Who: Brian Wright and Sale Lilly
From: Cielo Networks
What: Point-to-Point Microwave Systems for Broadcasting
When: June 9, 2020 6:30 PM

Our June meeting featured guest speakers Brian Wright and Sale Lilly from Cielo Networks, manufacturer of mission-critical, IP microwave equipment. They discussed point-to-point IP microwave systems for the broadcast and media industries.  Their presentation is attached (here) for your reference.

With the growing dominance of IP infrastructure in the broadcast studio and the ongoing need to broadcast multiple channels of digital programming from our radio and TV stations and Internet platforms, there are unprecedented demands for high-reliability, broad-bandwidth data interconnections between our studios, transmitter sites, and other off-site locations. Many broadcasters and media professionals are now fulfilling this need with low-latency, broad bandwidth, full-duplex microwave systems such as products from Cielo. 

It's been a few years since our last meeting with Cielo, which we hope you attended.  If so, or if you're already a microwave expert, parts of our June meeting served as a brief refresher course.  The meeting also covered technology advancements that were instructive and interesting.

Brian and Sale will discussed the benefits and challenges of interconnecting production and broadcast facilities with IP microwave equipment. They’ll outline what’s required for high-reliability and cover the steps necessary to install and license such a system.  They touched on the familiar ("Part 74") Broadcast Auxiliary band frequencies while highlighting the benefits and challenges of utilizing Industrial/Business Pool ("Part 101") spectrum that became available a few years ago to broadcasters for studio-transmitter link use.

Our meeting was held virtually via the Internet, with Zoom costs sponsored by Cielo.  We established the conference at 6:00 pm, told "war stories" while others were joining, and began with a bit of Chapter 37 business about 6:30 pm.  Our presentation will followed shortly thereafter.  

Brian Wright is Cielo’s Senior Vice President and Chief Technical Officer. He brings more than 24 years of experience in the broadband wireless industry, including PTP Microwave, WiMAX, and LMDS. He has held technical management positions for leading systems suppliers, including Ceragon, Nera, Fujitsu, SpectraPoint, and Bosch Telecom. With his strong technical background, he has worked with customers in various industries to develop digital broadband network design and deployment strategies and supported many successful network builds and network life cycle QOS assurance.

Sale Lilly, Cielo’s Sales Director, has over 28 years of wireless and associated industry experience, working in sales and business development for three startup businesses and two international companies. Prior to joining Cielo Networks, Sale served in senior business development & sales executive positions with Nera, Ceragon, Spectrapoint (Cisco/Motorola JV), and Bosch Telecom. Before these commercial wireless positions, Sale was a business development and sales director for the Defense Systems Equipment Group at Texas Instruments.