KA YOU COMMUNICATIONS INSTALLS INNOVATIVE SATELLITE SOLUTION FOR LIBERTY UNIVERSITY’S RADIO NETWORK

In Industry Newsby tfwm

KAYouphoto1ChrisatWRVLXDSinstallKa You Communications, a satellite services company based in Silver Spring, MD, has installed a state-of-the-art audio satellite system at Liberty University’s WRVL Radio Network, known as The Journey.

While The Journey’s Ku band uplink is located in Lynchburg, the network’s 12 downlinks are scattered across Virginia and North Carolina.

With The Journey’s ABR-based satellite platform nearing the end of its useful life, Liberty University turned to Ka You Communications for help analyzing its broadcast delivery needs and planning for the future.

For Liberty, Ka You Communications was the natural choice. Ka You and Liberty have been working together since 2007, when Ka You was hired to build and support a Ku uplink at Liberty’s campus in Central Virginia.

“Like many of our customers, the broadcast team at The Journey knew it needed to upgrade to a new satellite delivery solution,” explains Linda Gimourginas, president of Ka You Communications. “The Comstream platform had served The Journey well. The Liberty team asked us to design a new system that would meet its specific needs.”

Carefully analyzing a company’s precise broadcast application is a benefit Ka You offers all of its customers, Gimourginas notes. “Understanding the way each customer operates its network is integral when considering which future platform to choose.”

KAYouphoto2MarkWRVLinstallThe Journey decided to upgrade to the XDS platform from Pico Digital after a thorough review of XDS’s features and benefits. “For us, Pico Digital checked all the boxes,” says Chris Wygal, operations manager at The Journey. “Knowing that there are currently thousands of XDS receivers already in the field is reassuring and gives us the confidence that they are the product provider of choice.”

The new satellite platform graduates The Journey from a Comstream single-channel-per-carrier system to multiple channels per carrier, with four stereo inputs. According to Wygal, the flexibility of MCPC is a winner. “We’re still using the same amount of bandwidth at 256 kbps. But with this system, we have expanded from a single stereo channel to two channels. Two channels, with the flexibility to add more, yet our monthly satellite costs remain the same.”

Ka You designed and built the uplink, tested it and has trained the technical staff at The Journey to operate and maintain the new XDS platform. Once the uplink was complete, the engineering team at The Journey installed upgraded receivers at each of its downlinks. The staff at Ka You, as well as the engineers at The Journey, can remotely monitor the system and troubleshoot any issues that may come up.

“The good news is that with satellite, you don’t have to worry too much about failures,” says Mark Johnson, Ka You’s director of technology. “We design extremely reliable satellite systems. Unlike terrestrial solutions, satellite has few points of failure. From the production facility and uplink to the downlink and receiver, the signal remains under the customer’s control.”

Based in Silver Spring, MD, Ka You Communications is a mission-based satellite services company providing reliable, cost-effective transmission solutions to commercial broadcasters, ministries, universities and government.

Visit our website at www.kayoucommunications.com