HITRON Upgrades to 100 Channel Digital System

HITRON Ltd. of Port Moresby, the capital of Papua New Guinea, upgraded its 31-channel analog system to a digital system with 100 channel capability.

The switch from analog to digital followed installation of an integrated digital headend and broadband, dual-redundant MMDS transmitters. The independent country of Papua New Guinea lies on the mineral rich island of New Guinea. The signal from the headend at Port Moresby feeds part of the city. On-frequency repeaters carry the signal to several remote areas.

Careful planning and execution of the switchover minimized disruption to any of the more than 10,000 system subscribers. The digital performance of the system, including the repeaters, was tested by transmitting a single 6 MHz digital carrier with the analog signals.

The headend and the CAS were installed and commissioned prior to selecting a switchover date. Several thousand digital Set Top Boxes were distributed to customers. System Manager Anne AMES set up four outdoor PC stations, an outdoor conainer store and an overhead tarp. Twelve assistants answered queries and assisted customers with channel package selection. Demand for the improved service caused customers to wait in line as long as 2 hours but the average wait was only 30 minutes. The digital take-up rate has been huge. According to HITRON’s Chief Operating Officer, Lindsay Jorgensen, “Cable AML’s system was crucial to the successful deployment of a state-of-the-art digital system that will enable our company to be at the forefront of high quality video service providers in Papua New Guinea for years to come.”

Turks and Caicos choose Cable AML Digital Video Backbone

Residents on the islands of Grand Turk, Salt Cay, Providenciales , North Caicos, Middle Caicos, South Caicos and East Caicos experienced an immediate and dramatic improvement in the quality of communications from government facilities after installation of a digital microwave backbone designed and manufactured by Cable AML. The system architecture consists of a number of links in series as opposed to a “star” or Point-To-Multi Point approach in which all delivery originates from a single, common point. The three principal links in series are between 40km and 50km each, with a total route distance in excess of 130km, mostly over water. The combination of 5 links in series and spectrum constraints made it necessary to use digital MPEG2 encoding of the video channels and QAM modulation of the ASI carriers.

Fourteen receiving points downconvert the backbone signal to the conventional 54 to 870 MHz spectrum and feed rack-mounted Demodulators. The Demodulators feed signal to existing CATV systems that had never previously been interconnected.

A Cable AML MMDS transmitter in Salt Cay delivers analog signals from Grand Turk directly to subscribers.

The system will expand to three videos with their stereo audios in the next phase. The backbone can accommodate more than 200 video programs.