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Global briefing
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director general
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Fox chooses Teletrax for affiliate promotion monitoring
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TVVlaanderen launches full DTH bouquet via
ASTRA
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ENPS signs Asianet as new Indian client
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Digital TV stations in Czech Republic form association
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ABU and UNDP
award programming grants on HIV/AIDS
•
BBC makes formal complaint to Egyptian authorities following assaults on
journalists
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VSC Design uses Harris infrastructure at London Abbey Road studios
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Controversial Kazakh media law puts
reporters under tight state control
•
Award-winning Swedish journalist shot while covering a demonstration in Mogadishu
Subs up in India
WorldSpace
added 38,131 subscribers in the
first quarter of 2006, an increase of 109% over
the same quarter of 2005. In India, the company
had 111,723 subscribers, up 50% from 74,574 at
the end of 4/2005. WorldSpace has rolled out
its satellite radio services in ten cities in India
— Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai,
Hyderabad, Kochi, Pune, Ahmedabad,
Chandigarh, and Kolkata, India’s second largest
city, which was launched in February 2006.
WorldSpace is now available to a population of
nearly 63 million. “We are continuing to focus
very closely on driving subscriber growth,
especially in India, as we expand our services to
more cities, ensure the availability of our
products at more retailers and upgrade our
content and products,” said Noah Samara,
WorldSpace chairman and CEO. “We are
confident that we have taken the necessary
steps in terms of management changes,
enhanced visibility, expanded marketing
alliances and improved products that will
enable us both to grow and retain subscribers.”
On cue for IBC
Autocue, leading provider of newsroom
automation and teleprompting solutions, is launching and showcasing a number of new
products at IBC 2006. The WINCUE IP network-based prompting system introduces radical new operation and control features that deliver
significant benefits to both the presenter and operator alike. Autocue’s affordable, turnkey broadcast studio provides the ability to
produce professional broadcast output at an affordable price. Targeted at businesses, religious groups, educational facilities and AV
professionals, this bundle of products has at its core QNet, Autocue’s multi-user scripting, production management and scheduling
application. Also on display will be Autocue’s Master Series and Professional Series prompters which were launched earlier this year. In
addition, the Qsmart is an affordable newsroom system which provides a robust and expandable solution to meet the specific NRCS
requirements of smaller market and non-traditional broadcasters. It is priced to match the budget of even the smallest news operation
yet provides an enormous range of functionality already proven in much larger organisations around the world.
Reaching 130 million from Morocco to
the Gulf
Arabsat and Mlive have signed a five-year
agreement to
broadcast the
Mlive
channels on the BADR-3 satellite of the Arabsat
fleet. Uplinked from Arabsat’s strategic partner Jordan Media City,
the digital distribution platform in Ku-band will allow
Mlive
to directly
access the extensive Middle Eastern and North African audiences
via Arabsat’s constellation of BADR satellites@26°East. Furthermore,
thanks to its dual-broadcasting on Arabsat’s “
SEE-DIGITAL
” C-band
platform on its BADR-C satellite,
Mlive
will also dramatically extend
its reach towards the numerous sub-Saharan viewers tuned to 26°E
already watching a C-band bouquet of 37 digital plus 18 analogue
channels. In another recent agreement, Arabsat signed with London-
based international broadcaster and transmission service provider
WRN to distribute the new Arabic language radio station
Sawt Al
Alam
or “Voice of the World” which brings together programmes and
content fromaround the world.TimAyris, WRN’sMarketingManager,
who has project managed the station’s development said that Arabsat
was a natural choice when they were looking for a satellite partner in
the Middle East. The 24/7 Arabic language station was launched on
1 July on Arabsat as part of a global deployment on other digital
satellite platforms in Europe and North Africa. In July Arabsat signed
with Arianespace for the launch of its recently ordered BADR-6
satellite in 2008, as part of its fleet renewal and expansion programme
for the next 3 years.
AIB members provide combined solution
Large sporting events require
more than just high-quality
video links – they require a great deal of communication
between the many parties involved. For the 2006 FIFA World Cup,
GlobeCast needed a solution to transport private voice and data
traffic over existing DVB/ASI links between Munich and the UK
for their customer, a major television broadcaster operating in the
United Kingdom. GlobeCast UK turned to their partner, A.R.G.
ElectroDesign, to provide this solution. A.R.G. answered the call
by supplying their model 2500 Network Adapter, which takes
standard E1 telephony signals (G.703 compliant) and converts
them into DVB/ASI compatible streams, complete with PAT and
PMT tables that allow the streams to be transported through
standard DVB/ASI multiplexing and transport equipment. This
completely removes the need to set up and manage a separate
voice/data communications network. Richard Wardle, Systems
Engineer of GlobeCast UK, believes that private communications
are very important during live video broadcasts. He says “At a
large sporting event there are a number of presenters and
reporters deployed at different locations. In this environment,
communications between sites is essential for producing a
professional quality video programme. We found the 2500 units
to be extremely simple to
configure for
transporting voice and
data over our existing
DVB/ASI network –
A.R.G. has made it easy
for me to make my
customers happy.”
Quizzed
In recent years, Radio Romania International
has successfully staged quiz contests
for its listeners. Earlier this year, RRI ran a contest on Romanian contemporary sculpture
entitled
From Brancusi to Guguianu
, focusing on the personalities of the two leading
figures of Romanian modern art. The first prize consisted of a nine day trip to regions of
outstanding natural beauty in Romania, Barlad and Tîrgu
Jiu, visits to famous monasteries, museums, exhibition
compounds, sculpture workshops. The winner was
Lennart Holm from Linkoping, Sweden who was
accompanied on his tour by RRI editor Daniel Bilt. At the
end of his visit to Romania, Holt said: “I have been
impressed by the meetings I had with Romanian
sculptors, and by their works. I was particularly impressed
with the Brancusian compound in Targu Jiu, which is very well maintained. I will take
great pleasure in keeping and looking over all the photos I took during my tour. The
people are friendly and hospitable and it will take me hours to tell my friends in Sweden
about this experience. I would like to thank the organisers, and I’m particularly grateful to
the local authorities and to RRI, who made this wonderful experience possible.”