It’s 2012 and Momentum Is Already Building
Posted by Jim Hurwitz
We‘re starting the New Year off on the right foot, with a new order from a major O&O station in Los Angeles for our Copperhead 3050 camera-mounted transceivers and other orders soon to be closed.
This latest major market station, which won't let me use their call letters, had purchased ten units last year and has been so impressed that they've come back for at least three more. Now most of their 25 live trucks—they have one of the largest fleets in the country—are outfitted with CopperHeads and enjoying all of the benefits of fiber-optic newsgathering (signals travel farther, equipment setup and tear down is much easier than with coax, its more reliable, robust and stronger than coax, and much lighter weight than copper cable reels).
The photogs at the station love the Copperheads and said they are changing the way they approach newsgathering. Now they can get closer to the story, which could translate into better ratings (at least that’s the theory), and they can easily plug into existing fiber infrastructure at local city government buildings and be ready for the next “big story” to take place inside the courtroom.
This is in light of the emergence of bonded cellular transmission for ENG. Our loyal customer said they have used cellular paths, but can't guarantee its reliability. The Copperhead 3050 in tandem with a small microwave truck, on the other hand, has provided them with an uninterrupted, pristine HD picture every time out.
The 3050 has all of the features news crews need. They get 3050 they get uncompressed and rock-solid HD video and broadcast quality (stereo) audio from the camera to the truck, and then IFB, return video and Ethernet connectivity back, all on a one, military-spec, single-mode fiber cable.
We're also receiving recurring orders for the Copperhead 3050 from a major Spanish-language network, which is on a mission to increase local HD news coverage in all of the markets they serve (including Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles and Miami). And we’re happy to support them.
Other broadcast news operations are also increasingly using our CopperHead Visa, which gives them a seamless fiber-optic link between the camera and any third-party transmit/receive and audio embedder/de-embedder systems, such as the Evertz Video PassPort™.
We’re proud to see that stations across the country have all embraced the Copperhead 3050 because it performs well under all conditions and fits nicely into their operating expense (OpEx) budget. That’s a key point to remember. The CopperHead 3050 is tailored to ENG and fits in nicely under the $10,000 price range that most OpEx budgets can easily absorb. And it works on all types of ENG cameras, so your investment is secure through several revolutions of cameras, which we all know regularly pass through the station’s maintenance department and succumb to wear and tear.
Give us a call and let us show you how the CopperHead can literally change your approach to newsgathering and all types of production applications.
So, Happy New Year from all of us at Telecast Fiber Systems. With a variety of hot products and some very interesting new ones coming down the road, we’re looking forward to 2012 being a good one.