Recent Work

Feature-rich and future-friendly SK-HD1800 studio and field production camera will make A/V market debut alongside upgraded DK-H200 compact box camera

Woodbury, NY, June 3, 2019 — Hitachi Kokusai Electric America, Ltd. (Hitachi Kokusai) is bringing its newest professional camera solutions to next week’s InfoComm 2019 conference and exhibition in Orlando, Florida. Demonstrations in booth 4875 will include the A/V industry trade show debut of the award-winning new SK-HD1800 HDTV studio and field production camera, and the latest enhancements to the DK-H200 multi-format, compact box camera for remote and point-of-view (POV) applications.

The SK-HD1800 combines Hitachi Kokusai’s advanced CMOS imaging technology with a motorized, remote filter wheel to deliver spectacular image quality for mobile and event-based productions even in environments with challenging LED lighting and displays. The camera’s global shutter, progressive-scan sensors enable flawless, flicker-free, high-performance video capture in churches, sporting arenas, concert venues, TV studios and other facilities where LED lights or large LED displays are used. The advanced 1080p sensors combine with Hitachi Kokusai’s renowned digital signal processing to deliver pristine visual quality with superior sensitivity, outstanding color reproduction and a remarkable 62dB signal-to-noise ratio.

Pairing the SK-HD1800 with a camera control unit (CCU) from Hitachi Kokusai’s CU-HD1300 series forms an exceptionally flexible camera system supporting a wide range of video infrastructures and industry trends, from 4K output over 12G-SDI to IP-based workflows using the SMPTE ST 2110 suite of standards. Addressing the growing demand for High Dynamic Range (HDR) video, the SK-HD1800 supports HDR specifications including HLG (Hybrid Log-Gamma) and HPQ, the latter of which is compatible with the HDR10 open standard for consumer TVs. The SK-HD1800 camera system also offers simultaneous HDR and standard dynamic range (SDR) output in conjunction with the CU-HD1300.

HDR support is also the newest feature in Hitachi Kokusai’s recently-upgraded DK-H200 1080p compact box camera for remote observation and POV acquisition. The DK-H200’s 2.6 million pixel, 2/3-inch MOS sensors deliver sharp, clear images and combine with advanced digital signal processing to provide superior picture quality with low noise, faithful color fidelity and exceptional sensitivity. Like the SK-HD1800, with the latest firmware release, the DK-H200 now supports both HLG and HPQ specifications for HDR. Ideal for robotic camera applications, the DK-H200 will be demonstrated in conjunction with a pan/tilt head from KXWELL International.

“Our new SK-HD1800 camera and updated DK-H200 were both very well-received by broadcasters and content producers when we unveiled them at the NAB Show in April, and we look forward to showcasing their benefits for professional A/V applications to InfoComm attendees,” said Sean Moran, Chief Operating Officer, Hitachi Kokusai Electric America Ltd. “InfoComm continues to be the premier event for systems integrators and A/V end-users to discover the latest innovations and practical solutions in this rapidly-evolving industry. The SK-HD1800 and DK-H200 are designed to address the hottest topics on their minds, from AV over IP to HDR.”

About Hitachi Kokusai Electric Inc.

Hitachi Kokusai Electric Inc., headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, is a company that manufactures broadcasting systems, security and surveillance systems, wireless communications and information systems. Fiscal 2017(ended March 31, 2018) sales totaled 171,791 million Yen. For more information on Hitachi Kokusai Electric Inc., please visit the company’s website at http://www.hitachi-kokusai.co.jp/global/en/index.html.

Investment strengthens transmission portfolio in key market segments, increases innovation capabilities and expands GatesAir’s commitment in growing global markets

CINCINNATI, May 31, 2019 — GatesAir, a global leader in wireless, over-the-air content delivery solutions for TV and radio broadcasters, and a portfolio company of The Gores Group, today announced that it has acquired Onetastic S.r.l (ONEtastic), a leading provider of television and digital radio transmission systems.

Headquartered in Brescia, Italy, ONEtastic provides ingenious and easy to use television, digital radio, and RF systems to clients in the broadcast, telecom, scientific and government verticals. Founded in 2010, ONEtastic has built a reputation as an innovator of reliable, compact, energy efficient transmitters ideally suited for broadcasters, network operators and government applications. ONEtastic’s strength in high-efficiency, low-power TV and DAB radio transmitters complements GatesAir’s broad range of transmission solutions, and will help GatesAir better address the needs of large-scale over-the-air networks worldwide.

The acquisition also strengthens GatesAir’s growing presence and visibility in Europe. GatesAir has aggressively expanded its global sales and business development teams worldwide since late 2018, including several new leadership positions created to serve the European market.

“The acquisition of ONEtastic underscores our commitment to the broadcast market and accelerates the investments we are making in our transmission portfolio,” said Bruce D. Swail, CEO of GatesAir. “The unique, innovative and award-winning products and technologies from ONEtastic add new capabilities to our portfolio and complement our transmission and transport platforms. The addition of an experienced and highly talented research, development and services team from ONEtastic further expands our world-class engineering and support expertise to create new innovations for the broadcast segment and beyond. Their central European Union location strengthens ourInternational footprint and commitment to global growth.”

GatesAir will retain the entire ONEtastic staff and its Brescia facility, which will continue operations as GatesAir S.r.l. Longtime ONEtastic CEO Luca Saleri will remain in a leadership role as General Manager of GatesAir S.r.l.

ONEtastic founder Carlo Bombelli will also be a key contributor to the GatesAir team moving forward. A globally recognized technical leader, Bombelli launched ONEtastic following his years as founder of Screen Service Broadcasting Technologies, a former supplier ofmulti-standard digital broadcasting solutions in Italy. Bombelli has authored several patents through his innovations at ONEtastic, and is the primary force behind the company’s ingenious transmitter designs.

“We have worked closely with GatesAir and their talented sales and engineering teams over the years,” said Bombelli. “Our combined strengths will allow the broader company to provide our customers with the industry’s most reliable, state-of-the-art transmission solutions that is backed by a global service network. We’re very excited about the possibilities that lie ahead.”

“GatesAir is strategically positioned to transform the media and entertainment industry through innovations in wireless content delivery and IP networking,” said Saleri. “We are thrilled to join the GatesAir team in empowering customers to wirelessly deliver content and maximize their spectrum with low total cost of ownership. GatesAir values our established global customer relationships, innovative growth platforms, broad product portfolio, and experienced team. They are committed to supporting our growth and innovation, and we look forward to our future together.”

About GatesAir

GatesAir, Inc., a portfolio company of The Gores Group, provides complete solutions for over-the-air radio and television broadcasting, leveraging wireless spectrum to maximize performance for multichannel, mission-critical services. Powering over-the-air networks worldwide with unparalleled reliability for nearly 100 years, GatesAir’s turnkey solutions enable broadcasters to create, transport and transmit radio and TV content.  With customers in more than 185 countries, the company leads the industry in innovation and design breakthroughs, improving efficiency and reducing total cost of ownership with all products designed and assembled in the USA and Europe. Visit www.gatesair.com for more information, Like us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/gatesair, and follow us on Twitter at @GatesAir.

About The Gores Group

The Gores Group, founded in 1987 by Alec Gores, is a global investment firm focused on partnering with differentiated businesses that can benefit from its extensive industry knowledge, decades long experience and flexible capital base. Over its 30 year history, the firm has developed a deep understanding of and appreciation for building businesses and creating value alongside management. For more information, please visit www.gores.com.

Expanded platform enables in-venue, unicast, low-latency audio streaming over local Wi-Fi to more than 2000 concurrent listeners on their own BYOD devices

ZURICH, SWITZERLAND, May 30, 2019 — Streaming to on-site mobile listeners with the lowest possible latency, Barix’s AudioPoint 3.0 audio-to-mobile platform has been deployed in venues around the globe to enhance digital signage and live presentation applications with high-quality, IP-delivered audio. At InfoComm 2019, the company will amplify these benefits with the launch of the companion AudioPoint Pro server, which extends the reach of AudioPoint 3.0 by enabling simultaneous delivery to more than 2000 listeners on their own personal devices. Barix will demonstrate the new capabilities in booth 5457 at the event.

Combining robust encoding hardware with free iOS and Android apps, AudioPoint 3.0 streams audio to smartphones over local Wi-Fi in near-perfect lip synchronization with associated displays and live presentations. The AudioPoint system establishes a unicast connection to each listener to ensure reliable, quality audio experiences over Wi-Finetworks. Meanwhile, its ultra-low latency makes it ideal for live translation and presentation support in corporate, worship and educational settings; as a personal audio delivery system for volume-sensitive environments including libraries and museums; or to enable subscribers to hear audio clearly in noisy locations such as sporting arenas and bars.

While the AudioPoint 3.0 encoder hardware directly supports up to 250 simultaneous listeners depending on software options, the AudioPoint Pro server takes the output from the AudioPoint 3.0 encoder and can distribute it to over 2000 concurrent subscribers. While standard Wi-Fi access points max out at 255 users, professionally-designed mesh Wi-Fi networks with QOS (Quality of Service) management and sufficient capacity can support thousands of subscribers. The Linux-based AudioPoint Pro server connects over Gigabit Ethernet to the mesh Wi-Fi network infrastructure, which in turn delivers the streams to on-site listeners.

“The new AudioPoint Pro server enables AudioPoint 3.0 to do what we believe no other solution can do: deliver high-quality audio to more than 2000 subscribers via unicast for the best Wi-Fi based experience,” said Reto Brader, CEO, Barix. “This extended reach brings the benefits of AudioPoint 3.0 to large events such as sporting matches and festivalswhile maintaining the exceptionally low latency and ease of use that the solution is known for. We are offering evaluation units to potential customers and network infrastructure partners so they can experience it in their own environments, and we invite them to meet with us at InfoComm to learn more about AudioPoint Pro’s benefits.”

The AudioPoint Pro server extends AudioPoint 3.0’s subscriber management capacity while retaining its simplicity for both operators and listeners. Visitors simply connect their mobile devices to the Wi-Fi network used by the AudioPoint system, and the Barix Audio Signage app – available in app stores or via a QR Code displayed on-site – immediately enables the live stream. Listeners can select between available audio channels in the app, letting them choose between multiple languages or alternative audio feeds if offered by the venue.

AudioPoint Pro will be available as a turnkey server or as software for the customer to install on their own host computing hardware. Evaluation units are available immediately, with general availability slated for Q3.

InfoComm 2019 will take place June 12-14 in Orlando, Florida.

Barix: We Move Audio (www.barix.com)

Barix supplies simple and reliable solutions and components to systems integrators and end users worldwide.  We move high-quality audio across IP networks, adding value to customer solutions for more than a decade with hundreds of thousands of devices installed worldwide.  Background music distribution with dynamic advertising insertion for retail shops, bars and hotels; public address solutions for schools and public spaces; and intercom and entry systems for facility surveillance, protection and security are among the many applications of Barix solutions.  Barix also supports OEM projects for a number of Global 500 listed companies serving many industries worldwide.

Stacked UHF and VHF antenna arrays deliver superior performance and optimize coverage for stations in Dallas and Boston

RAYMOND, Maine, May 29, 2019 — Dielectric, the leading manufacturer of broadcast antennas and RF systems for TV and radio, has shipped two stacked antenna arrays to American Tower for repack projects in the Dallas and Boston broadcast markets. The antennas incorporate Adaptive Polarization Technology (APT), allowing individual broadcasters to select their own polarization ratio independent of the other stations operating in the same array. The addition of the vertical component will be beneficial to improving reception for both ATSC 1.0 and future ATSC 3.0 over-the-air broadcasts.

The stacked antenna arrays are anchored by TUM-APT Series UHF panel antennas for American Tower’s master antenna TV station clients, with customized antennas for other TV stations on top of the stack. The Dallas repack project includes a dual-channel, center-fed, elliptically polarized TFU Series UHF array for KUVN-DT and KSTR-DT on top, whereas the Boston repack installation adds a circularly polarized TDM Series VHF array for WGBY-DT above the TUM-APT.

Dielectric’s antenna system design delivers two substantial benefits in both cases. The stacked arrays offer improvedazimuth pattern performance over the more traditional main and sidemount antenna system, which can disrupt the azimuth pattern and cause signal reception issues due to the tower structure. By stacking the antennas, both systems transmit into free space as true top-mounted arrays, allowing for a stronger, interference-free pattern with no tower scattering effects. The TUM-APT is designed to incorporate the transmission line for the top mount inside the mast. This line is traditionally outside the mast, causing the azimuth pattern to become distorted.

Dielectric’s flexible TUM-APT panel antenna designs also allowed station engineers to optimize the polarization ratiopost-installation. Changes are made in the combiner room, with no antenna modification required to incorporate a change in the polarization ratio. As an example, some stations decided to go into the array with horizontal polarization only based on the current customer base, but want the option to use elliptical or circular or polarizationin the future. That becomes important as the broadcast landscape changes, and viewership with mobile devicesincreases.

Both American Tower master antennas have bandwidth and extremely high power handling capacity to accommodate additional stations and their unique polarization needs in the future.

“Most antennas of this nature require that the polarization ratio is defined and locked in upfront,” said Jay Martin, Dielectric’s Vice President of Sales. “The TUM-APT panel antenna offers our customers an enormous advantage by allowing for polarization ratio changes inside the transmitter room. And while these arrays are optimized for ATSC 3.0 broadcasting in the future, they will provide increased power density to improve indoor reception for today’s ATSC 1.0 broadcasts.”

Dielectric’s engineering expertise also ensured that the TUM-APT structure can support the heavier weights of stacking an additional array on top, thanks to specially designed splines that can support both arrays from a single installation point. Martin adds that both antenna systems were designed for helicopter lifts to expedite the installation process.

The antennas are scheduled to go on the air this summer following the installation of transmission line and RF systems.

About Dielectric

Based in Raymond, Maine, Dielectric LLC is a wholly owned subsidiary of Sinclair Broadcast Group. Dielectric is a leading provider of innovative broadcast products. Now celebrating its 77th year of operation, the company builds and delivers antennas and RF systems optimized for every TV and FM radio broadcast need since 1942. Dielectric is an innovative, customer-centric organization with a long history of engineering excellence in designing and manufacturing high-quality broadcast solutions. As a trust partner of broadcasters worldwide, Dielectric maintains its legacy of advanced, precision RF solutions while building in features that prepare broadcasters for the future. More information can be accessed at www.dielectric.com

ATLANTA, GA – May 28, 2019 – Visix, Inc. will premiere their new voice-activated wayfinding in booth 2321 at InfoComm 2019. The new offering expands the company’s award-winning digital signage design services to include voice-user interface (VUI) options.

“This is the next step in audience interaction,” says Jill Perardi, creative services manager for Visix. “People have embraced VUI technologies like Alexa, Siri and Google Assistant, and are eager for more. The primary advantage of VUI for our clients is that it gives their audiences a hands-free way to interact with screens. That can lead to more interest and engagement – which is the entire point of digital signage communications.”

VUI will be showcased in the booth in a wayfinding project for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. A voice-user interface uses speech recognition to understand spoken commands and questions, and visibly return maps and directories upon request. The design also includes traditional touchscreen wayfinding options and ADA controls.

Visix is using VUI to further improve the user experience by offering multi-modal interactions with screens showing any type of content. User-led interactions can increase engagement and eliminate steps in searching information, making the process more convenient and efficient for users. VUI can also help meet ADA guidelines by providing interaction options for the visually impaired, and addresses the transmission of germs, which resonates with healthcare clients.

Visix has won over 90 awards for digital signage and wayfinding designs and offers a full range of consulting and creative services to help their clients communicate better.

InfoComm 2019 will be held June 8-14 at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida. Interested parties can learn more about Visix creative services by contacting sales@visix.com.

About InfoComm

InfoComm is the largest technology exhibition and conference in North America focused on the pro-AV industry. The Trade Show News Network (TSNN) ranked InfoComm the number 30 top U.S. trade show in 2017. The show was also honored in Trade Show Executive’s Global 100. InfoComm is part of a global alliance of trade shows, produced by AVIXA and its partners, including Integrated Systems Europe, Beijing InfoComm China, Chengdu InfoComm China, InfoComm India, InfoComm Southeast Asia, TecnoMultimidia InfoComm Brasil, TecnoMultimedia InfoComm Colombia, TecnoMultimedia InfoComm Mexico, Integrated Systems Russia, and Integrate. Learn more at www.infocommshow.org.

About Visix

Visix, Inc. offers a robust suite of digital signage software, content designs and meeting room signs for any organization wanting to engage, excite, and inform their audiences. Our products work separately or together, are competitively priced and scalable, and have powerful interactivity and data integration features for a unified, enterprise signage solution. Our award-winning service and support teams consistently rank the highest in customer satisfaction for fast, professional responses and solutions. Learn more about Visix digital signage products and services at www.visix.com.