Issue link: http://osercommunicationsgroup.uberflip.com/i/810270
Broadcasters Show Daily 4 1 Tuesday, April 25, 2017 to life. Avateq was started seven years ago by a group of engineers with strong experience in hardware and software development for the broadcast industry and with a desire to solve complex engi- neering tasks. This desire led to the development of a very effective echo cancellation engine and a high perform- ance linear and non-linear digital adap- tive predistorter. Those engines have been successfully tested and integrated into third-party equipment. Going into manufacturing was our response to the clients' needs. From the very beginning, we participated in indus- try events such as NAB, talking to broad- cast engineers, discussing their problems. One of the issues that would come up over and over was lack of affordable but accurate embedded signal analyzers. Available solutions were either cheap probes that were not informative enough, or very detailed and very expensive real- time professional analyzers. BSD: You decided to fill that niche? AB: Exactly. Because of our develop- ment, analytical algorithms were parts of our IP cores. All we needed was to pack- age them in a way that the data could be easily read and understood. We knew that Avateq (Cont'd. from p. 1) the accuracy of the data would not be an issue – we tested our algorithms against some of the top-of-the-line signal analyz- ers. It was the user interface and accessi- bility that would make it a practical mon- itoring and analytical tool. BSD: Is this how ActiveCore RF Layer Monitoring Receiver came to life? AB: What you see today at our stand is a completely re-thought, re-designed, re-packaged device in comparison with the first version. Today, Avateq's receiver is a mature system with a greatly improved web interface that fea- tures a lot of familiar tools from high- end desktop signal analyzers, better security and reporting, more storage for data archiving, support for all major digital terrestrial and satellite broad- casting signals. The latest AVQ1022 platform has been successfully tested for monitoring ATSC3.0 standard. But, AVQ1020 and the new AVQ1022 still remain cost-effective 24/7 remote mon- itoring embedded platforms designed to work at a transmitter site guarding the quality of the signal for the best view- ing experience. For more information, go to www.avateq.com, email info@avateq.com or stop by booth #SU10713. company. The Snow Shield antenna cover uses architectural fabric that is vir- tually invisible to RF. Snow Shield cov- ers can be passive, or actively heated using electric or gas heaters. The Ice Quake system enhances the performance of the Snow Shield antenna cover by vibrating the fabric cover, preventing snow and ice accu- mulation that degrade signals. By elim- inating the need for high power con- duit, trenching and electrical switch gear, it also saves costs compared to conventional electrically heated anti- ice systems. "With this patented solu- tion, only Walton De-Ice offers the ability to add vibration to a satellite dish cover to prevent ice and snow buildup," said David Walton, Director of Product Development for Walton De-Ice, and inventor of the product. Walton's Hot-Air De-Ice system for large antennas heats the entire antenna reflector, sub-reflector and back struc- ture, which uniformly distributes the heat. Electric pad or heat tape anti-icing systems can cause reflector distortion and large signal degradation. A key advantage with the Walton system is that it minimizes the chances of reflector dis- tortion (which can cause signal prob- lems) caused by thermal expansion and W. B. Walton (Cont'd. from p. 4) contraction. Competing heat pad systems also require much more energy consump- tion, increasing operating overhead com- pared with Walton's heating solutions. Walton's newest CE-certified dual hot surface igniter gas heating units have proven to be extremely reliable. NBC Universal, Starz and many other leading programmers, MSOs and satellite facili- ties are among broadcast and cable oper- ators who have recently upgraded their Walton De-Ice systems by installing Walton's new dual surface igniter heaters to replace older pilot igniter models, according to Walton. At NAB, Walton De-Ice is unveiling its newest developments to improve moni- toring and control methods for actively controlling the antenna surface tempera- ture for uplink-oriented antennas. The newest Temperature Control and Monitoring (TCM) system makes de- icing operation more efficient than ever, saving management and labor overhead for stations. For more information, contact W. B. Walton Enterprises, Inc. at 4185 North Hallmark Parkway, San Bernardino, CA. 92407, call 951.683.0930, fax 951.684.5019, go to www.de-ice.com, email sales@de-ice.com or stop by booth #OE907. two 4K video streams to connected displays, which is not feasible by other common interfaces such as USB due to the limitations of their features and bandwidth. The Thunder3 Quad Mini is ideal for consumers and profession- als who desire high-speed external storage and/or video streams in one connection. The Thunder3 Quad Mini features two Thunderbolt 3 ports and a DisplayPort video output to connect to Akitio (Cont'd. from p. 4) the latest 4K 60Hz displays while also supporting Power Delivery (PD) up to 15W. The second Thunderbolt 3 port on the Thunder3 Quad Mini operates the same as a Thunderbolt 3 computer port by supporting Thunderbolt 3 (up to 5 daisy chained), as well as allowing users to connect USB Type-C devices (10Gb/s) such as external hard drives, and DisplayPort monitors. It all starts with Akitio! For more information, stop by booth #SL13417 or go to www.akitio.com. today's professional and broadcast appli- cations. At just three inches in length, this cost–effective solution is ideal for a wide variety of pro A/V and broadcast applica- tions, including video production and editing, ENG with additional uses for sports teleproduction, field production, remote camera links, cross oh-campus production, pre-fibered venues and cour- tesy feeds. The compact is designed for simple, single hop, 12G SDI fiber optic runs with a clean reclocked signal at the start. They now ship in a compact pelican style carrying case. The carrying case holds one transmitter, one receiver and two power supplies. TC TEK offers 12G, 6G, 3G and 1.5G SDI video SFP modules, that includes a dual and single 1310nm transmitter, dual receiver, transceiver for 4K video transmission, the option of 18 channels of CWDM and 40 channels of DWDM wavelengths are also available upon request. TE TEK TC TEK (Cont'd. from p. 1) also offers QSFP28100G, 40G and 10G SFP+ fiber optic transceiver products. TC TEK, Inc. designs, develops and manufactures a diverse portfolio of high- performance, cost-competitive fiber optic transceiver modules for 3G/12G SDI video signal transmission. It constantly looks ahead to anticipate tomorrow's design challenges, not only in terms of technology and products, but also in the need for world-class customer engineer- ing and design support. Quality is the foundation of TC TEK. Management and employees are dedicated to providing customers with outstanding, standards-compliant prod- ucts and services. As part of this commit- ment, TC TEK is ISO 9001:2008 certi- fied rigorous in-house procedures, which include extensive testing and verification of every single device. For more information, email sales@tctekinc.com or stop by booth #SL5129. USING GREAT CUSTOMER SERVICE AS A DIFFERENTIATOR By David Inns, Chief Executive Officer, GreatCall For almost 30 years, business leaders have treated customer service as a neces- sary evil. When analyzing P&L, it's clear that customer service is one of the largest cost centers, so it immediately gets tar- geted for cost reduction. The first few cuts may go unnoticed, but as manage- ment continues cutting costs, in most cases the well goes dry. Why isn't customer service meeting the expectations of the consumer? Maybe the department is outsourced overseas, causing training challenges or a feeling of disconnect. Maybe customer service phone numbers are difficult to locate and IVRs are used to keep people from reach- ing a human. Maybe representative train- ing time has been cut. Whatever the cuts are, one group of customers is not as happy and loyal as it could be – boomers and sen- iors – and that group controls 52 percent of U.S. consumer package goods spending. It may be hard for Millennials to understand this problem. Millennials grew up with companies like Google and Uber that don't have humans providing customer service because Millennials don't need the same help getting up and running with services or learning about new features as older adults do. Older consumers often need help getting famil- iar with new technology and need sup- port and encouragement to continue use. There aren't many companies out there trying to wow customers with serv- ice. Therefore, the door is open to use customer service as a competitive differ- entiator. Customer service is more than just a cost. Part of the problem is viewing customer service only as a cost, rather than an oppor- tunity to gain the trust and loyalty of cus- tomers. For companies serving the older adult or senior market, customer service is a key driver of lifetime value. It extends beyond improving customer satisfaction to simply building loyalty. By establishing strong, trusted customer relationships, companies earn the right to sell new prod- ucts and services to existing customers, increasing the revenue per customer. As companies develop a larger portfo- lio of products and solutions that need to be sold and serviced, the competency of the customer service team must also increase. Experts must be trained and able to make a complex array of solutions feel simple to the customer. A team that can evaluate cus- tomer needs and make sensible product recommendations that add value to cus- tomers' lives is necessary, as is a team that truly believes in the company mission and knows they are the company as far as cus- tomers are concerned. This type of team should be seen as an investment in cus- tomer care and wellbeing, rather than as an unnecessary expense. Welcome customer service back home. Whether the customer service depart- ment is across an ocean or in a separate part of the office, consider what could happen by bringing them back into the company. Not just insourcing, but truly integrating the team into company cul- ture. You may be surprised at the value that could be unleashed. For more information, go to www .greatcall.com.