Harris Corporation’s Broadcast Communications Division today announced that Shanghai Media & Entertainment Group, one of the largest media conglomerates in China, is employing Harris Intraplex® multiplexers to distribute 16 unique radio programs from the Honggiao Radio Broadcast Building in Shanghai to transmitter sites at four different locations that reach the group’s entire coverage area. The multiplexers were installed in April.
“Since we’ve been using the Harris system, our audio transmission is now much more reliable, more secure and ready for any future expansion,” said Weilan Zhang, manager, Shanghai Media & Entertainment Group. “The Harris system has significantly improved both our coverage and responsiveness. We’re now sending a stronger signal to a larger portion of the nation, and the flexibility it provides means we can cater our programming directly to our regional audiences.”
By sending programming to multiple transmitter sites throughout the region, Shanghai Media & Entertainment Group can reach a much wider audience. Further, an emergency back-up link has been established and audio between different sites can be shared instantly. Previously, sharing programming between sites required either a LAN transfer of computer files or a courier transport of tapes from one facility to the other. An SDH (Synchronous Digital Hierarchy) link, providing synchronous data transmission over an optical network, was used for transmission prior to installation of the Intraplex equipment.
The Shanghai Media & Entertainment Group has 15 radio channels, producing news, traffic, music, cultural, regional, and financial programming.
“With the Intraplex® multiplexers and CrossConnect servers, Shanghai Media & Entertainment Group truly enhances its ability to manage critical E1 network traffic throughout its facilities,” said Bob Band, international channel sales manager for Harris Broadcast Communications’ Networking Solutions Group. “Thanks to the efficient nature of our system, they were able to deploy the multiple units they needed to meet their broadcasting requirements.”
The Intraplex® product line from Harris provides broadcasters with complete flexibility to combine, interconnect, and multicast traffic among up to six T1 or E1 lines. Intraplex® increases the efficiency of digital transmission networks by reducing recurring costs and protecting critical T1 and E1 network traffic. Its inherent flexibility means a network fabric may grow to include multiple, meshed T1 or E1 lines when communications requirements demand connectivity between multiple sites.
The Intraplex® series of Studio-to-Transmitter (STL) multiplexers are designed to transport multiple payloads of program audio, data and voice over switched public networks. These STLs provide broadcasters with numerous redundancy features for always-on performance, flexible configurations for user applications and local requirements and remote management. The multiplexers are available in terminal and drop insert modes for point-to-point and point-to-multipoint operation.