Greg Palm, who has been with USSI Global since 1984, was recently promoted to Senior Vice President of Broadcast and Network Solutions. So, we figured it was the perfect time to ask him some questions about the state of the industry…

Q: You’ve been with USSI Global for more than 35 years. What is the secret to the company’s success?

A: That’s easy: our employees. We have fantastic people here, and they are empowered to provide support and solutions for our customers. We encourage open communication, and our departments work together as a cohesive team. And we just keep growing. Our Melbourne campus now has three buildings with 70,000 square feet of offices, service bays, and warehouses. The average tenure of our employees is more than a decade – I think that level of loyalty speaks volumes.

Q: What are some of the biggest challenges broadcasters are facing in 2021?

A: COVID-19 is still likely to present challenges this year for both creative and technical tasks. Content creators are having problems completing their projects, while travel restrictions and on-site precautionary measures will continue to be problematic for service requests or equipment upgrades.

For USSI Global in particular, our C-Band Mitigation Interference service, which is helping the industry clear part of the C-Band to make room for 5G, will face the challenge of limiting service interruption when we install new filtering on existing antennas. For example, in some cases, we’ll have to take a few days to build a temporary antenna at the facility to avoid service disruption while we replace the LNB in the existing satellite dish, even though that project can usually be completed in a few hours or less. The amount of coordination for these types of projects can be imposing – you definitely need a skilled team like USSI Global to minimize downtime.

Q: Speaking of 5G, how is the transition progressing?

A: I’m happy to report that we are on or, in some cases, ahead of schedule. In fact, our success keeps leading to more work and more opportunities. We’ve already installed more than 150 antennas across the country since we started working on 5G Transition projects in September, and we still have at least another 100 installs ahead of us. We also have thousands of new IRDs ready for deployment and plenty of filters, which we use to eliminate interference and make sure our customers permanently vacate the lower 300MHz of the C-Band spectrum.