12 June 2006
WRN, one of the UKs leading radio and television transmission services companies, today announces that it is providing extensive satellite and EPG services to VIP Radio, which recently launched on Sky digital, channel 0196.
VIP Radio is the newest music radio station in the 35-59 adult contemporary market. Kev Roberts, Head of VIP Radio, says, We chose Sky to develop a national brand and to subscribe to the future plans of a great broadcaster. To fast track our transmission while being cost effective, WRN was our first choice provider.
Tim Ayris, WRNs Marketing Manager, says, “WRN is delighted to be working with VIP Radio, providing satellite services that will give listeners around the UK access to this fantastic station playing fantastic music.
WRN currently uplinks almost one in three of the non-BBC radio stations available on Sky, making it the UKs number one independent satellite transmission provider for digital radio on the UKs number one digital satellite platform.
12 June 2006
The German public radio broadcaster (DLR) has decided to deploy NorCom’s NCPower news distribution system. By supplying this web-based news distribution system based on NCPower, NorCom will be providing Deutschlandradio with a cost-efficient solution allowing it to cut the cost of remote access by external correspondents.
Thanks to its flexible XML bus, NorCom’s NCPower WebClient ensures remote access to a whole range of content from anywhere in the world and at any time and is thus particularly suitable for use by external correspondents and in-house newsroom staff, no matter whether they are working in a hotel room, at home or in an Internet café. Access is via a normal Internet browser, meaning that no special software is required on the client computer. This simplifies administration and helps to reduce costs.
The XML bus utilized by NCPower ensures investment security as it can be integrated in many different kinds of legacy and future applications and data sources. As well as this, the open and flexible XML bus ensures swift adaptation to changes and customizing activities, accommodates enhancements and can be integrated seamlessly in existing and future IT broadcasting systems. The end-to-end web-based architecture facilitates flexible release policies. As a result, Deutschlandradio is ideally positioned to respond to future scenarios and requirements.
A further feature is the single-sign-on (SSO) system using a preregistered user ID and password. Acceptance by newsroom staff is encouraged by efficient and user-friendly applications. With its intuitive user interface, NCPower is easy to use and learn, meaning that training is hardly necessary, thus minimizing familiarization times.
NCPower WebClient: @Home, @Work, On the Move: Information anywhere, anytime. The NCPower WebClient is NorCom’s answer to market requirements for a fully web-based news distribution system reflecting the needs of the new future-proof, flexible and open IT era.
NCPower is the newsroom system within the NorCom Suite for Rich Media Content Production & Management Systems, offering customers a modern platform for uniform and transparent management of multimedia content. NCPower answers these requirements and provides a basis for innovation.
12 June 2006
RTÉ, BT and RadioScape have teamed up to bring live digital TV signals to mobile phone users, with a technical trial of DAB-IP in the Greater Dublin and North-East areas. RTÉNL, in cooperation with RadioScape and BT, using BT Movio, a BT service in the UK to bring live digital TV, DAB digital radio and TV & Radio listings to mobile handsets, is testing a limited service with two live TV channels (RTÉ One and RTÉ Two) and two live radio channels (RTÉ Radio 1 and RTÉ 2fm) on air via DAB-IP.
On 1 January 2006, RTÉ and RTÉNL began technical trials of DAB Digital Radio. DAB-IP is a development of this platform that allows delivery of TV as well as radio. As a one-to-many broadcast system, DAB-IP is proven as a very efficient means of broadcasting live TV and digital radio content to mobile users. It eliminates the network congestion issues associated with some existing mobile TV services and allows an unlimited number of users at any one time to access live digital TV and digital radio via mobile devices. Many industry analysts believe that live multimedia represents the next growth area in mobile convergence. There are a number of systems for delivery of multimedia content to mobile users in development throughout the world and RTÉNL is committed to a series of trials in this area, including DAB-IP.
RadioScape is delighted to be able to facilitate this trial with the broadcast technology required. Having worked closely with BT over the recent trial of DAB-IP in the UK, we were able to have the broadcast system in Dublin up and running in four hours, explained John Hall, RadioScapes CEO. DAB-IP is a very popular solution for Mobile TV networks and we are involved with many similar trials and full installations around the world. The broadcaster infrastructure and frequencies for DAB Radio are already in place in most countries. It is a technology that has been proven in the field to be robust and reliable, and it can be easily extended to deliver video in a spectrum efficient way. There is also the synergy of being able to deliver DAB radio programmes to the same receivers, which has proved very popular with users during trials. he continued.
“BT is pleased to have the opportunity to work with RTÉ on this trial”, Danny McLaughlin, CEO of BT Ireland, commented. “Our innovative technology solution takes advantage of IP technology to efficiently distribute TV and entertainment services to today’s mobile audience”.
For RTÉ, Irelands Public Service Broadcaster, these platforms are an exciting opportunity to bring high quality content to audiences wherever they are and however they want it. Were excited by the potential of DAB for Radio and RTÉs trials to date have been extremely encouraging. Perhaps its an indication of the multimedia future that a radio platform is now hosting trials of television in this new format. DAB-IP is an immediate proposition, it uses spectrum that is available now and it works very well. Id suggest that all those involved in developing or considering mobile multimedia technologies should see DAB-IP for themselves. said JP Coakley, Head of Operations, RTÉ Radio. RTÉNL welcomes the opportunity to participate in the development of this new technology. We see DAB-IP as a good example of efficient use of our extensive network for the future added Ray Maguire, Business Development Manager, RTÉNL.
8 June 2006
Eutelsat, one of the worlds leading satellite operators, is reaffirming its commitment to the Asian communications market with its participation at this year’s Broadcast Asia, Asia’s premier broadcasting and multimedia technology event.
In order to strengthen its commercial proposal to the Asian broadcasting market Eutelsat has joined forces with RRSat, a leading provider of end-to-end transmission and production services. 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. I
nternational 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.
8 June 2006
OmniBus Systems today announced that leading S.E. Asian regional broadcaster, Astro, is using OmniBus automation at its All Asia Broadcast Centre (AABC), just south of Kuala Lumpur, and at its Cyberjaya Broadcasting facility (CBC), located in the Malaysian Multimedia Super-Corridor, to enable high reliability and streamlined ingest, compliance editing, and playout operations in a completely tapeless environment. The OmniBus Colossus playout automation system and G3 architecture also are being installed to support the broadcasting operation of PT Direct Vision, an Indonesian Direct-To-Home satellite television service offering Astro channels and services, at its broadcast centre in central Jakarta.
“OmniBus Systems proved to be the only automation vendor able to deliver a fully functional and unified network-based automation architecture that covered all of our needs, from production, ingest, and post-production to media management and playout,” said Graham Stephens, Astro’s Chief Technology Officer. “The system has allowed us to improve our workflow efficiency, and the linear scalability of the OmniBus Colossus automation system and the rich library of broadcast devices supported makes it easy and economical to add further services.”
The Astro AABC provides uplink facilities for 54 Malaysian TV channels. An additional 48 channels, originated specifically for Indonesia, are uplinked from PT Direct Vision’s new Jakarta broadcast center. The OmniBus network solution currently provides playout automation for a total of 36 channels for Malaysia and Indonesia combined, plus 6 third-party channels for which Astro provides playout under contract.
The Cyberjaya facility, located near the Putrajaya government administration center, boasts a playout capacity of an additional 33 channels from a redundant pair of video servers operating under Colossus control. The system, which was commissioned in December 2005, provided multichannel recording, editing, and playout functions for the 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino and 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne. In June 2006 the system will be used to air eight interactive channels of live and time-shifted coverage of the World Cup in Germany. After the launch of its new satellite, Measat 3, later this year, Astro will bring all of its playout capacity on line, a total of 75 channels all driven from OmniBus Colossus across 3 separate broadcasting centers.
“We began work with Astro in 2003 with a pilot project involving four channels. Since then, the network has demonstrated a strong and continuing commitment to OmniBus solutions for automated multichannel playout,” said OmniBus Systems Vice President of Sales Robert Stopford. “As Astro continues to grow its operations, the OmniBus Systems’ G3 network architecture already in place will enable the rapid addition of new services and sites without interruption to existing on-air operations.”
