GatesAir announces TV transmitter deals in Vietnam

GatesAir Announces Digital TV and FM Radio Wins in Vietnam

CINCINNATI, OH — GatesAir, a global leader in wireless, over-the-air content delivery solutions for radio and TV broadcasters, announces three important wins in Vietnam that signifies the over-the-air TV and radio transformation taking shape across the Asia-Pacific region.

An aggressive early adopter of DVB-T2 digital television, national broadcaster Vietnam Television (VTV) recently placed two orders for transmitter network expansions. The first project comprises four GatesAir Maxiva™ UHF solid-state high-efficiency transmitters—three ULXT liquid-cooled models and one UAXT air-cooled model—for unspecified VTV channels. The second project is specific to VTV5, a specialty channel serving ethnic minority communities. That project comprises two Maxiva ULXT liquid-cooled transmitters.

On the radio side, like many global regions Vietnam is investing in existing FM infrastructure with improvement and expansion projects. Voice of Vietnam (VOV), the national radio broadcaster, recently ordered five Flexiva™ air-cooled solid-state transmitters—two 5kW and three 10kW models—for VOV4, which serves as the broadcaster’s Ethnic Languages Channel. All three projects also include turnkey equipment, installation and commissioning services to ensure a unified process from start to finish.

“As Vietnam moves toward its 2020 target to complete its national DVB-T2 network rollout, we are working closely with our regional channel partner, Broadcast Information Development Corporation – Joint Stock Company (EMICO., JSC), to accelerate transmission system expansion projects for VTV,” said Darren Frearson, vice president of sales, EMEA and APAC for GatesAir. “Additionally, our global expertise in managing AM, FM and digital radio network deployments worldwide ensures that VOV will receive turnkey systems that can be quickly delivered and deployed, with ongoing ease of operation and maintenance. Above all, our high-efficiency solutions will help ensure the ideal balance of low total cost of ownership and high performance over the lifecycle of the transmitters.”

EMICO., JSC has played a key role throughout the bidding process, working closely with GatesAir to relay the benefits of choosing GatesAir over competitive systems to VTV and VOV. Mr. Luong Ngoc Thanh, director of technical center for EMICO., JSC, believes that GatesAir offers the most diverse and high-performance range in the industry—a benefit he believes directly addresses both today’s and tomorrow’s opportunities for over-the-air broadcasting in Vietnam. Mr. Thanh also points out the significance of GatesAir service, which has been instrumental in training representatives from EMICO., JSC, VTV and VOV both in Vietnam and from GatesAir’s manufacturing center in Quincy, Illinois.

“The new Maxiva liquid-cooled transmitters are highly stable and, more importantly, will save VTV money,” said Mr. Thanh. “They use so much less power and are very easy to maintain. We see this as an important technological development from GatesAir in support of lower-cost operations. We see many opportunities with GatesAir moving forward, including multichannel DTV services across the remaining DVB-T2 rollout, and many new transmitter installations following the selection of a digital radio standard.”