As the television industry continues its transition from analogue to digital transmission, Microwave Radio Communications (MRC) provides broadcasters with flexibility in implementing digital video transport strategies. MRC delivers a comprehensive line of microwave radio products for portable and fixed digital and analogue video transport operations.
Since the early 1960s, MRC has served television organizations with point-to-point microwave systems for video transport. Applications include studio-to-transmitter links (STLs), electronic news gathering (ENG), international outside broadcast operations, inter-city relays, satellite backhauls, and regional networks. Today the MRC brand is the product of choice for digital and digital-ready video microwave transport applications. In recent years, all new MRC products have been designed to provide a migration path from analogue to digital transmission.
Company History
MRC was founded in 1963 as a division of M/A-COM (then known as Microwave Associates).
In 1992 MRC, then a standalone company, was sold to California Microwave, Inc., and the company was renamed Adaptive Broadband Corporation in 1999.
On July 28, 2000, Adaptive Broadband completed a planned divestiture of all of its legacy businesses by selling MRC to Vislink plc. Vislink plc is a major provider of RF systems for television broadcasting applications, including microwave links, television transmitters, and satellite newsgathering systems.
Today MRC has the largest share of video microwave systems in domestic and global broadcast markets. Serving most major television broadcasting networks, MRC has an installed base of over 100,000 microwave radios in over 60 countries around the world. MRC has been ISO-certified since 1994 and is dedicated to providing exactly the kind of round-the-clock, round-the-globe support that television broadcasters require.
History of Innovation
MRC is recognized for its long history of product innovations. The company has set many industry trends, being among the first to develop solutions for broadcasters, which include:
First electronic news gathering systems - 1964 First millimetre wave systems - 1982 First analogue to digital video STLs - 1996 First dual-carrier analogue + digital STLs -1998 First COFDM news gathering systems - 1999 (Best of Show Awards, NAB 99)
Product Portfolio
Recently MRC introduced two major product families to address the needs of television broadcasters worldwide. Both product lines are now in full production, helping the industry transition to digital technologies:
The TwinStreamTM Series is ideal for evolving video microwave transport applications. Product configurations include dual-carrier (analogue plus digital) and single-channel analogue or digital versions. The advantages of the TwinStream over the MPEG compression approach include its minimal cost and complexity, without requiring additional RF spectrum.
The TwinStream dual-carrier radio was the first factory-integrated, dual-carrier radio system to carry an analogue NTSC signal plus a digital ATSC (19.39 Mbps) signal and a 1.544 Mbps (DS1) wayside channel, in a single 25 MHz RF channel. The MRC TwinStream supports the DTV transition with its wide range of analogue and digital modulation options, including NTSC, PAL, QPSK, and 16 QAM. As of April 2000, MRC estimates that it has supplied over 90 percent of the microwave links required to interconnect digital studios with their DTV transmitter sites, of which most links have been TwinStream dual-carrier radios.
The CodeRunnerTM Series provides digital and digital-ready microwave radio products for electronic newsgathering (ENG) and outside broadcast applications. The CodeRunner Series offers analogue and COFDM (coded orthogonal frequency division multiplexing) modulation options. For special event and news coverage around the world, broadcasters are increasingly turning to the new CodeRunner Series radios for flexibility and performance. MRC CodeRunner products are designed to support a wide range of analogue and digital modulation requirements, including COFDM techniques that have been proven to transmit successfully in severe multipath environments. By NAB 2000, in excess of 50 CodeRunner systems will have been shipped to customers in less than six months, representing a majority of the COFDM and COFDM-ready portable and mobile systems in the U.S.
MRC announcied several new versions of CodeRunner at NAB 2000. These product innovations extend the award-winning CodeRunner technology to a broader range of digital transmission applications:
The new CodeRunner.2.7 extends the CodeRunner van transmitter family to the seven GHz bands, with an option of incorporating dual-band operation (two and seven GHz) with a single van transmitter utilizing one-control unit and two RF units. The new CodeRunner.2.DC extends the CodeRunner transmitter to portable and airborne applications requiring DC power operation. The new CodeRunner.4.7 extends the CodeRunner central receiver to digital applications in the seven GHz band. This is achieved via a proprietary low-noise, high-stability block down-converter in the central receive antenna feed. The new CR.Sector provides cost-effective 90-degree sector antennas for low-cost, low profile central receive applications.
For further information on Microwave Radio Communications, go to mrcbroadcast.com
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