Technology brief
Eutelsat and Globecast launch a new
Atlantic Bird 3 gateway
Eutelsat S.A.
and AIB Member
GlobeCast
will jointly market the
first Atlantic Bird 3 broadcast and IP gateway at GlobeCast’s New
York teleport and broadcast centre in Staten Island. The platform
will use capacity on Eutelsat’s new satellite that provides coverage
from North America into Europe, North Africa and the Middle East.
The new platform provides a unique transatlantic gateway for
video broadcasting and IP content distribution. It will enable small
antennas to be used for corporate network distribution and for
reception of television channels at cable headends as well as
direct-to-home reception. The platform is also equipped with IP
encapsulation capability for IP connectivity. A new 9-meter Ku-
band dedicated earth station was recently installed by GlobeCast
at its teleport in Staten Island to support encoding, multiplex
and transmission for the AB3 Gateway.
GlobeCast’s ATM fibre network connects the company’s
teleports in Miami, Los Angeles, Washington DC and Singapore,
thus providing direct and seamless delivery from these key
broadcast hubs to Europe, the Middle East and North Africa.
Additional broadcast service options include encryption,
program integration and tape playout.
Christian Pinon, President and CEO of GlobeCast worldwide
operations said: “The Atlantic Bird 3 Gateway provides a much
needed one-hop DTH distribution path from America to Europe
and the Middle East. Our teleport in NewYork is the ideal uplink
point for this platform, thanks to our skilled control operators,
broadcast engineers and knowledgeable domestic sales force
across the country.”
ND SatCom presents new broadband
media contribution solution
AIB member ND SatCom
showed its new Broadband Media
Contribution Solution at NAB 2003. Visitors to the show were
able to experience “store and forward” of video content, live
streaming and live TV over IP, all based on ND SatComs’ award
winning SkyWAN platform.
“Media companies and broadcasters operating multiple sites
for contribution of large video and media content are facing
challenges. Our new Broadband Media Network is a new solution
for contribution and distribution of any video content, live or on
demand. This solution offers various choices to transmit video
or data streaming in combination with voice and production
intercommunication,” says Dr.Karl Classen, CEO of ND SatCom.
The network may consist of multiple sites supporting several
transmissions in parallel. Transmissions can be effected either
ad hoc, utilising the fully automatic bandwidth allocation of
SkyWAN, or can be scheduled by the Network Management
Link Manager tool. As a further option a Monitoring and Control
System provides satellite resource management and fast
booking capabilities for DVB uplink stations. SkyWAN is the
platform to establish advanced Broadband Media Networks,
composed of fixed stations of mobile SNG, to transfer videos
via IP or encapsulated via DVB.
ND SatCom has also been awarded a contract by Intelsat for a
turnkey delivery of five C-Band Standard A Antenna systems,
one Ku-Band Standard C Antenna system and all associated
equipment for the Intelsat East Coast Teleport in the U.S. ND
SatCom was chosen as prime contractor with responsibility for
the complete installation, integration and testing of the antenna
and the RF equipment.
Thomson introduces groundbreaking
iVDR at NAB Las Vegas
The most fundamental building block of broadcast and
professional video operations now has amore powerful, affordable
digital replacement: the
Grass Valley
M-Series™ iVDR line of
intelligent video digital recorders. This new class of product is
designed to replace the mechanical video tape recorders (VTRs)
found in broadcast and video production facilities worldwide.
Media leaders, including Media General, and the NASA
contractor Crewe Technologies, are already expressing support
and are placing orders for the M-Series Platform. Media General
has placed an order for dozens of M-Series iVDR units for at
least 10 of its 26 broadcast properties over the next 12 months.
With a digital design and a familiar touch-screen interface, the
M-Series iVDR line easily supports traditional VTR capabilities,
including playback, record, removable media, and the ability to
ingest directly from a camera. Yet it also supports multiple
channels, simultaneous playout and recording, robust network
support, clip editing and trimming, playlist creation, and the ability
to exchange materials with a variety of applications using
industry-standard protocols. The M-Series iVDR is scheduled
to be available in late July of 2003 from Thomson Broadcast &
Media Solutions and authorised distributors and resellers.
Sony’s new optical disc camera
launches at NAB
Sony has launched a revolutionary optical disc proposition at
this year’s National Association of Broadcasters event, adding
a new dimension to content creation by enabling the recording
of material into a new generation of non-linear media. This con-
cept provides extensive workflow innovation to assist in the im-
provement and design of the media creation process.
Optical disc enhances workflow by offering completely new models,
previously inaccessible in traditional tape formats. Such develop-
ments enable work to be carried out much faster, greatly increasing
workflow efficiency and flexibility for the end user, thus offering many
new opportunities and combinations. Optical disc also reduces the
overall cost of ownership for the customer through combining ele-
ments such as media cost and its recycling capacity.
Optical Disc will enable broadcasters and video professionals to
work smarter, faster and more conveniently. They will now have
access to completely new business models, something that was
not possible with traditional tape formats. Optical disc will also pro-
vide customers with complete metadata management as well as
remote management via Simple Network Management Protocol.
All optical disc products support Material Exchange Format (MXF)
file transfers over networks. As a real business example, optical
disc can improve the nonlinear editing process by reducing dead
time of upload and download to the extent that in some cases
total editing time is reduced by more than 50 per cent.
New earth station owner in HK?
Hong Kong broadcaster Star TV is auctioning its uplink facilitiy
in the SAR. Opened in 1991, the uplink station has been used
to beam 30 or more television channels around the Asia-Pacific
region. Star TV is now outsourcing its uplinks and so the facility
- valued at around US$10 million - has been up for sale.
The tender process an until mid-April. It is understood that
companies from the region, including some based in Indonesia,
China, Australia and Hong Kong have expressed an interest in
purchasing the facility that closed last August.
