane Labitzke Layout: Wolfgang Braun South Africa