Diversified Communications, Inc.

03/15/2024

March means basketball, and DCI's uplink truck is busy with an A10 Women's doubleheader in Richmond last weekend, and the ACC Men's Tournament in DC all week! For the ACC tournament, we are providing a high quality 3 path 1080p mux using DVB-S2X on C band from the Verizon Center in DC to backup ESPN's multiple-channel coverage of the games.

03/13/2024

Meanwhile, I’m at the Capital One Arena for ESPN coverage of the ACC Basketball Tournament 2024

03/13/2024

DCI providing the remote flyaway satellite system in the mountains of British Columbia for RedBull

Travis Rice's brainchild event returns exclusively on Red Bull TV for 2024.

03/13/2024

The fog lifted and it's a beautiful day! Natural Selection Live 2024 drops in at 3PM ET!

https://www.redbull.com/us-en/events/natural-selection-tour-revelstoke

03/12/2024

The Tour goes LIVE tomorrow at noon PT / 3PM ET on TV! And DCI is proud to be the only uplink provider up to the challenge of backcountry skiing into a remote venue to bring you all the action of the world's best freestyle snowboarders riding some of the best terrain around. Uplink Engineer Bob Zajko designed a fully redundant kit utilizing the latest Afinity HEVC single-rack codecs to transmit five paths of ultra-high quality 1080p 4:2:2 10 bit video totaling 90 megabit, off a highly portable 1.0m antenna! NST's production partner Uncle Toads put together an amazing camera setup including a custom built racing done to capture a "video game" angle of Travis Rice and company shredding the Montana Bowl outside Revelstoke. RF Wireless of Toronto is integrating the wireless links for everything, and Red Bull Media House in Santa Monica CA is directing this 5 camera broadcast. This is the second year of LIVE NST coverage coming through a DCI uplink, and you can catch all the action tomorrow!

03/09/2024

On Friday DCI provided a 3 camera crew for a live interview with Gary Gensler from the SEC in Washington.

03/07/2024

Ever wonder what's behind the pins in a bowling alley? DCI provided 1080p transmission on C band to a PBA Bowling event in Delaware last weekend.

11/08/2023

DCI's small SNG van was the perfect solution to cover this rally in DC last weekend. When large crowds overload cellular networks, satellite is the proven method for high quality, reliable video feeds.

08/03/2023

DCI is providing four paths of live transmission and power for two AP cameras, BBC, and Univision. Our big C/Ku truck is perfect for this event with ample power, fuel, workspace, and transmission capacity to support a major news event for multiple crews.

07/14/2023

Our annual July 4 microwave setup in DC for PBS!

03/08/2023

The first Natural Selection backcountry live broadcast is in the books, and it presented plenty of challenges for everyone involved, and DCI is proud to have risen to meet them. This 6 path REMI broadcast utilized wireless everywhere, thanks to RF Wireless in Toronto. Working together with satellite operator SES who adjusted transponder settings to allow a small 1.8m C band terminal to uplink 100 Mbps of video, DCI provided a clean, reliable feed of 6 paths and a return for this groundbreaking live broadcast, quite literally from the top of a mountain accessable only by helicopter. These are the kind of events we look forward to and enjoy helping to make happen.

03/06/2023

Watch Natural Selection, the most epic snowboarding show ever, transmitted live (6 paths!) By DCI from the top of a mountain in Revelstoke BC. Today at noon ET 9AM Pacific



https://www.naturalselectiontour.com/

02/27/2023

Busy week done with Professional League Lacrosse and NHL hockey! Next week, off to British Columbia for snowboarding!

02/07/2023

Tonight is State of the Union, and while the House chamber is quiet now, it will be packed in several hours. DCI has fiber positions all over Capitol Hill bringing reaction and analysis from our broadcast clients.

01/26/2023

Satellite may be our speciality, but did you know DCI also offers complete bonded cellular solutions? This past weekend we were called to Miami for another Don king boxing match. We previously did these with dual C and Ku uplink, but this internet-only broadcast called for a more economical solution. The LiveU LU800 was the perfect answer, providing a steady 17mbps of 1080p HEVC encoding back to DCI's LiveU server, where it was sent via RTMP to the client's distribution network.

01/20/2023

DCI is providing fiber from the Supreme Court and satellite downlinks for EWTN today, and sending it all to them on fiber via the Capitol Hub. DCIs unique Washington connectivity allows broadcasters to cover multiple points at large public events in the city and provide seamless delivery.

01/02/2023

An aerial view of our C/Ku uplink truck doing a 7 path REMI for West Virginia basketball a few weeks ago.

10/14/2022

The World Bank meetings are back in DC and we are providing transmission services for several broadcasters using our rooftop fixed microwave link and satellite truck parked out front.

09/20/2022

The state funeral for Queen Elizabeth II was one of the biggest international news stories in decades. DCI was proud to provide engineering support in London to Eurovision, who undertook a massive newsgathering operation at multiple locations across the city and at Windsor.

08/15/2022

A few weeks ago, Pope Francis visited the northern Canadian town of Iqaluit, located at 63.5°N. DCI was called upon to provide pool transmission from the public event held outside the local school. Accessable only by air, a flyaway uplink was required, but because of limited coverage, we had to use a large 2.4 meter C band dish to uplink a two path mux. The Canadian military flew the dish and all the production equipment from Toronto, while the crew flew from Toronto, stopping 3 times for fuel. Large flyaways like this are a fairly specialized piece of equipment and DCI is proud to be one of the few uplink companies offering a 2.4m portable uplink. This antenna is also capable of Ku transmission and is perfect for large or high profile events that need the added rain protection of C band or high bitrate Ku links.

08/10/2022

Live shot yesterday at the FBI HQ for "CBS This Morning".

07/26/2022

Two weeks ago our uplink van was dispatched to the mountains of southwest Virginia to cover flash flooding that destroyed hundreds of homes spread along the valley rivers. The small truck was literally a perfect fit for this story, squeezing down narrow washed out roads. Cell coverage is spotty in this area on a good day and was completely non existent after the flood. Due to the limited sky view, satellite phones aren't even reliable. Planning for this, we brought our Novelsat modem kit and established a data connection alongside the video which allowed us to run IFB for reporter ques and keep the field producer in contact with the studio, using WiFi from the truck.

At DCI, we have the tools and experience to expect the unexpected and deliver news coverage from any challenging location!

07/01/2022

Our big sat truck has had a busy week, from a 6 path C band REMI in Connecticut to Ku backhauls of international and high school lacrosse tournaments. But our favorite kind of work is IP over satellite, which we did for a ribbon cutting ceremony at a large solar farm in Virginia, because the satellite technology involved really is advanced and fun to setup. We provided a dedicated internet connection using our Novelsat NS4 modem and Xiplink accelerator. DCI Teleport in Washington provide the other end of the link using a 5 meter antenna. The link for webcasting was a conservative 30x30 Mbps in 12 MHz and when that was over they needed to upload high resolution video files, so we reconfigured the link for 50 Mbps upload and 10 Mbps download.
Setting up these IP links is a fun challenge and one that DCI excels at.

06/27/2022

We did a six channel REMI mux on C band for a soccer game in Hartford CT on Saturday. The six cameras are transmitted individually back to the broadcaster where they are switched, mixed with graphics, and combined with announcers to create the finished product.

06/24/2022

A few weeks ago Don King needed redundant uplinks for a WBA Heavyweight bout in Miami. Rather than the cost of two trucks, DCI handled the request with C band off our truck and Ku using a 2.4m flyaway we brought down in the truck. We used 8 encoders, 4 muxes and 4 modulators for complete redundancy on both uplinks.

Besides the domestic transmission on two satellites, DCI teleport handled worldwide distribution through our co-located IntelsatONE fiber node.

The project was a complete success and delivered within a cost effective budget.

06/16/2022

As the January 6 hearings continue, DCI is providing a switched feed to AFP, utilizing our multiple fibers from the hearing room to bring in all the pooled cameras.

06/08/2022

We're headed down to sunny Miami for Don King's latest heavyweight fight coming up this Saturday. We will be providing simultaneous C and Ku uplink from the venue as well as international turnaround service from our teleport in Washington.

05/19/2022

Justin Trudeau welcomed the Prince of Wales to St. John’s, Canada. DCI provided a satellite downlink and fiber switch to Agence France-Presse (AFP) for live coverage.

05/05/2022

Bloomberg Television's Mike McKee reports live from inside The US Federal Reserve yesterday using a DCI Crew & Fiber Line. It's the first time journalists have been able to attend the Fed Chairman's post FOMC press conference in person since the start of the COVID-19 Pandemic....and also the first in the newly renovated Martin Building.

Originally media used satellite trucks at the Martin Building, but following the 5 year renovation project which included an new dedicated standup area (previously we were set up on the cafeteria terrace with cables dropped over the side) fiber cable was installed back to DCI allowing us to send multiple video paths in each direction for our business network clients. Crews now just plug in and go live.