V-Soft Communications Newsletter: 02/29/08

In this Newsletter:

Come One, Come All to the V-Soft Training Seminar

V-Soft's Sun DTV Analysis System Gets Upgrade

New DTV Post Transition Allocation Files Now Available

The NAB Show is getting closer and closer and the V-Soft Training seminar is getting even closer. This year's training seminar, held April 12-13 at the Excalibur Hotel and Casino, will, again, be a project based seminar show casing how to use the V-Soft applications to perform your "real-world" applications. The seminar will cost $595 per person and a $50 discount will be awarded to current technical support subscribers. Breakfast and lunch will be provided both days. Click Here to download the registration form, complete it, and email it to Kate, or fax it back (319-266-9212).

Whether you are a new user or an old pro, there is always something new that can be learned at the training seminar!

V-Soft's Sun DTV System Gets Upgrade

We are pleased to announce that a new version of the SunDTV interface software has been posted and our system has been updated to run studies using the post transition "Appendix B" data instead of the CDBS database.

To run any new studies on the system you must download and install the latest version of the interface software, available here:

http://www.sundtv.com

Latest Version: 2.21

Once using the new version you will notice a selection for the "Station Database". The options are:

Current CDBS Data - Use data from the current FCC CDBS database.
Post Transition (Appendix B) - Use data from the post DTV transition table in listed in 'Appendix B'.
Post Transition (Appendix B + G) - Use data from the post DTV transition table in 'Appendix B' with stations shown in 'Appendix G' added to the database.

The on-line 'file number' search has also been updated to list matches found in both the CDBS data and the post transition data. Note that to remove records from the study the file number must 'exactly' match the one shown in the search results for the corresponding database. The post transition data contains some 'spaces' in the file numbers - these must be included for them to be properly recognized. It is recommended that you cut and paste file numbers from the search results to ensure an exact match.

New DTV Post Transition Data Available

V-Soft has processed and released the new post transition DTV allocation database files. This database contains records from appendix B & G of the FCC document "FCC 07-138" ('SEVENTH REPORT AND ORDER AND EIGHTH FURTHER NOTICE OF PROPOSED RULE MAKING' released 8-6-07). It should represent the 'post transition' station configurations. This install contains this data, in addition to the old FRZ database, as a user may experience an error if these two databases are not in the same directory. The new data should be installed to its own subdirectory (called “New DTV Allocations”) of the “TV” data folder. To use the new data, use the “Station Database Setup…” to configure that path as the "DTV Allocation & FRZ" path. Once this is done when a station is loaded from the "DTV Allot" database it will be this post transition database and this data will be searched for incoming/outgoing interference studies. Because of a technical issue, this install requires the latest version of Probe 3 that has been posted on the V-Soft website, or Probe 3 won't load the antenna patterns for the database.

This dataset contains both appendix B (the 'final' table) and the appendix G stations. Appending G is the "Proposed Changes to Post-Transition DTV Table of Allotments Information". The call letters will signify them as appendix G stations by having a "G-" preceding the call letters.

To use the new DTV database, you will need to change the DTV Allocations & FRZ Database path on the Station Database Setup window of Probe 3 to point to the "New DTV Allocations" folder created by the install. Clients on tech support that have access to the TV database updates may download the install here. Be sure to read and follow the installation dialogs, as the installation wizard will ask you to locate the V-Soft TV station data folder. (Please note: You may need to sign in with your username and password.) Top