15 November 2006
Harris Corporation announced its collaboration with Tata Sky Ltd., to deliver Tata Sky’s satellite television service to viewers across the country via an end-to-end system from Harris that converts, processes, synchronizes and distributes digital program content. Tata Sky is the satellite television service for the TATA Group and STAR Network in India.
“At Tata Sky, we continuously invest in state-of-the-art infrastructure to provide Indian audiences with a world-class satellite television service, offering unparalleled entertainment with pristine picture quality and sound,” said Vikram Kaushik, managing director and CEO, Tata Sky Ltd. “We are delighted to collaborate with Harris, a company known for understanding the specialized, technological needs of its customers across the globe and for its strong track record of support services. The Harris broadcast equipment will help us boost the quality of our digital transmission, enabling us to deliver top-of-the-line services to our customers.”
Designed to support 120 channels, Tata Sky’s facility houses Harris® NEXIO servers, for use in their test center; Integrator® router for station routing; a Panacea router for clean switching; 6800+ and NEO® modular interface products for video processing; the NEO® MTG-3901 master timing generator system; the IconLogo modular branding solution; an IconStation master control graphics and channel presentation system; Videotek® test and measurement products; the NEO SuiteView multi-source display processor; and the CCS Navigator software application and NUCLEUS user-configurable network control panel for control and monitoring.
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“Tata Sky promises to revolutionize home entertainment in India, and we are extremely pleased to work with them in this venture,” said Tim Thorsteinson, president of the Harris Broadcast Communications Division. “Harris is able to offer customers a total content management platform to fit their needs from the small, local broadcaster to the large broadcaster seeking to distribute programming on a worldwide scale.”
About Tata Sky
Tata Sky Ltd., an 80:20 JV between TATA and STAR, is committed to offering viewers the best of pay television through its nationwide satellite television service. Tata Sky offers subscribers a wide array of programming choices coupled with a host of interactive services. For more information on Tata Sky visit http://www.tatasky.com.
15 November 2006
Teletrax, the global broadcast intelligence company, has reached agreement with Reuters Television to expand its monitoring footprint in key strategic worldwide regions to satisfy the growing needs of the leading worldwide news agency, it was announced today at NewsXchange, the premier international news industry annual conference.
A subsidiary of Medialink Worldwide Incorporated , Teletrax offers the first and only digital video monitoring and content tracking service that provides vital television intelligence on a global scale to video providers such as entertainment studios, news organizations, TV syndicators, and the advertising industry. Teletrax is a joint venture between Royal Philips Electronics of the Netherlands and Medialink.
During the conference attended by more than 400 delegates from the worlds largest broadcast news organizations, Teletrax executives outlined the expansion of services to be provided to Reuters and Teletraxs development of an array of new services: software tools to watermark content in both standard-definition and high-definition formats; software upgrades for watermarking digital, broadcast-quality MPEG-2 video files and for facilitating network integration into existing production systems; an easier-to-use interface; and an enhanced underlying technology that inserts a more robust, yet still imperceptible, watermark.
Teletrax will add more than 30 new channels to its current global monitoring capability beginning in January 2007. To service Reuters needs, Teletrax will build monitoring sites in Dubai, United Arab Emirates; Taipei, Taiwan; Seoul, South Korea; and Istanbul, the Turkish capital and host to the NewsXchange conference. Reuters requested the additional channels to track its news broadcasts more comprehensively across the globe, with these geographic areas becoming increasingly important to its activities. Reuters has been using the Teletrax suite of comprehensive broadcast verification services to track subscribers actual usage of its news video across the world for more than four years.
We have been very pleased with the intelligence Teletrax has been providing us on the use of our news coverage, and appreciate the way that Teletrax has evolved to meet our changing needs, said Tony Donovan, Managing Director, Reuters Television. The data we receive provides us with very valuable editorial, marketing and developmental information, and has become central to our broadcast operations. In a logical progression of our partnership, we wish to expand the territories in which we monitor video so we are able to build a more detailed, complete, and ultimately, more global picture of how broadcasters use our news content.
Reuters Television is an extremely important client for Teletrax, and our legacy as a trusted partner to the organization makes this a highly-valued relationship, said Andy Nobbs, president of Teletrax. We are proud that Reuters relies on our broadcast intelligence to serve as part of the backbone of its operations. We continue to evolve and improve our service to accommodate its swift-moving needs.
15 November 2006
World Teleport Association (WTA) announced today its rankings of the Top Teleport Operators of 2006 in three categories: the Global Top Twenty including satellite and fiber carriers that operate teleports; the Independent Top Twenty consisting of ground segment operators only; and the Fast Twenty, which ranks all companies based on year-over-year revenue growth. The rankings are based on information submitted by companies as well as the published accounts of publicly-held corporations. The rankings include only companies that own and operate teleports and that generate at least 60% of revenues from satellite applications, unless those companies provided a breakout of satellite-related revenues to WTA, in which case its ranking is based on the reported satellite-related revenue.
The 2006 rankings represent a doubling in the number of companies covered, based on significant growth in the companies submitting data for the rankings. The complete rankings are available on WTA’s Web site by going to www.worldteleport.org and clicking on the Top Operators link on the home page.
The Global Top Twenty
The Global Top Twenty ranks companies based on revenues from all satellite-related sources and includes independents, satellite carriers, fiber carriers, and technology providers. The total revenues of the Global Top Twenty exceed US$7.8 billion, with individual companies ranging from over $2 billion to under $100 million. In order from largest to smallest, the Global Top Twenty of 2006 are: 1. Intelsat (Bermuda); 2. SES Global (Luxembourg); 3. Eutelsat (France); 4. GlobeCast (France); 5. Telesat Canada (Canada); 6. Stratos Global (USA); 7. JSAT Corporation (Japan); 8. Shin Satellite (Thailand); 9. Space Communications Corp. (Japan); 10. Loral Skynet (USA); 11. Arqiva Satellite Media Solutions (UK); 12. Arabsat (Saudi Arabia); 13. Globecomm Systems (USA); 14. Hispasat (Spain); 15. Asiasat (China); 16. Caprock Communications (USA); 17. ND SatCom AG (Germany); 18. Telenor Satellite Broadcasting (Norway); 19. Vyvx (USA); 20. Ascent Media Network Services (USA).
The Independent Top Twenty
The Independent Top Twenty ranks companies based on revenue from all satellite-related sources, but excludes companies whose primary business is satellite fleet operations. The total revenues of the Independent Top Twenty exceed $1.6 billion, with individual companies ranging from nearly a half billion dollars to under $20 million. In order from largest to smallest, the Independent Top Twenty of 2006 are: 1. GlobeCast, France; Stratos Global, USA; 3. Arqiva Satellite Satellite Media Solutions, UK; 4. Globecomm Systems, USA; 5. Caprock Communications, USA; 6. ND SatCom AG, Germany; 7. Vyvx, USA; 8. Ascent Media Network Services, USA; 9. RR Sat Global Communications, Israel; 10. Uplit/Petrocom, USA; 11. Globalsat, USA; 12. TIBA, Argentina; 13. Samacom, UAE; 14. Essel Shyam Communications, India; 15. Skyport International, USA; 16. ATCi, USA; 17. Datasat Communications, USA; 18. Emerging Markets Communications, USA; 19. TeleCommunication Systems, USA; 20. NewCom International, USA.
The Fast Twenty
The Fast Twenty ranks all teleport-operating companies based on year-over-year revenue growth in their most recent fiscal years. (For individual growth rates, see the WTA Web site.) Revenues of the Fast Twenty are nearly $4.8 billion. This year, the Fast Twenty includes the world’s two top satellite carriers – Intelsat and SES Global – whose acquisition-driven growth vaulted them into the top tier. Revenue growth averaged 70% among the Fast Twenty and ranged from a phenomenal 380% for Skyport International of Houston, Texas, USA to under 20%. From the fastest of the fast, the five first of the Fast Twenty of 2006 are: 1. Skyport International, USA; 2. NewCom International, USA; 3. Arqiva Satellite Media Solutions, UK; 4. Protel, USA; 5. Intelsat, Bermuda.
15 November 2006
New Zealands public television broadcaster and largest free-to-air broadcaster has replaced its studio production tape-based playout systems with a multichannel Omneon Spectrum media server system with 4 TB of shared storage. The Omneon installation allows TVNZ to replicate its earlier playout functionality while implementing file transfers of content from the facilitys edit suites.
For 20 years our operation relied on Sony Betacart machines playing out
analog Beta SP tapes into studios for live-to-air production and for ‘as
live’ record-to-tape production, but as we transitioned to a digital
operation, it was clearly time for a modern nonlinear solution, said Paul
Hedges, studio resources manager at TVNZ. Our new Omneon Spectrum servers ability to accept digital content improves quality, and the nonlinear workflow speeds up production time, minimizes error, and eliminates the issue of lost tapes.
The scope of the project at TVNZ included replacement of the original
playout functionality of the Betacarts, and the Auckland-based broadcaster took the opportunity to design and implement new ingest, production, and playout workflows enabled by the Omneon Spectrum server system.
The Omneon server system allows TVNZ staff to continue familiar playout
operations while working with digital content ingested via an Omneon
MediaController interface. The MediaController panel and software provide robust ingest functionality, giving users single-button control in driving a VTR and an input port on the Omneon server system to execute
frame-accurate dubs from VTR systems, crash records from tape or live
feeds, or scheduled records from satellite.
In the near future, digital content prepared by the production team will be transferred from Avid edit systems onto the Omneon server system for
playout. Two Hi Tech active CartBox controllers, which mimic the operation
of the familiar Betacart operators control panel, allow the studio team to cue and roll clips from the server, playing those clips out on specific
channels or assigning clips to programmed shots.
An exceptionally cost-effective and flexible media server designed for the
professional television industry, the Omneon Spectrum media server provides
a reliable and scalable infrastructure for broadcast playout and storage
applications. The server system is built on an open architecture that
allows it to support a broad variety of third-party applications for
control and transmission, as well as media management, archiving, and
collaborative production.
13 November 2006
Arqiva to uplink worlds first wedding channel
Wedding TV to launch on Sky in December this year
5-year deal includes space segment on Eurobird satellite
Arqiva today announced that it has secured a contract to enable UK direct-to-home distribution for Wedding TV. Due to launch in December, Wedding TV is the worlds first entertainment channel dedicated to the emotion and drama of relationships and weddings. Arqiva will uplink the channel onto the Sky platform via space segment on the Eurobird satellite.
Mirek Grabiec, COO, Wedding TV, said, Alongside enabling our direct-to-home distribution in the UK, Arqiva has also provided us with digital archiving facilities to store our content, making our planned roll-out across Europe much simpler and more cost-efficient. Arqiva has considerable experience in helping new channels to launch and weve found their solution comprehensive and tailored to our needs.
John Bozza, head of broadcast sales at Arqivas Satellite Media Solutions division, added: Arqiva works closely with new channels to ensure that the launch process is as straightforward as possible. We are delighted to add the worlds first wedding channel to our list of customers and look forward to continuing to work with Wedding TV to extend its reach out across Europe.
