Designing Broadcast Systems for High Reliability

Radio and television systems are often required to be of high reliability because of the competitive nature of the media; breakdowns can cause loss of audience and thus loss of business revenue. High reliability is defined as having a long time between failures, but in broadcasting it is often the case that minimum downtime is even more important than maximum time between failures. In this case the provision of a redundant system (rather than spare parts) is preferable as it enables a faster recovery to be made. Similar arguments apply to ancillary services such as air conditioning and emergency power. When every precaution has been taken, it is advisable also to consider contingency plans to cover major disruptions due to fire, intrusion, or labor disputes. Such occurrences, although relatively rare, are likely to be as frequent as failure of the high-reliability technical systems.

Print ISSN

0036-1682

Published

1982-02

Content type

Original Research

DOI

10.5594/J01316