TIMA Reuters Benefits from Reliable RF Link at London Headquarters

A reliable datalink is vital for TIMA Reuters to connect their London bureau master control room with their satellite uplink and downlink facilities for live and recorded video transmissions. So, when they were consistently having link reliability problems, the company turned to ViaLite to install a ViaLiteHD RF over fiber link.

The RF over fiber link connects the master control room on the 12th floor with satellite dishes located on the fourth floor platform of the central London building. This serves as TIMA’s operations headquarters as well as a work and production hub for its broadcast clients, journalists and producers.

The lossless, plug and play ViaLiteHD system has now been installed and is achieving the consistent high level of performance and reliability that is vital for a company operating in the broadcast sector.

“Since the ViaLiteHD system has gone operational we have not had to adjust anything. It works on the default settings ViaLite supplied the kit with,” said Khash Mohammed, technical manager at TIMA Reuters.

A fiber optic link was necessary due to the distance between the antenna and the master control room, which is about 200 meters. The losses associated with an earlier system using copper coaxial cable were not manageable, and TIMA looked to optical fiber to provide the necessary performance and flat frequency response that removes the need for slope compensation.

A further benefit for TIMA is that the ViaLiteHD modules only take up 3U of space in the chassis – less than half the space of the previous solution. With rack space in the master control room being very limited, this has freed up valuable space within the existing rack which can now be used for future expansion.

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