HDTV Infrastructure

Prior to installing the coming DTV transmitters there had to be a manner in which to get the HD signal to the transmitter. Since we would ultimately have two high-power DTV transmitter sites and they are a considerable distance from the studios, the only practical solution would be to encode the HD signal at the primary studio and then transport the HD bitstream up to each respective transmitter site.

The solution was to incorporate Microwave Radio Corp. Twinstream radios from Ft. Smith to both the transmitter in Poteau, OK and the one in Fayetteville, AR. This was going to have the additional benefit of creating a fully redundant video and audio path between the main studio in Ft. Smith and the transmitter site in Fayetteville. Also, the built-in T-1 data bandwidth of the Twinstreams would be used later to network the transmitter sites so that computers at the transmitter sites and the transmitters themselves would become nodes on the network and allow for alternate methods of transmitter remote control and troubleshooting.