Acrodyne Services is now supplying its PROGIRA plan broadcast network planning software, with ATSC 3.0 and 1.0 options, to Kessler and Gehman Associates (KGA) and Meintel, Sgrignoli and Wallace (MSW), two more companies in the U.S. using the product.
Representatives of both companies recently completed a four-day training session with PROGIRA executive Mats Ek and Acrodyne’s Bill Soreth in Baltimore. “As more and more Broadcasters make plans to launch ATSC 3.0, the need for an effective solution to predict true reception probabilities throughout a service area has become paramount,” said Andy Whiteside, General Manager of Acrodyne Services and President of Dielectric.
ATSC 3.0 has much more flexibility than ATSC 1.0 to select signal configurations to suit multiple end use cases with different reception robustness, he notes. The software, which includes CRC-Predict, and other propagation models, has proven to be more realistic in predicting field strength. It can also be used to evaluate reception probability for a variety of receive conditions, including fixed, mobile and indoor situations, from a conventional single stick broadcast facility or a Single Frequency Network (SFN).
“We are seeing much more interest in SFN applications using ATSC 3.0, which likely explains the increase in requests we have received about the software,” said Whiteside.
Dennis Wallace, Managing Partner of MSW, added, “Meintel, Sgrignoli, & Wallace is pleased to add PROGIRA® plan to our SFN design tool arsenal. Many broadcasters are exploring the addition of SFNs as part of their ATSC 3.0 planning. The PROGIRA plan software enables us to provide efficient and accurate propagation prediction modeling, including identifying and eliminating SFN self-interference, thus facilitating our design of SFN’s to meet clients’ coverage and service goals.”
Bill Godfrey, of Kessler and Gehman Associates (KGA), “It was difficult to pull away from the office for four days of training in another state with the repack at full throttle; but there is an extraordinary level of interest in ATSC 3.0 and SFNs, since this is the future of broadcast. The objective is always to provide ‘real-world’ engineering based on actual measurements rather than predictions, and that is why we made the commitment to purchase the PROGIRA plan software and attend the training. Since the training took place several weeks ago, we have already completed multiple rounds of studies for a five-station, ATSC 3.0 SFN in a major market and we have additional markets in the queue. The level of training provided by the Progira and Acrodyne staff allowed us to ramp-up quickly and our clients are extremely pleased since most of them are ready to get started immediately.”
