Work began this week atop the 4 Times Square location in Manhattan to remove the existing 132 foot broadcast tower. (Photo Courtesy of John Lyons.)
This week workers began removing the 132-foot broadcast tower atop the Conde Nast Building in New York City to make room for a new 385-foot tower that will hold antennas for several area television stations and FM broadcasters.
If all goes as planned, according to Durst Organization manager of broadcast engineering John Lyons, the new tower will be completed by mid-July and the first antenna panels will begin being installed in August. Durst Organization owns the Conde Nast Building at 4 Times Square. The transmission site is scheduled to begin operations this fall.
Safe on the building top, workers remove cables used to lower an antenna panel.(Photo Courtesy of John Lyons.)
Durst Organization penned a deal with Dielectric Communications, a unit of SPX, for five master antenna systems. The initial antenna panel installation will include three master panels that can accommodate NTSC and DTV broadcasts from channels 7 through 61. According to Lyons, Univision has entered into a 15-year lease with the Durst Organization for space on the tower. Channel 68 and DTV Channel 53 have agreed to space on tower as well. Eight FM broadcasters have also signed long-term leases.
An architectural rendering of the completed 385-foot tower atop 4 Times Square. (Courtesy of ERI, Electronics Research Inc.)
Andrew will supply the antenna for Channel 68, and Shively will supply a DAB-ready master FM panel capable of handling up to 20 stations. The Durst Organization also turned to Dielectric Communications for three runs of EHTLine, two of which will be combined with digiTLine to deliver broadband capability with enhanced heat transfer protection.
The goal of the project is to provide facilities that could handle the needs of all New York City broadcasters, according to Lyons. Since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack that took down the World Trade Center broadcast tower along with the buildings, many area broadcasters have turned to the Empire State Building tower and antennas as a home for their signal origination. The Durst Organization is seeking to give area broadcasters an alternative and a backup.
For more information, visit: http://www.dielectric.com/broadcast/news_story.asp?ID=57.
