LAS VEGAS, NV-NAB (Booth #SL5852) – April 19, 2004 – Local television stations around the nation have implemented products from VBrick Systems, the leader in digital video solutions, to easily and cost-effectively reach larger key audiences in their communities.  A growing trend shows television broadcasters from universities as well as municipal and state governments are using VBricks and existing high-speed internet Metro Area Networks (MANs) as part of a simple, low-cost video backhaul alternative to satellite, coax cable or microwave.  VBrick will be demonstrating its complete line of digital video products at NAB 2004, April 19 - 22.  

The cable television station of the University of Maryland (UMTV), CTV 15 of St. Paul, Minnesota, and the City of Monterey are each broadcasting important news and information to cable audiences in their communities and beyond with VBrick’s line of MPEG-2 encoders and decoders. 

VBricks are portable, reliable, and easy-to-use network appliances dedicated to sending video over internet protocol (IP) networks.  The inexpensive, simple VBricks are replacing expensive, complicated transfer methods.  VBricks allow organizations to utilize existing high bandwidth metro area networks to deliver MPEG-2 encoded high quality video to television headends, where they are decoded and broadcast to cable subscribers.

“Broadcasters are discovering that there is a less expensive, more reliable means of transferring video than traditional solutions,” said Michael Benson, Vice President of Sales, VBrick Systems, Inc.  “As hundreds of educational institutions, government agencies and enterprises have already demonstrated, the flexibility of VBrick’s complete line of digital video products makes them the ideal choice for extending the reach of any video application.”

UMTV, for example, is bringing its award-winning television programs to a much larger, more diverse audience, thanks to technology from VBrick Systems.  The station is using VBrick products to easily and cost effectively extend the reach of its daily cable news program, Maryland Newsline, beyond the campus to Baltimore City, effectively expanding viewership by 150,000 households. 

Maryland Newsline is a live newscast that brings viewers the latest news and public affairs from around the state. Covering the top issues facing the state and nation, student reporters work from Annapolis and Washington, DC to