Panels are Up

The installation contractor has made good progress with the solar power array at KTWR.  All 120 panels have been installed. One interesting side benefit that had not occurred to us before is that the panels make a nice shaded area for picnics or just relaxing. The installers took advantage of that fact because the sun has been brutal for the past several days.

The contractor will work on the inverter and wiring this week.  We hope to have this system providing power by the end of the month.

Steel Henge

We seem to have gotten into the habit of erecting things that resemble ancient astronomical tools.  This photo shows that good progress has been made with our 30KW solar power array.  The most difficult part of the entire project was to get the posts aligned and set in concrete.  With that milestone passed, installation of the arms and rails that hold the solar panels has been going quickly.  It is expected that at least some of the panels will be installed tomorrow.

After the panel installation, what remains is installing the inverter and the wiring.  Once this is done, we hope to save quite a bit of money on our power bills.

Playing in the Mud

Since this is rainy season on Guam, digging in the dirt is actually a messy process.  That is what we faced when trenching for the power and control lines for the antenna switch matrix.  The conduit that houses these lines will go from the transmitter building to the concrete block structure shown in the distance to the right in this photograph.  The controller that manages the switches and the power panel will be housed in that structure.

Once the power and control lines are connected to the equipment in the block building, there is still quite a bit of connection work to be done.  Each switch must be connected via conduits to the block building.  After that is done, we can test the controller and the switches.  The matrix tuning process will be the next step.  That will be done to improve the performance of the transmitters and the antennas.

Digital Audio “Liberation”

July and August have been busy months for the Guam IT/IS team.

In July Alain Paradis (representing Martin IT Solutions and Netia Corp.) joined the Guam IT/IS team (Doug and David Gregson, Grant Hodgins) on Guam for a week of training and configuring our new Digital audio playout equipment for TWR's Guam and Sri Lanka broadcast stations.

Alain Paradis, Doug Gregson, David Gregson (Planning Session)

Grant Hodgins, Alain Paradis, Doug Gregson

It is appropriate that the week for performing the work was during Guam’s Liberation celebrations. 

Guam celebrates “Liberation” during the month of July remembering how the island was liberated by the Allied forces from the Axis forces (Japanese) during World War 2.  This event is normally themed with “freedom” and marked with memorial services, a carnival, and an all day parade ending with fireworks.

In an analogous way, TWR Asia’s radio broadcast outlets (Guam and Sri Lanka) are being liberated from using old software and hardware for content management and delivery.

Although the old equipment was very reliable – it has reached the end of its life for service and support.  The new system will free Asia to expand its connectivity and provide better quality control and reporting while running on a software which is tightly integrated into TWR's IT/IS Business model.

The upgraded Netia Radio Assist software will be fed by TWR’s media asset management system (LDMS) and will be the last component of a system that will deliver Bible based programing by radio to a large part of Asia. 

Guam has been using very reliable and well supported NETIA Content delivery software since 2000 when the station switched from Analog recordings to digital.

Please pray for us as we carry out testing and configuring of these vital systems.

The Project is scheduled to be completed by December 2014.