DIRECTV Orders Grass Valley Compression Systems To Support Growth In Programming Services

DIRECTV, the United States’ leading satellite television service provider, has placed an order, valued at nearly $8 million (US) for new Thomson Grass Valley MPEG-2 compression equipment, to significantly expand the capabilities of its broadcast complex.
“DIRECTV has been a long-time and loyal customer of Grass Valley compression products because of the proven system reliability and flexibility they provide,” said Marc Valentin, President of the Grass Valley business within Thomson. “We’re committed to maintaining this important technology partnership as a key supplier to DIRECTV and helping to grow the company’s business in a careful and cost-effective way.”
"As our customers demand more choice, including high-definition programming and other services, DIRECTV continues to upgrade its systems to accommodate this significant growth,” said Don Jones, Vice President, Broadcast Operations, DIRECTV, Inc. "The Grass Valley ViBE platform allows us to do that while maintaining and even improving our picture quality."
DIRECTV first turned to Grass Valley and the ViBE platform in 2003 to expand its local-into-local service. It placed additional orders earlier this year.
(SP/CD)