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Global briefing
9
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Convention, 14-17August, Kuala Lumpur
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European Parliament to launch own webTVchannel
•
Australian PM calls for Big
Brother to be taken off the air
•
Worldspace appoints Gregory B. Armstrong and Alexander Brown as co-COOs
•
Intelsat
complete merger with Panamsat
•
VOA debuts ‘TGRT live’ in Turkey
•
UK Broadcasters launch terrestrial HD trials
•
Indian
broadcasters reject price regulation by TRAI
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Televisa brings 2006 FIFAWorld Cup to Mexico in HD
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EC endorses financial
restructuring plan for Portuguese public broadcaster RTP
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GlobeCast comes to IBC2006with innovations inDVB-HMobile
Thumbs up for DVB-H
Over the past year, Broadcast Australia has used
an Atlas
Digital DTV660L liquid-cooled DVB-T transmitter from Harris
Corporation to test the technical capability and commercial
prospects for DVB-H applications in Australia and globally.
Comprising the delivery of 16 channels of live-streamed, diverse
content to 400 trial users, the trial explored the technical aspects
and usage patterns of multi-channel mobile media services. The
Harris transmitters have reduced operating costs through
efficient energy consumption, along with compact and quiet
operation, while permitting easy monitoring and control of the
system from anywhere at anytime. Broadcast Australia also
decided to upgrade the transmission system of its digital
datacasting trial. This involved installing an identical Harris 3.4kW
liquid-cooled transmitter, operating in DVB-T mode. The
transmitter has been integrated into Broadcast Australia’s
existing 24x7 Network Operations Centre (NOC) for monitoring
and forward control purposes. The SNMP, GUI andWeb browser
interface make it easy for the NOC team to interrogate the
transmission system from the NOC or any other location.
Going for platinum
German commercial TV conglomerate ProSiebenSat.1Media
AG is the first broadcaster in Europe to take delivery of the new Harris
PlatinumT router. Jiri Srb, head of broadcast technology of ProSiebenSat.1 Produktion, said the Harris PlatinumT has enabled them to get all
their input/output (I/O) points into a 28-rack unit chassis - replacing an existing routing configuration that was housed in a 66-rack unit
chassis. The high-capacity, small-footprint Harris PlatinumT routing switchers provide high-quality signal routing up to 256x256 in 15RU
and 512x512 in 28RU and support a mix of any signal - video and audio, from analogue to HD - all in the same frame. Built for maximum
reliability in even the most harsh, 24/7 operation, Harris PlatinumT is ideal for network, local broadcaster, mobile production, cable, telco,
military, government and corporate applications - any environment that requires routing of a large number of signals. ProSiebenSat.1
Group’s Berlin facility houses the main studios for live recording of TV programmes and production, and is where news and TV programming
is produced for the complete broadcast chain. Most content is created for entertainment channel Sat.1 and news channel N24. The Harris
PlatinumT router serves as the backbone of the Berlin facility and is also used for live signals being routed to the Munich facility for playout.
Get your slot on DRM
For the past six months, WRN’s DRM
Regional
channel has successfully broadcast the WRN English
language network from a site in South East Europe.
The channel offers excellent coverage of the whole of
the UK and Western Europe. The directional antenna
allowsWRN to direct the signal toward specific regions,
providing those key national markets with almost FM-
quality sound. WRN is now officially launching the
DRM channel, offering up slots to its clients. This is an
opportunity particularly for smaller broadcasters to get
onto DRM before it is commercially launched, when
priceswill soar. WRNalso announced that it is providing
extensive satellite and EPG services toVIPRadio, which
recently launched on Sky digital in the UK.
Touch me
The new Touch It, Touch Screen LCD Video
system from Wohler’s
Video Division swept the key awards at NAB2006, receiving a Television
Broadcast NAB 2006 Top Innovation Award, TVTechnology STAR
(Superior Technology Award Recipient) Award, the Broadcast
Engineering Pick Hit honour and Videography Vidy Award. The Touch It
Series offers a simple and easy way to monitor multi-channel video,
provide routing, as well as external video screen output in a compact
and versatile space saving 3RU. The touch screen video monitor is ideal
for multi-camera live shoots, machine rooms, and outside broadcasts. It
has dual high resolution 7" LCD panels, offering video confidence
monitoring for up to 12 channels of composite video. The Dual 7" wide
screen high resolution touch screen monitors twelve, 1.8" thumbnail
images on the left with touch screen selection of image appearing on
the right screen at full size. Any of the 1.8" thumbnail images can easily
be selected by a simple touch of the screen to view as a larger 7" wide
screen image on the second LCD panel. The Touch It series offers a
video, and an audio and video version.
Fly away with RRSat
RRSat operated flyaways in Munich
and other parts of Germany during the World Cup. The company’s transportable Flyaway Systems
can be rapidly deployed on short notice and the digital Flyaway Systems are designed to operate domestically or
internationally. RRSat engineers were on hand to ensure the feeds reached their final destination. At the beginning
of June, RRSat joined forces with Eutelsat in order to strengthen its commercial proposal to the Asian broadcasting
market. Using a digital video platform located in Israel that uses Ku-band capacity on Eutelsats W5 satellite, Eutelsat
and RRSat can offer content providers an efficient and reliable means for reaching DTH, cable headends, hotel and
conference centres in south-east Asia. In addition to geographic reach, RRSat offers broadcasters network
engineering and custom-tailored end-to-end solutions including conditional access and standards conversion.
International broadcasters who have already selected the platform as their preferred point of entry into south-east
Asia include EuroNews, Trace TV and World Fashion Channel.
Quantel for RTL
Luxembourg’s national broadcaster, RTL Télé Lëtzebuerg
,
has
selected a Quantel sQ integrated production system for all its news and
magazine programme production needs. RTL chose the Quantel system
afterextensiveevaluation, saidJacques vanLuijk, RTL’s productionmanager.
The new system replaces a first-generation Quantel production system
which RTL installed nearly ten years ago – one of the very first server-
based news systems to go into operation anywhere in the world. The sQ
editing interfaces are very accessible and easy to use – especially important
forRTL’s journalists, who will be ‘soft-starting’into pre-editing then editing
with voice-over directly on the system. Another key factor is the transparent
workflow – a seamless progression from ingest to newsroom to editing
and playout. The new sQ system will be used to produce a full two hours
of news and magazine programming every day. It will also act as the
playout server for all the commercials that will be broadcast within the
programmes; SGT automation will upload these into the sQ system from
archive and automatically place them in the running order. Installation is
scheduled forJuly, and RTLis planning to go on airwith the new system in
September 2006. The system will be fully integrated with RTL’s Norcom
newsroom computer system via MOS, all running under SGT automation.