Grass Valley Delivers Ethiopia’s First Ever HDTV Experience

Press Release

San Francisco, Calif., June 12, 2013—Grass Valley® today announced that Ethiopian government-owned Amhara TV has selected Grass Valley to provide several solutions to build Ethiopia’s first HD terrestrial TV broadcast station. Grass Valley solutions will be used to outfit two HD studios and a master control room (MCR). Amhara TV is an important part of the developing media landscape in Ethiopia, and will be available both terrestrially and via the Nilesat free-to-air satellite service.

“This project with Grass Valley holds real importance for Ethiopia because it will offer our 50 million television viewers their first ever HD experience. With this in mind, it was crucial for us to select a partner we could trust and that could offer us the best HD solutions,” said Leykun Mekonnen, Vice General Manager and Media Technology Head, Amhara TV. “Grass Valley’s reputation precedes it as a provider of high quality, flexible, and cost-efficient solutions which enable broadcasters to give their customers premium services.”

Amhara TV selected six HD LDK 3000+ cameras for their flexibility and high picture quality, and a Kayakâ„¢ HD video production switcher for its advanced HD capabilities. The master control room will be based around a Grass Valley Maestroâ„¢ SD/HD branding and master control system for multichannel control. At the heart of the HD infrastructure will be a Concertoâ„¢ Series routing switcher with Preludeâ„¢ router control. A GeckoFlexâ„¢ Signal Processing System will provide the necessary modular platform for signal control, complete with an integrated browser-based control system.

While the majority of Ethiopia’s television viewers use standard definition televisions, they will be able to benefit from the oversampling of HD-to-SD down conversion for improved picture quality over SD-originated programming.

“Africa is a key area of growth for Grass Valley and it’s exciting to see our solutions being used by customers like Amhara TV to deliver new and better quality services to viewers in the region,” said Said Bacho, Regional Vice President EMEA at Grass Valley. “As broadcasters continue to look for ways to maximize efficiencies without compromising on quality, Grass Valley is uniquely positioned to offer its customers turnkey solutions that meet their requirements and offer integrated flexibility so that business models can be successfully built around them.”

With the assistance of local partners, Grass Valley is providing Amhara TV full systems integration service, training, project management, and ongoing consultation to ensure a successful implementation.

About Grass Valley
Grass Valley® is changing the way live television is made and delivered. Recognized with 18 Emmy® awards for technology innovation, Grass Valley’s product portfolio—from image acquisition to playout—offers a complete end-to-end workflow of flexible, future-proofed solutions which enable broadcasters and content owners to build multiscreen, multiplatform futures. By simplifying and enhancing the way content is produced and distributed, Grass Valley gives customers the freedom they need to be creative in the studio, the field, and the newsroom. Merging optimizations of IT technologies with best-in-breed media systems, Grass Valley’s next generation solutions deliver higher quality and greater efficiencies. Customers include world-leading broadcasters, teleproduction facilities, service providers, government, religious, educational, corporate, and independent video professionals. Grass Valley is headquartered in San Francisco, and maintains local presence across the globe with offices throughout North and Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia-Pacific regions.

For information about Grass Valley products, please visit www.grassvalley.com.