Hybrid network operator (HNO) EdgeBeam Wireless said its acquisition of the Broadspan distribution platform from Sinclar, announced today, will accelerate its deployment timeline by “multiple quarters” and give it a national-scale data distribution infrastructure.
The acquisition includes the Broadspan software suite and its core engineering team, the press release said. The terms of the EdgeBeam/Sinclair deal were not announced.
EdgeBeam offers signal distribution at the network edge using the Advanced Television Systems Committee 3.0 (ATSC 3.0) standard with the coverage of a broadband service provider. Adding Broadspan’s provisioning software and its partners’ wide-scale TV broadband infrastructure will enable EdgeBeam’s high-power broadcast towers to act as scalable data distribution networks.
This topology will bypass cellular network bottlenecks and enable a single transmission to reach what EdgeBeam calls unlimited endpoints simultaneously.
ATSC 3.0 has been around for a long time. It is an over-the-air standard that merges broadband and IP video capabilities with local broadcast and facilitates next-generation video technologies. One goal of the standard is to enable local broadcasters to deliver video directly to mobile devices.
EdgeBeam said that combining its technology with Sinclair’s Broadspan platform will create commercially ready networks providing enterprise-grade data capable of distributing software updates, digital signage downloads, and GPS-resilient positioning over the last mile with the flexibility and control of a broadband provider.
“As the world’s first HNO, we’re reimagining the movement of data at the edge. The Broadspan software gives us a strategic control point in the network for routing, managing, and sourcing data for a national scale ATSC 3.0 data network,” EdgeBeam Wireless Chief Technical Officer Joe Fabiano said in the press release.
“Integrating Broadspan’s technology and expert team of technologists provides our customers with a unified, reliable architecture for deploying their services, from high-precision positioning and digital signage to automotive and public safety applications.”
