What is in this article?:
- A new COMARK in the air
- Entering a new era
- Ripe for an upgrade
- New compression algorithms
No financial details were available, but the deal was financed internally and brings the COMARK name back under the control of the Fiore family (and his associates), where it started some 40 years ago.
New compression algorithms
Fiore said that new compression algorithms have made it possible for a station to deliver 10 1080p signals at 4Mb/s each in the same 6MHz of spectrum TV stations now use for one HD channel. And, he noted, OTA signal quality is much better than the compressed signal that you would get from cable or satellite.
Fiore said he’s committed to building transmitters in Southwick, MA. The company currently offers its DCX Paragon IOT tube-based UHF transmitter, a constant efficiency amplifier, a new ATSC-complaint exciter system, as well as the MPTV-8000 medium power solid-state product line (introduced at NAB this year). The new COMARK will also develop a new series of transmitters, as well as encoding systems, for mobile television. And they’ll make small transmitters for those that might consider a single frequency network (SFN) surrounding a particular market. (The “sweet spot,” according to Fiore is systems outputting from 1Kw to Kw, and that’s the type of technology the new COMARK will continue to develop.)
With about 2500 COMARK transmitters installed worldwide, the company has a lot of “friends.” In fact, when word got out that the COMARK name was back, Fiore and Priestley were inundated with a lot of positive email welcoming the COMARK brand back to the fold.
Fiore is now busy rounding up new capital funding.
“Right now, we internally funded this management buyout ourselves, because we believe in it,” Fiore said. “We are solvent financially, and we do not have any debt. We are looking to get in debt in order to finance what I think are the things we need to do over the next 12 months to secure a great future.”
