Amb-OS to migrate to SvI only transmission by 7/31/2025
As noted in the February Ambassador Update magazine, for several reasons, Amb-OS will be transitioning by July 31 away from delivering our content via satellite and SvI to SvI-only (Internet) transmission. Our current satellite, SES-2, won’t be replaced by its owners at its upcoming end-of-life so a re-pointing of all affiliate receive antennas would be required for us to continue delivering via satellite. This new requirement coupled with our experience with several current downlink sites encountering interference with their local satellite reception even after installing filters (made necessary by the recent FCC-mandated C-Band bandwidth reduction and re-pack) informed our decision to move off of satellite delivery.
We’ve had our SvI technology in place on fielded AMR-100 & AMR-200 units for about a year now with excellent results – by current default an AMR will automatically switch to the Internet SvI feed if it receives bad blocks of data from the satellite. If the feed clears up such that there are no bad data blocks received from satellite for 3 consecutive minutes, the AMR will revert to the satellite source and remain there if no additional bad data is detected. An AMR will also currently automatically switch to the SvI source if there is no satellite feed – we do have several stations that have had to discontinue their satellite reception capability due to local zoning rules, lack of antenna real estate, etc. when moving their studios to a new location. In those cases, we have sent a command to the AMR that tells it to re-provision itself as an SvI-only unit, but it’s not strictly necessary since the AMR will automatically revert to SvI upon satellite failure. We’ll re-provision any remaining satellite AMRs to the SvI-only mode after July 31, 2025.
More details about determining the current reception mode of your local AMR using our User Interface (UI) software can be accessed on our website support page or through the link https://www.amb-os.com/s/SvI-Migration-Guidance.pdf .
We’ve also been advised that some other networks currently being fed from the SES-2 satellite using other receiver hardware will be moving to the new satellite thus requiring a local antenna re-point. Stations should feel free to consult with those networks individually as to what process may be indicated in their situation. So far as the Amb-OS AMR is concerned, as long as it is already communicating with our servers via Internet it should continue to receive live & pre-recorded content as normal via SvI during and after any local antenna re-pointing activity that might be required for other networks.
If questions arise or if you’d like us to re-provision your AMR in advance of July 31st email support@amb-os.com or call our 24-hour helpdesk at 1-877-AMBOS2U (1-877-262-6728).