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To see and hear better
• Radio and
television transmission equipment being upgraded
•
Fourth national TV channel enters trial phase
BY
LILLIAM RIERA
—Granma
International
staff writer—
A
thoroughgoing process of renovation and
modernization for radio and television transmission
has propitiated the initiation of Cuba’s fourth
national television channel (Education Channel 2),
which entered a trial phase with the airing of the
2nd Olympiad of Cuban Sports on April 18.
Investments made will enable an excellent level of
quality and reliability, affirmed Julio Antonio
González García, general director of the Cuban Radio
Communication and Diffusion Enterprise (RADIOCUBA).
González reports that “this year, 22 television
transmitters with Japanese technology (Toshiba) and
four Chinese ones were contracted, which are to
replace old equipment being used by Cubavisión (CV)
and Tele Rebelde (TR) in 12 provincial capitals.”
Also
purchased were “digital radiolinks,” used to link
together of the 28 TV centers associated with these
transformations to the national fiber optic
technology, which sends the signal from Havana to
the rest of the country.
Also
included is French NEXTREAM technology for coding
and decoding of TV signals.
González affirmed that all of this would benefit the
continuing development via television of the
Revolution’s programs related to education and an
increased general integral culture. In September of
last year, he said, the first Education Channel (CE)
was already offering services to more than 85% of
the country’s population.
The
transformation of this medium began in 2001 with the
development of that third channel, which at the time
could only be seen in the capital and Habana
province.
In
those centers where the CE was installed
transmission antennas were changed, the capacity of
energy supply was enlarged, air conditioning fitted
and emergency plants established, as well as various
civil works, González explained.
He
added that when that third channel was set into
motion, approximately 28 transmitters with 100 watt
and 20 Kilowatt potency were installed throughout
the country. The technology used was TMT (Italian),
NEC (Japanese) and BTESA (Spanish).
For
CE2, the equipment is Toshiba, NEC and BTESA, he
added.
RADIO SIGNAL QUALITY WILL IMPROVE BY CHANGEOVER TO
FM
But
the transformations being carried out are not
exclusive to television. The development of FM
(modulated frequency) service for radio stations is
having a large impact.
González reported that “by the end of 2004, the
country will have a total of 148 FM transmitters,
the majority with 1 Kilowatt of power,” mainly
destined for local stations such as Radio
Enciclopedia and Radio Musical Nacional (CMBF).
FM
services were not on the same level as medium wave
and television. In 2001, only 82 transmitters
existed – the majority of very low frequency – in
the entire country.
However, “in 2002, that figure grew by 18, in 2003,
20 more were installed and this year, a further 28
should be installed,” he said.
NEW
TRANSMITTERS WILL ALLOW RADIO HABANA CUBA TO RECOUP
AUDIENCE
With
respect to short wave (a basically international
radio service), Justo Moreno García, technical
director of RADIOCUBA, announced that this year, six
transmitters located in international transmission
center No. 1 in Bauta – west of the capital – are
being automated. This will allow Radio Habana Cuba
(RHC) to recover the spaces that this station had
lost in diverse regions of the Americas where its
signal used to reach.
In
this same center, a seventh transmitter is being
installed for Radio Rebelde, and an antenna system
is being assembled.
Moreno said that credits granted to Cuba by China
for telecommunications that allowed work on the
installation in Bauta to begin in 2003.
The
credit for $200 million was granted to the Cuban
Electronics group by China’s Import and Export Bank
(EXIMBAK) via an agreement signed during President
Jiang Zemin’s visit to Cuba. It has mainly been used
to improve short and medium wave radio services.
On a
tour of the Bauta installation with Juan Carlos
Pérez Pérez, its director, Granma International
was able to corroborate the total change in
technology in situ.
Pérez especially emphasized that “of the 45 days
anticipated, we were able to reduce service problems
to two or three.”
As
an interesting fact, Pérez commented that it was
precisely from there, and on RHC waves, that the
program Aló Presidente, produced in
Venezuela, is transmitted throughout Venezuela, live
and direct via the national television channel.
Moreno informed that work is also underway in
international transmission centers No. 2 in Bejucal
and No. 3 Titán in Quivicán. The situation in those
centers and the one in Bauta had been critical, he
admitted: the equipment was “very old and
inefficient,” and the antenna systems and buildings
were “very deteriorated.”
During the second semester of 2004, 20 new medium
wave transmitters with digital technology will be
installed, substituting the old and inefficient
Czech TESLA equipment, Moreno reported. Those will
add to the 17 that have already been installed,
which provide services in 12 totally remodeled
centers.
Likewise, he added, 10 installations will be
restored, the majority of them in the eastern
provinces of Holguín, Granma and Guantánamo.
These transformations will facilitate “a better
quality signal, greater stability in services,
improvement in the coverage areas of these centers
and an increased level of energy efficiency,” he
affirmed.
Work
was needed to reverse the accumulated “profound
deterioration” in the transmission networks of
television and short and medium wave and FM radio,
further affected by the disappearance of socialism
in the Eastern European bloc. Added to that was the
collapse of 14 radio towers and 4 TV towers in the
wake of Hurricane Mitchell; RADIOCUBA was
one of the enterprises in the country most affected
by that hurricane.
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