Christian Radio Consortium (CRC) Broadcast Networks Rely on Platform of WEGENER® Satellite Receivers, Compel® Network Control, and Microspace Satellite Delivery
Wegener Corporation (Nasdaq: WGNR), a leading provider of equipment for television, audio and data distribution networks worldwide, and Microspace jointly reaffirmed their long-term commitment to serving the Christian Radio Consortium (CRC) on February 6, 2009.
The CRC, a group of Christian radio satellite program distributors, decided a decade ago to standardize upon a platform comprised of WEGENER DVB-compliant satellite media receivers, the WEGENER Compel® network control system, as well as Microspace’s VELOCITY® satellite delivery services, so that they and their affiliates could transition smoothly from analog to digital broadcasting.
By standardizing on WEGENER satellite receivers, CRC members, including Salem Radio Network, Moody Radio, SkyLight Satellite Network, IRN/USA Radio News, and VCY America Network, established a cost-effective platform by which thousands of Christian radio stations could easily select from the hundreds of faith-based programs offered on dozens of CRC member radio networks.
Chicago-based Moody Radio, one of the nation’s premiere Christian radio networks, recently upgraded its WEGENER Compel network control system. With this upgrade, the Compel system in Moody’s network operations center now has the latest Compel software for the most efficient, addressable scheduling, management, and delivery of content to its affiliate network. Moody owns and operates 35 U.S. radio stations and provides programming to over 400 radio affiliates, serving over one million listeners per week.
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About Wegener
WEGENER® (Wegener Communications, Inc.), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Wegener Corporation (Nasdaq: WGNR), is an international provider of digital video and audio solutions for broadcast television, radio, telco, private and cable networks. With over 30 years experience in optimizing point-to-multipoint multimedia distribution over satellite, fiber, and IP networks, WEGENER offers a comprehensive product line that handles the scheduling, management and delivery of media rich content to multiple devices, including video screens, computers and audio devices. WEGENER focuses on long- and short-term strategies for bandwidth savings, dynamic advertising, live events and affiliate management.
WEGENER’s product line includes: iPump® media servers for file-based and live broadcasts; Compel® Network Control and Compel® Conditional Access for dynamic command, monitoring and addressing of multi-site video, audio, and data networks; and the Unity® satellite media receivers for live radio and video broadcasts. Applications served include: digital signage, linear and file-based TV distribution, linear and file-based radio distribution, Nielsen rating information, broadcast news distribution, business music distribution, corporate communications, video and audio simulcasts.
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“Compel enables us to easily streamline, customize, and control our program delivery to meet the needs of our affiliates,” said Doug Hastings, Manager of Administration for Moody Radio, part of the multifaceted ministry of the Moody Bible Institute. “By utilizing WEGENER technology and Microspace satellite services for the past 4 years, we have simplified the process of getting our programs to our affiliates and ultimately to our listeners.”
As business partners with a 20-year relationship, Microspace has long supported the WEGENER media distribution platform that CRC member networks use for radio broadcasting, and is committed to expanding its support to include next-generation models, such as the WEGENER file-based broadcasting solution. WEGENER’s file-based solution is currently supporting various radio and video applications in thousands of sites around the world. File-based broadcasting and DVB-S2 satellite modulation will enable the CRC to migrate to more efficient, store-and-forward transmission of content to stations. A global entity with U.S. offices in Raleigh, N.C., Microspace manages reliable media transmission around the clock to over 340,000 receive sites via the world’s top satellites.
According to Greg Hurt, vice president of sales and marketing at Microspace, “The partnership between the CRC and Microspace has been a special one. We fully intend to support their needs well into the next decade. ”
“Along with our partner Microspace, we at WEGENER are extremely pleased to reaffirm our unwavering support for the CRC,” said Ned L. Mountain, president and chief operating officer of WEGENER. “And we want to ensure CRC members that they can continue to depend upon our linear and non-linear broadcast platforms to transmit their networks with utmost reliability.”
Thanks to MCC’s Carla Torrence for this capcom story.
