 The CEA tube pictured is a silver looking cylinder is a part of this assembly and is the silver looking cylinder protruding out of the assembly towards the bottom. |
L-3 Communications, owners of a variety of broadcast industry service and equipment companies, has begun offering the Constant Efficiency Amplifier (CEA) tube to several transmitter manufacturers that will show digital systems with the new technology at NAB2003. The product is being offered due to the company's acquisition of Northrop Grumman's Electron Devices business in October 2002.
Astro Systems and Thales Broadcast currently have models available, while Axcera and Harris, who both plan to show prototypes at NAB2003, will ship CEA-compliant products in September. Eventually, once transmitters with CEA technology are installed in the field, L-3 will market the tubes to the stations directly.
CEA tube-equipped transmitters have a different power scheme than current inductive output tube (IOT) systems. The patented technology for the new CEA IOT allows the tubes to achieve twice the power efficiency of standard IOTs. This enables TV stations to reduce transmitter operation costs because the CEA tube requires less power to run.
For more information visit www.L-3Com.com.