20 April 2006
As part of the AIB’s work on influencing opinion and informing debate on broadcasting on behalf of its members and the wider broadcasting industry, AIB Chief Executive Simon Spanswick will be answering questions from the public on digital broadcasting.
Spanswick has been invited to appear on the BBC’s local radio network across southern England on Thursday 20 April. He will be fielding questions on the digital revolution affecting broadcasting from DAB to HDTV. The programme is made in the studios of BBC Radio Kent, close to the AIB’s new headquarters, and networked across the BBC’s local radio stations in southern England.
Spanswick is due on air from around 2015 UK time (1915 GMT) until 2100 (2000 GMT). You can listen live on the BBC’s radio player at http://www.bbc.co.uk/kent/ and clicking on listen live towards the bottom right of the screen.
11 April 2006
The Arab Satellite Communications Organization (ARABSAT) has signed an agreement to include U-Mark satellite channel within the Arabsat primary neighborhood of satellite TV channels.
“U-Mark will provide its viewers with significant TV shopping capabilities for a large variety of products,” says Mr. Said Saleh Al-Ghamdi, General Manager of United Trading & Marketing Ltd. Co. (U-Mark). “U-Mark has selected Arabsat due to its distinguished and unique environment of services, vast geographical coverage, and moreover, un-comparable audience reach of 130 Million viewers throughout the entire Arab world” added Al-Ghamdi.
Mr. Khalid Balkheyour, Arabsat CEO, welcomed the joining of U-Mark to Arabsat’s extensive neighborhood of 100s of channels, wishing them every success. He also confirmed Arabsat’s commitment to support its customers’ prosperity by meeting their requirements and providing them with all the required services and assistance to help them succeed in the delivery of their media content to their audience. As such, Arabsat will remain the uncontested leader in the MENA region for providing solutions to its Broadcast customers that link them directly with their viewers all around the world.
Mr. Balkheyour added that viewers may watch U-Mark by tuning to the following technical parameters:
Satellite:
Arabsat-2D
Frequency: 12,520 MHz
Polarization: Vertical
FEC: 3/4
Encryption factor: 27,500 MS/s
11 April 2006
Pharos Communications will unveil a major innovation in Media Asset Management at NAB2006, being the first to implement Isilon’s OneFS intelligent clustered storage into a MAM system. Intelligent clustered storage enables broadcasters to benefit from Isilon’s ‘pay as you grow’ server technology, expandable up to 528 terabytes of capacity and 7 gigabyte/s data speeds.
“This new technology overcomes the bandwidth constraint and single-points-of-failure that can arise when a centralised server is used to manage multiple storage resources,” explains Pharos’ Commercial Director Roger Heath. “Copying from the ingest server to the Isilon store greatly reduces the latency which arises from multiple transfers. This enable us to deliver much larger, faster and wider bandwidth storage systems than are possible with traditional server technology. Isilon technology has already been tested successfully by a major London-based client and the operational benefits have proved very impressive.”
The Isilon servers can be scaled from a 5.7 terabyte three-node mini-cluster up to the total 528 terabyte 88-node system, all with n+2 protection. Hot-swap modular construction means the servers can be withdrawn for inspection, or the system expanded, without any interruption in transmission.
Pharos plans to offer Isilon storage throughout its range of broadcast workflow systems, including Mediator Enterprise (which makes its US exhibition debut at NAB2006) plus the established Playtime and Playtime Interactive broadcast playout systems.
Pharos will be exhibiting on Booth SU186A (South Hall, Upper), UK Pavilion, NAB 2006, Las Vegas Convention Center, Nevada, April 22-27
