Bangladesh’s government broadcaster, Betar Engineering, will be the first to launch HD Radio across the South Asia region, covering 18 million listeners with a turnkey system from GatesAir.
GatesAir is a provider of wireless, over-the-air content delivery solutions for radio and TV broadcasters.
The HD Radio broadcasts, which will be turned on in early 2016, are supported by two GatesAir Flexiva™ 10kW transmitters.
They will cover the capital city of Dhaka and surrounding regions with high-quality audio for news and entertainment.
Betar chose HD Radio due to its exceptional audio quality and multichannel opportunities.
“Dhaka is considered the tenth largest city in the world, with a population of more than 18 million in the greater region,” said Md. Abul Bashar Patwary, project director, Betar Engineering. “We therefore required a highly reliable, easily serviceable over-the-air delivery platform to ensure consistently strong coverage across the entire region. GatesAir’s ability to provide a reliable, US-made platform in a timely manner is helping us get on the air faster—and on the leading edge of digital radio.”
GatesAir worked closely with Betar across site planning and system design, including all transmission, antenna, monitoring and peripheral equipment.
In addition to program audio, this architecture allows Betar to deliver program-associated data services (logos, station ID information, artist/song title details) over a single stream to the transmitter—with plenty of bandwidth to add more program channels in the future.
Signal coverage is strengthened through a higher-than-usual FM tower for Betar (250 feet as opposed to 200) and a panel antenna—the first of its kind deployed in Bangladesh.
Betar representatives travelled to GatesAir’s Quincy, Illinois manufacturing centre to receive training on the entire system, while GatesAir and local partner Resources-21 Limited will ensure Betar engineers are supported through the installation and commissioning process—and for years following the stations’ launch.
“GatesAir worked closely with the Betar team to ensure the end-to-end system is specified to their exact needs in a very challenging operating environment,” said Jhonny Maroun, regional sales manager for the Middle East and South Asia (MESA), GatesAir. “We are honored to be working with Betar in this historical project.”