THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, May 13, 1996 TAG: 9605140471
SECTION: BUSINESS WEEKLY PAGE: 4 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: TALK OF THE TOWN
LENGTH: Short : 35 lines
Hampton Roads' dot on the TV map got a little bigger recently when Vyvx Inc. upgraded its facilities in Virginia Beach for sending and receiving television signals over fiber-optic cables.
Vyvx is a unit of the Tulsa, Okla.-based Williams Cos., and it specializes in transmitting broadcast-quality TV throughout its 11,000-mile network in the United States. Its local operation, one of about 65 TV switching centers in the U.S., is based at Christian Broadcasting
Network, which along with the Beach-based Family Channel is one of its customers.
Susan Geiselman, Vyvx's mid-Atlantic regional sales manager, said her company wants to broaden its local customer base even further.
So it increased the switching capacity of its local center by about fourfold in hopes of selling its services to local TV stations and independent production studios as an alternative to satellites when they're transmitting news feeds or other programs to their customers or affiliates in other parts of the country.
Sandy Alberson, satellite communications manager for a CBN unit called Hampton Roads Teleport, said the upgrade gives the broadcast ministry more flexibility in transmitting programming. He said CBN also uses satellites in moving TV signals internally, but that it's helpful to have a high-quality land-based alternative. by CNB