[SatNews] WORK Microwave announces that the company's Frequency Converter Series is Q-band-ready, allowing operators to meet the growing consumer demand for high-bandwidth telecommunications and broadcast services.

Q-band support is available for WORK Microwave's entire range of frequency converters, including IF, block, and tracking, and has already been requested by global satellite operators to support secure, high-performance communications projects. Relying on WORK Microwave's frequency converters, satellite operators and systems integrators can begin pre-migration testing to ensure effective use of the Q-band and beyond, including the V-band. The Frequency Converter Series will support the entire scope of testing, including how to achieve design and space-qualification of TWTs at high frequencies, optimal efficiency, understanding the link budget at Q/V-band frequencies, and mitigating the increased effects of rain fade, buildings, and foliage.

WORK Microwave's frequency converters make it easy for satellite operators to transition from the Ku-band to the Ka-band and onto the Q- and V-bands, ensuring they have the capacity to deliver terrestrial broadcast services like HDTV, 3DTV, and interactive gaming as well as high-data-rate digital communications and Internet services for government and enterprise applications. Q-band frequencies may also be used by military organizations for a variety of applications, including video streaming, secure Internet, high-speed data, and VoIP.

Executive Comment

"In the future, satellite operators will need to expand their capacity beyond the Ka-band in order to keep pace with the demanding communications requirements fueled by bandwidth-intensive broadcast and data services," said Guenter Prokoph, chief technical officer, WORK Microwave. "Although we do not anticipate mass migration to the Q-band to take place until after 2017, it's important to research and test the capabilities of the Q-band now so that satellite operators can be prepared. Our Frequency Converter Series is one of the industry's first SatCom solutions to support the full Q-band spectrum of 33 GHz to 50 GHz and is therefore the ideal solution to support early laboratory tests, making it a smart investment for operators."