By Brian Galante
RAYMOND, ME. — Dielectric is cheering the recent launch of two OptiLoad designs that it says “extend the green, cost-reducing benefits” of the load solution to more RF facilities.
OptiLoad broke ground at the 2024 NAB Show with new design innovations to better detect and prevent transmission system failures in liquid-cooled UHF & VHF TV systems. “Those innovations deliver a convergence of passive RF equipment, electronics and sensing that Dielectric as now adapted for radio and less rigorous UHF environments,” Dielectric said.
At the 2025 NAB Show, Dielectric introduced OptiLoad FM, a version for radio systems that retains the original version’s footprint and architecture. “This represents another Dielectric engineering breakthrough considering the sizable wavelength differences between FM radio and UHF TV, which would typically require two very differently sized solutions,” the Sinclair Inc. subsidiary said.
OptiLoad FM’s primary use cases will include high-power FM sites with multiple stations feeding into one master antenna system, where it’s common for the combiner’s output to absorb power moving into a load.
Dielectric also introduced OptiLoad Light, a lower-cost solution for UHF systems with fewer failure points in the monitoring infrastructure, at the NAB Show.
“OptiLoad Light delivers the same performance of the original version with streamlined internal componentry, allowing stations with lighter monitoring needs to enjoy the same sophistication at a more efficient price point,” Dielectric said.
Company President Keith Pelletier commented, “All OptiLoad systems begin with a water column load that Dielectric has offered for over two decades. The water column is OptiLoad’s core building block, to which we have added a heat exchanger. Both are essential to a closed-loop cooling system that prevents the exposure of liquid coolant, which can lead to expensive system contaminations, equipment damage, and site restorations.”
OptiLoad’s intelligence is enabled through programmable logic controls (PLCs) that sense rising RF power and temperature levels, awakening the system to act across several operating modes. OptiLoad systems will transition to standby mode without RF power present when coolant temperatures are less than 130 degrees. When temperatures land between 130 and 150 degrees, OptiLoad initiates flow from the high-efficiency circulator pump when temperatures land between 130 and 150 degrees. Fans are activated when the temperature surpass 150 degrees.
Pelletier commented that Dielectric’s engineering team was presented with a new challenge to develop a cost-efficient FM design that was dependent on maintaining the original version’s compact footprint. “FM frequencies have much longer wavelengths than UHF frequencies, roughly on a multiple of five times,” he said. “That makes the load construction for an FM system at least five times longer without some intensive design changes. Without design changes the size of the unit would be significantly larger, along with its price point. In the end, our engineering team designed OptiLoad FM to fit within the same frame and with the same density of sensors and PLCs.”
Pelletier noted that OptiLoad Light’s streamlined infrastructure reduces the number of sensors and PLCs while retaining the original version’s core on-demand functionality. “OptiLoad Light will remain dormant until called into action to address a power imbalance or failure,” he said. “It will still activate as required to protect your station’s RF investment.”
All three systems now include feature SNMP functionality that was previewed last year at NAB. The SNMP functionality will allow the transmitter to do a “daily handshake.” If that handshake does not occur the station will be notified to prevent failures and take necessary action.
