PacTV Selects Grass Valley Router for New London Facility

Purchase improves global operations and helps prepare for an IP Future

Pacific Television Center (PacTV), a Los Angeles-based, global transmission and production company, has purchased an NVISION 8576 router from Grass Valley, a Belden Brand, for its new state-of-the-art London facility with IP and 4K capabilities. The new router is a central component of the operation and will manage all of the global connectivity into and out of the London facility.

This latest investment means PacTV will now have Grass Valley routers in five of its managed locations in Los Angeles, New York, Washington D.C., Singapore and now London, offering round-the-clock support and services, such as fiber connectivity and satellite coordination. The company installed its first Grass Valley router in 2002 and has been relying on the technology ever since.

“Reliability is critical, and we know from experience in our other locations that Grass Valley routers have a long life span,” said Nick Castaneda, VP of Development of PacTV. “By using Grass Valley equipment at our facilities, colleagues can now manage each other’s routers using similar, intuitive user interfaces and controls. For our customers, this means that we can minimize disruptions and provide reliable transmission services under the most demanding circumstances.”

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With the new router, PacTV operators are able to quickly have source/destination status for high-demand resources, helping make quick decisions for customers. Furthermore, programming can now be done with ease, and main components of the system can be monitored through the tabbed system in NV9000 SE Utilities.

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As PacTV looks to the future, the new router ensures an IP delivery method via Ethernet or Fiber link as video transport becomes more integrated toward IP delivery. PacTV will increasingly need to take the current video formats of HD-SDI and ASI and apply it into IP multicast or unicast applications. The Grass Valley router will provide an intermediate device to route these into various networks and take them away when the service is complete.

The NVISION 8576 router is part of the NVISION 8500 hybrid router series, designed for production and playout applications from trucks to the largest engine rooms. It offers the convenience of integrated audio processing, SMTPE 2022 IP routing and simplified cable management with no compromises on reliability.

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“We have been providing innovative technology to PacTV for more than a dozen years, and are very excited to be part of the company’s new leading-edge London facility,” noted Said Bacho, senior vice president, EMEA, Grass Valley. “The NVISION 8500 series router is perfect for PacTV’s workflow needs today, and with its ability to manage IP and 4K, this platform is also perfect for PacTV in the future.” 

About Pacific Television Center
For more than 30 years, Los Angeles-based Pacific Television Center has been a leading transmission and live production provider to the global broadcast industry, offering its clients around-the-clock support and services in fiber connectivity, satellite coordination, receive and records, multi-format tape playouts, live shots, satellite media tours and voiceovers. On a local level, its broadcast facility in Los Angeles connects to the ATT Hollywood Hub and The Switch Los Angeles; in New York, it connects to Encompass/Waterfront, The Switch New York and Azzurro; and in London, its facility has multiple circuits to and from The BT Tower.  

Additional services include remote production via PacTV's ENG truck and a fiber network to several countries including the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Canada and France. The company’s solid reputation has led to successful relationships with major networks including ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, ESPN, CNN, BSkyB and BBC in the UK, Network TEN in Australia and Sky in New Zealand as well as top carriers including AboveNet/Zayo, SingTel, Intelsat, SES World Skies, British Telecom, Colt, Nexion and Level 3. 

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About Grass Valley
Grass Valley, a Belden Brand, keeps broadcasters, content owners and service providers Future-Ready as they navigate the changing landscape of television. With the most comprehensive collection of workflow solutions in the industry, Grass Valley delivers end-to-end television production and content distribution workflows, combined with expert consultation and insight that lead to sustainable success. Grass Valley, headquartered in Montreal, is part of St. Louis-based Belden Inc. Belden delivers a comprehensive product portfolio designed to meet the mission-critical network infrastructure needs of industrial, enterprise and broadcast markets. With innovative solutions targeted at reliable and secure transmission of rapidly growing amounts of data, audio and video needed for today's applications, Belden is at the center of the global transformation to a connected world.