More than 1250 companies will exhibit at the IBC 2024 show and conference on 13-15 September, and there isn’t time for one individual to thoroughly take it all in. If you are visiting IBC and your station is planning or forecasting a TV RF upgrade, the exhibitors in this story are the stands you should visit. Take pictures of interesting hardware and I/O panels, trade contact info, share your needs and purchasing plans, and ask on-stand experts your specific questions, one-on-one.

This year’s event promises to be exciting with new technology to see in nearly every stand. Some debuted at NAB but the latest solutions and upgrades as of right now are what’s showing at IBC. The following exhibitors are leaders in the OTA TV RF segment of the world broadcast industry and all are exhibiting at IBC 2024.

GatesAir (Stand 8.C74) will unveil the third entry to its IMTX Intra-Mast series, which consolidates miniature transmission modules inside a common chassis with minimal infrastructure.

GatesAir’s new IMTX 2+0 system adds a two-channel option to the Maxiva IMTX Intra-Mast series, offering the same benefits as its six- and eight-channel siblings with some clever twists. All three IMTX systems include a stacked array of transmission modules securely built into a chassis and pre-configured to provide TV service or fill coverage gaps where signal penetration is a challenge. IMTX systems are especially useful for populated urban areas with tight housing densities, or to establish a localized transmission point to serve rural or underserved communities.

The IMTX 2+0 substantially reduces the form factor to 13.35” x 6.7” x 12.58” form factor to fit into almost any structure. They say its compact design, solid structural integrity and flexible connectivity points translate to clean installations inside hollow mast or traditional tower structures.

The IMTX 2+0 is the first IMTX system with a built-in N+1 architecture that solidifies on-air protection for broadcasters through a parallel redundancy layer. N+1 systems, especially popular in Europe, support automatic failure to a secondary system that provides the same functionality and performance. The IMTX 2+0 design is built for redundancy across channels, with automatic failover between a main and backup chassis and through a single, simple connection between the corresponding modules.

At IBC 2024, GatesAir will also introduce three new Audio-over-IP solutions to its Intraplex Ascent platform. Ascent continues the Intraplex tradition of reliable distribution with the Ascent Media Gateway over IP application. The platform provides a scalable, cloud-enabled solution for the distribution of video and audio signals with enhanced reliability and security with Secure Reliable Transport (SRT) protocol and Intraplex StreamSplicing.

The Ascent Media Gateway is ideal for applications that require real-time distribution of UDP-based media over IP-based WANs or Microwave, including video programs for TV broadcast. At IBC GatesAir will demonstrate the recently announced new Intraplex software release to help broadcast networks and content syndicators efficiently manage local ad insertions through precise metadata triggers enabled within the software.

ABE Elettronica (Stand 8.D61) will be showing its MTX Series of low power, medium power and high-power TV transmitters. BTESA (Stand 8.F40) is a Spanish provider of TV Transmitters and high-power, solid state amplifier systems. The company makes numerous TV RF products including TTD-MC Series multi-channel transmitters and repeaters with up to 6 channels per chassis at 10 Watts per channel. Plisch (Stand 8.B63) will be showing its line of ATSC 3.0, DVB-T/T2 and ISDB-T-T(b) TV transmitters. The low power and medium power transmitters are air-cooled, the high-power transmitter is liquid cooled and available from 1kW to 100kW TPO.

DekTec (Stand 2.B48). Among their many useful new products will be the DTU-331, an all-band, all-standard SDR receiver based on a dual tuner architecture which allows fully agile tuning from 42 to 3220 MHz. SDR technology enables reception of entire channels, outputting all DVB-T2 services in T2-MI and forwarding ATSC 3.0 packets to IP.

A satellite tuner with a 9-60MHz bandwidth enables reception of DVB-S signals, while a second tuner with a bandwidth up to 8MHz adds support for terrestrial and cable standards.

Also on display will be the DTU-315, a USB-3 modulator counterpart for the DTU-331. The DTU-315 is an all-standard, 0-2 GHz RF test signal tool set for use on the bench, in the lab or in the field.

Hitachi Kokusai Electric Comark (Stand 11.C10) will show a range of TV RF equipment specific to the European market, including the Parallax, E-Compact and LPTV-5000 TV transmitter. Rohde & Schwarz (Stand 7.B21) will show their lines of 5G broadcast products, broadcast T&M gear and TV transmitters from the 10-200 Watt, air-cooled R&S TLU9, to the top-of-the-line, liquid-cooled R&S TE1. TRedess (Stand 8.C75) makes air-cooled UHF and VHF TV transmitters and gap fillers for digital terrestrial DVB-T, DVB-T2, ISDB-T, ATSC 1.0 and ATSC 3.0. Other TRedess products include a MultiTX Series for last-mile coverage and Echo Cancelling for operation in single-frequency networks with limited isolation between the receiving and transmitting antennas.  Thomson Broadcast (Stand 8.B75) is expected to show its high-power transmitters Gigativy and Gigativy Neo, medium power transmitters Megativy II and Megativy Neo, and its low power transmitter, Dreamline. Gigativy power density is achieved with up to 18kW in a single cabinet with 12 power amplifiers and patented Fully Isolated Coupling System (FICS) of amplifiers, enabling hot-swapping during transmission without downtime or risk. By design, amplifiers are directly connected into the FICS avoiding risks of using RF cables.

Other articles in this IBC 2024 'Show Focus' series:

The Broadcast Bridge will be at the IBC Show – on stand 8.A52. Please come and see us and share your thoughts on what we do and what you would like to see from us in the coming year.