NEW YORK — A new multi-purpose, hardware agnostic, specialized testing lab is coming to USSI Global’s Brevard County, Fla., domestic production facility — one that will demonstrate and verify media transport options, USSI Global announced as the 2025 NAB Show New York began at the Javits Center.
USSI Global will configure service testing at the Melbourne, Fla., plant in accordance with requirements from partners and customers affected by the potential second C-band spectrum clearing and relocation from the FCC.
This will be a big part of its discussions on Wednesday and Thur sday at NAB New York.
Opening this fall, the Media Transport Solutions Lab will serve as the core of the company’s turnkey managed service, providing its partners with a “sandbox” in which to test various configurations to meet their overall transport objectives.
The first initiative, completed in 2023, cleared the lower 300MHz of the C-band’s 500MHz spectrum for mobile and emergency services, and relocated existing tenants to the remaining upper 200MHz. The proposed second clearing would clear, at minimum, 100MHz of the remaining spectrum and force remaining tenants to decide — continue operating and potentially relocate within the remaining C-Band spectrum, move to Ku spectrum, or shift to an alternative method for program contribution and distribution.
USSI Global VP Technology and Engineering Ted Korte says that hundreds of existing C-band channels could be affected, and that the scenario is far more complex than the first initiative. “The first C-band project was complex and required very careful planning and engineering services, but it was essentially the installation of new equipment and infrastructure upgrades to accommodate frequency relocations,” he said. “This second initiative looks very challenging to keep everyone in C-band resulting in the need to test various configurations.”
USSI Global President/CEO Anthony Morelli adds that the Melbourne, Fla. lab offers services including outreach verification, site surveys, hardware procurement, equipment warehousing and vendor ecosystem coordination. “Inside the lab, USSI Global engineers will stage, configure and test solutions across different deployment options to confirm the best choice, and apply the appropriate software and firmware to support the service,” said Morelli. “And our customers can leverage the secure and professional infrastructure of our engineering lab, rather than endure the costs and labor required to stage their own processes.”
NAB New York takes place Wednesday, October 22 to Thursday, October 23 at the Jacob Javits Center in the City of New York. To schedule an appointment with USSI Global on the exhibit floor, please email [email protected].
