Enhancement To GatesAir’s Intraplex Ready For Broadcasters

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GatesAir is all set to unveil new enhancements to two recently-introduced Intraplex intelligent networking solutions.


The two products, Intraplex IPConnect software and the IP Link MPXp codec, will make their debut in September.

Intraplex IPConnect is designed to fortify data transport across IP networks. Available as an option in most Intraplex IP Link codecs, “IPConnect solves the problem of reliable transport across complex networks that traditionally suffer data loss through dropped packets,” GatesAir claims.

A big international rollout will be seen at IBC2017 in Amsterdam. There, GatesAir will demonstrate how IPConnect provides an added layer of reliability for DRM IP streams by employing a combination of packet protection schemes with network/time diversity and packet-level forward error correction.

Additionally, IPConnect can now bridge local area network (LAN) segments across wide-area networks with seamless tunneling to enhance reliability of program and signal transport across very large geographical regions with multiple receiving and transmitting sites—an especially attractive benefit for network operators.

“Digital radio streams are particularly vulnerable to packet loss, given the large amount of data moving over many paths and across very long distances,” says Keyur Parikh, director of the GatesAir Intraplex Business Unit. “IPConnect plays an important role in minimizing susceptibility to packet loss, ensuring that valuable on-air content and control-based commands are not lost along the way. Reliability is further improved through the ability to tunnel all IP data between one or more sites, without concern of outside interference.”

IPConnect’s software data gateway provides packet encapsulation, which encloses the external IP data packets in a GatesAir protocol wrapper as it moves across IP networks. IPConnect provides this protection for studio-generated data, as well as IP data from external sources. While the former might include RDS data or SNMP control signals to trigger a command at the transmitter site, the latter may incorporate program or control data coming from a network operations center, satellite feed or advertising service.

As the next-generation GatesAir Intraplex IP Link codec, the Intraplex IP Link MPXp includes GatesAir’s Dynamic Stream Splicing technology to mitigate IP packet loss and eliminate off-air time, forward error correction, and a trio of network interfaces for optimal stream reliability, while empowering broadcasters with more signal transport options from a single box at low bitrates.

The Intraplex IP Link MPXp is the first FM MPX IP codec to support—separately or together—AES 192 digital and analog composite signals over a secure and reliable digital IP path from a single codec. Its dual-domain capability allows the broadcaster to install a newer audio processor supporting AES 192 and have it interoperate with an exciter supporting only analog composite signal interface.

Like previous-generation IP Link codecs, the Intraplex IP Link MPXp codec also simplifies network architectures and maintenance. As wide-area network pipes grow larger, the Intraplex IP Link MPXp codec enables broadcasters to aggregate all FM processing equipment at the headend. Advanced security measures ensure rock-solid signal protection thanks to the codec’s integrated firewall.