Arctek HD Expands Fleet, Adds Encoding Truck

Arctek HD offers the latest proof that the needs of the sports-production marketplace continue to grow: the remote-transmission-services provider will not only roll out a new Ku-band HD uplink truck in early September but also convert one of its existing uplink units and into a truck dedicated to encoding only.

Arctek Cyan Ku-band HD uplink truck will roll out in September.

The new vehicle, which will be called Arctek Cyan and will be based in Minneapolis, is being built by Frontline Communications and will be the fifth Sprinter-based uplink truck in the Arctek fleet. Equipped with a 1.8-meter AVL Ku antenna, Adtec EN 81 HD multi-codec encoders, and a fully digital router, it will be an important upgrade to the fleet, which is currently built on analog routers.

“Right now, we have to patch in digital, but the new truck is entirely 3G-compatible and digital, so now we will patch the analog feeds,” says Arctek HD owner/President Brian Stanley. “There’s still a mild demand for analog, but the demand is not what it used to be.”

The conversion of Arctek Green to an all-encoding vehicle is also on tap for this summer.

“We are encoding about four games a month, which is enough to warrant a truck offering,” says Stanley. “We’re encoding a lot of professional sports for the international market, and it’s everything from a single feed to multiple HD and SD feeds.”

Frontline and Arctek partnered on the first Ku-band Sprinter in 2004 and, in 2007, were the first to build a C-band Sprinter truck.

“Frontline is simply our ‘go to’ for uplinks,” says Arctek HD CEO Todd Hanks. “After 10 years, they are more of a partner than a vendor.”

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