“The trend of ENG becoming more reliant on the Internet means broadcasters must depend heavily on unsecured and at-will, unmanaged broadband infrastructures as the main corridor connecting field and studio,” said John Payne IV, president of IMT USA. “With newsnet, Vislink has pioneered an alternative IP-centric technology resulting in a complete solution, which preserves the security of the licensed BAS 2 GHz frequency band while maximizing its efficiency and spectrum usage.”

The company has tested newsnet at several broadcast stations and the results have been extremely positive.

Vislink leveraged its experience in the wireless capture, delivery and management of high quality live video to develop newsnet as a way of making traditional ENG workflows more efficient. George Schmitt, Executive Chairman and CEO of xG Technology, said newsnet was one of the key technology solutions that led xG Technology to acquire Vislink, in February of this year.

Newsnet incorporates a high-speed and reliable bi-directional IP network that utilizes the 2 GHz BAS-licensed spectrum, thereby increasing the number of live ENG transmissions and workflows that can be performed from the field.

The newsnet system consists of one or more mobile high-speed IP network nodes that easily connects with a base station, typically located at existing ENG receive sites. Each mobile node not only offers high quality video transmission capability, but also a private and reliable ingress point for other IP-centric edge devices—allowing users to control their own private high-speed IP licensed wireless network and ensuring that their content news gathering workflows and intellectual property are never at risk.

With an intuitive user interface, accessible to many skill levels, newsnet allows for multiple access points to operate simultaneously on the same BAS channel, all while enabling a high BW IP connection with studio NRCS. This IP connection can further be leveraged to enhance news production values through high-speed file sharing, as well as enabling all other IP-centric tools in remote locations, phone systems, closed captioning, automation and remote asset management. Newsnet is also compatible with MOS protocol-based News Automation systems such as Ross, Octopus, Dalet and Video Inception.