Thursday, December 16, 2021

Congratulations to Our Pearl TV and Howard University Friends for a Successful NEXTGEN TV Launch

Washington DC becomes the latest city to offer a look at the next-generation of over-the-air TV with today’s NEXTGEN TV service launch by Pearl TV and Howard University. PBS member station WHUT-TV serves as the host station from the inner-city campus, offering a prime central location to transmit NEXTGEN TV signals for five local TV stations to the greater metropolitan area.

GatesAir is proud to be the exclusive transmitter supplier for the collaborative lighthouse initiative in the nation’s capital. The fully-commissioned Maxiva ULXTE-50 liquid-cooled UHF transmitter carries HD programming and standard-definition sub-channels, and will add multimedia services supported through the ATSC 3.0 standard including emergency alerts, interactive services, and broadband internet access.

“GatesAir congratulates Pearl TV and Howard University on their historic launch of NEXTGEN TV serving the greater Washington DC community,” said Mark Goins, Vice President, North America Sales. “We are honored to participate in this project, and look forward to the great things to come from Howard University as they explore, develop and innovate around this exciting technology.”

The WHUT project stands apart from other NEXTGEN TV initiatives thanks to Howard University’s academic resources and educational initiatives, including a Media Technology Innovation Learning Lab that, in cooperation with NAB, was formed to drive industry collaboration and develop new NEXTGEN TV services. Working closely with NAB, Howard University is also the only learning institution in the United States to offer a dedicated NEXTGEN TV seminar series, which is an educational platform for next-generation engineering talent. 

GatesAir has been actively involved in key NEXTGEN TV rollouts across the United States, including milestone projects in Detroit, Orlando, Phoenix and Seattle.