The paper describes an advanced coherent multichannel (CMC) communications demonstrator that has been designed by the RACE 1010 consortium. This fully engineered demonstrator examines the application of CMC techniques to broadband signal distribution (e.g. television and high-definition television) in the local loop. Ten 140 Mbit/s digitised video signals are transmitted on ten optical carriers 10 GHz apart. Up to 1000 receiver terminals can be served from a single central transmitter assembly. The paper explores the system operation, system specifications, and subsystem results that have been achieved.