LEIGHTRONIX Customer Profile
Town Square TV
“The 5 year warranty was very impressive, and dealing with a company that’s
been around for 30 years, we know and we can trust that they’re going to be
there.”
Tuesday, December 4, 2012
–Joe Conlon (Engineering Manager)
The Problem
As the industry standard shifted to a digital
workflow, Town Square TV needed an SDI
solution to broadcast seven channels to
seven communities.
The Solution
UltraNEXUS-SDI (4)
TOTAL INFO
How It Works
SDI stands for serial digital interface and
is the professional standard for accepting
and transmitting digital video signals.
When integrated with SDI equipment in an
all-digital facility, digital signals from the
UltraNEXUS-SDI can travel hundreds of
feet without any data loss for optimal video
resolution.
In Their Words
“We’re very happy with the philosophy of
LEIGHTRONIX. It’s important that we are
able to be on 24 hours a day, seven days
a week, without failures... The philosophy
of the LEIGHTRONIX company and ours
mesh very well so we’re very happy about
that.”
–Joe Conlon
Town Square TV Engineering Manager
End Result
“We got a lot of broadcast features,
but not at a broadcast price with the
LEIGHTRONIX UltraNEXUS-SDI.”
–Joe Conlon
Town Square TV Engineering Manager
www.leightronix.com | (800) 243-5589
Inver Grove Heights, MN—Stationed less than 10 miles southeast of Minnesota’s
“Twin Cities,” Town Square Television produces seven PEG access channels.
With all seven channels being broadcast to seven different communities (a total
of 22,000 households), it was important to Town Square TV to provide a modern
and professional appearance. To accomplish this, the station needed a digital
video solution that integrated into their workflow and decided on a system
comprised of four UltraNEXUS-SDI™ video servers from LEIGHTRONIX.
The UltraNEXUS-SDI’s all-digital video inputs and outputs use the professional
serial digital interface (SDI) standard for accepting and transmitting digital video
signals. When integrated with SDI equipment in an all-digital facility, digital
signals from the UltraNEXUS-SDI can travel hundreds of feet without any data
loss for optimal video resolution.
“SDI was a very important thing we were looking for in a new product as we
are able to feed SDI video to our cable company now as they no longer use
analog modulators,” Engineering Manager Joe Conlon said. “Now, quality from
acquisition, to play out, then ultimately to the subscribers’ homes has been
brought up a couple of notches.”
Value
In addition to the upgrade to digital Town Square TV enjoys many other features
associated with the UltraNEXUS-SDI. The station utilizes the graphic/text overlay
and Virtual Channel features, and enjoys increased storage through the
TOTAL SHARE™ networking option.
“It was a great cost savings to us to be able to have a digital output of the
server with that bug already on it. I was probably going to have to spend
$3,000 per channel just to add that bug externally to each of our channels
and keep it in the digital realm.”
–Joe Conlon (Engineering Manager)
At a Glance
Name: Town Square Television
Location: Inver Grove Heights, MN
Seven Cities: Town Square TV serves
seven suburbs of St. Paul, Minnesota:
Grove Heights, Lilydale, Mendota, Mendota
Heights, South St. Paul, Sunfish Lake, and
West St. Paul.
Famous Residents:
Becky Holder (Mendota Heights)—
equestrian who competed in Eventing in the
2008 summer Olympics
Justin Morneau (Mendota Heights)—
Minnesota Twins first baseman, 2006 AL MVP.
Matt Birk (Mendota Heights)—Baltimore
Ravens center, six-time Pro Bowler
Doug Woog (South St.Paul)—Former
Minnesota Golden Gophers and Team USA
hockey coach, current broadcaster, member
of the United States Hockey Hall of Fame
Richard M Schulze (West St. Paul)—
founder of Best Buy
Harold Stassen (West St. Paul)—perennial
Presidential candidate, sought office 12 times
Joan Kroc (West St. Paul)—wife of
McDonald’s founder Ray Kroc
“We got a lot of broadcast features, but not at a broadcast price with the
LEIGHTRONIX UltraNEXUS-SDI,” Conlon said.
Conlon added that the station was surprised specifically by the graphic/text
overlay feature, a feature they knew they needed but did not expect to find
packaged within a video server. The station uses this feature to place station
bugs on each channel, adding to their professional look.
“We use the overlay to create custom bugs for each of our channels, and those
get put on about every program that plays. It was a great cost savings to us to
be able to have a digital output of the server with that bug already on it,” Conlon
said. “I priced it out and I was probably going to have to spend $3,000 per
channel just to add that bug externally to each of our channels and keep it in the
digital realm, so that was a great feature that was included in the original cost.”
Upfront and Accessible
Conlon added that the original cost was refreshing for him and his station as
he found it to be upfront and accessible. The price list is accessible through
the LEIGHTRONIX home page and Conlon said he was able to find what was
included and how much it would cost.
“It’s published on the website, and other companies don’t always do that, which
is great especially for organizations like our facility or cities that need to budget
two or three years down the road for capital for purchases,” Conlon said.
“One of the things we liked about the LEIGHTRONIX price list is it’s ‘here’s the
price and here are all these features.’ It’s not ‘here’s the base product, oh you
want this, that’s another $1,000, you want that, that’s another $2,000,’ and so on.”
Get the rest of the story at leightronix.com/townsquaretv
About LEIGHTRONIX
www.leightronix.com | (800) 243-5589
LEIGHTRONIX is recognized as an industry leader in specialty video
equipment design and manufacturing, including digital video solutions,
television automation, live and video-on-demand streaming media, and
remote equipment control. For more information, visit www.leightronix.com.