#FARMERS TELEPHONE UPGRADE#
#FARMERS TELEPHONE SERIES#

“Whenever we get new Inca gear, our technicians are very pleased with how easy it is to actually troubleshoot and maintain,” says Pete. When Pete discovered that Inca offered 8VSB Receiver modules for the 4400 Modular Series, he didn’t investigate any other options. FTC has been an Inca customer since 2014 and has had a positive experience with the Inca transcoders. Finding the Inca Solutionįor new 8VSB equipment, Pete called Inca first. FTC were looking to add 9 more local channels to their lineup and it didn’t make sense to add more licenses or hardware for a product causing issues in the field. Pete Anderson, Central Office Supervisor at FTC, knew something had to be done about their 8VSB reception gear: around 8 OTA channels came from problematic sources and were causing tiling in the video and audio blips. FTC is also part of a consortium and hosts the master headend supplying the majority of national channels to 2 other telephone companies.įTC has 4 separate sites for receiving channels over-the-air, the furthest site being about a 90-minute drive from the main headend in Sumter, South Carolina. FTC provides video services to approximately 12,000 subscribers within a coverage area of 3,000 square miles and provides cutting-edge technology to businesses and residents of 5 counties in South Carolina. (FTC) is a multifaceted telecommunications company headquartered in Kingstree, South Carolina. The Off-Air Situation at FTCįarmers Telephone Cooperative, Inc. Overall, FTC were happy with the smooth set-up and deployment they experienced and have found the Inca products intuitive, reliable and easy to maintain. Using 3rd party monitoring software, FTC could see that the Inca equipment had strong 8VSB receivers compared to the other 3rd party units and was better at handling problematic sources.

#FARMERS TELEPHONE SERIES#

Inca’s 4400 Modular Series with 8VSB Reception replaced FTC’s previous vendor at 4 different sites and has significantly improved video and audio quality for local off-air channels. Inca Networks was recently selected as Farmers Telephone Cooperative’s (FTC) preferred vendor for 8VSB reception and transcoding after FTC ran a set of head-to-head tests comparing the Inca gear to another vendor’s 8VSB receiver.

#FARMERS TELEPHONE UPGRADE#

Inca Networks is preparing for ATSC 3.0 support via a future hardware upgrade so that our customers can easily interface between yesterday, today and tomorrow’s video technologies. The Inca 4400 Modular Series for linear transcoding includes options for IP, ASI and 8VSB inputs, and features VidiOSTM, a visually sophisticated user interface for management and monitoring. But as mentioned previously, ATSC 1.0 is still a relevant and current technology for the delivery of off-air channels and can’t be abandoned just yet. With subscribers reporting regular service disruptions, it’s natural for operators to feel hesitant to replace this legacy gear with all the buzz around town about ATSC 3.0. Many of these units were purchased over 10 years ago and are starting to fail in the field or have become end-of-life or end-of support. Many operators that purchased 8VSB modulation equipment back in 1996, when the switch from analog to digital was enforced, are now discovering issues with this equipment. With the requirement to simulcast ATSC 1.0 and 3.0, support for ATSC 1.0 will be around for a while – at least 5 years – so it’s important for video operators to keep reliable gear in operation for 8VSB reception. Additionally, broadcasters that voluntarily choose to broadcast in ATSC 3.0 must continue to offer ATSC 1.0 signals for at least 5 years. Unlike the mandatory switch from analog NTSC video to digital ATSC video 11 years earlier, the upgrade to ATSC 3.0 was announced as being voluntary and there’s no indication yet if or when it will be required for broadcasters. In November 2017, the FCC authorized television broadcasters to use ATSC 3.0, the next generation transmission standard. 8VSB reception continues to be an important requirement for video operators to ensure the delivery of over-the-air (OTA) content to subscribers.

Farmers telephone