23 November 2005
By the end of the current year the new Russian round-the-clock English-speaking news television channel Russia Today TV will be broadcasting live internationally by satellite in English to Europe, North America, Asia and Africa via the RRSAT Global Network.
Russia Today TV will provide information about events in Russia, and give viewers an opportunity to gain a Russian perspective on world events. It will send a realistic image of the country to audiences beyond its borders and bring an atmosphere of home to fellow countrymen living abroad. This is a challenging and ambitious project, and there is confidence the channel will represent Russia appropriately on the international scene, senior executives say.
Russia Today TV chose the most popular satellites for its global distribution, said David Rivel, founder and CEO of RRSAT Global Network. The channel will be available to viewers in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa via the HotBird-6 satellite; in the USA and Canada via Intelsat Americas 5 (Telstar-5); and in Asia and Australia via the Thaicom-3 satellite.
We found in RRSAT the right partner for our satellite distribution, said Sergey Frolov, General Director of TV Novosti, Russia Todays parent company. Their proposal proved to be efficient and cost-effective.
About Russia Today
Russia Today is a new, round-the-clock English-language news channel founded by the Russian information agency RIA Novosti. More than 300 journalists, Russian and foreign, work together to produce its news programmes. Participation by foreign professionals with vast experience working for international TV companies and news agencies will ensure high output quality. The integrity of the channels news content is based on international broadcasting standards.
Coverage of life in Russia – credible and impartial – is a crucial element of the new channel’s programming. Output will present a wide spectrum of opinion, including that of experts and political analysts of repute from both Russia and abroad.
We believe this will help our audience to view affairs in a new context and better understand world events, said Sergey Frolov. We anticipate that RTTV will enable its viewers to acquire in-depth knowledge of what is really happening in Russia.
About RRSAT
RRSAT is the fastest-growing provider of end-to-end transmission and playout services to the global satellite broadcasting industry. This includes channel distribution and backhaul services, SNG services, sports feeds and other occasional feed services. It also includes production support, playout centers and other value-added services to provide customers with complete solutions.
RRSATs new focus for 2005 is VOD, HD, MPEG 4 and Media 9 broadcasting. RRSAT provides global distribution services via satellite on a 24-hour daily basis to more than 150 TV channels on 16 digital platforms worldwide.
22 November 2005
GlobeCast, the global content management and delivery company, is broadcasting Arab-language radio station RMC Moyen-Orient, a subsidiary of Radio France Internationale (RFI), via its digital platform on the Arabsat 2D satellite operated in partnership with satellite operator Arabsat.
Located at 25.8°E, the Arabsat 2D platform provides this entertainment channel with exceptional coverage of Middle East and Northern Africa. It now benefits from an audience of up to 31 million homes via satellite, as well as millions of FM radio listeners, thanks to the many microwave transmitters throughout the region that are fed by this satellite.
Arabsat is handling the reception of the signal in Tunis, where it is downlinked from the W3 satellite. RMC Moyen-Orient is then inserted onto transponder 154 of the Arabsat 2D satellite, operated by GlobeCast in partnership with Arabsat. The result is a wide distribution throughout North Africa and the Middle East.
Created in 1972, RMC Moyen-Orient is a generalist radio station which broadcasts in Arabic. A subsidiary of RFI since 1996, RMC Moyen-Orient boasts an estimated audience of 15 million listeners throughout the Middle East, Persian Gulf and North African regions.
22 November 2005
Switzerland based tv productioncenter zürich ag (tpc) has selected a Quantel eQ editing/ effects/ grading/ mastering system as its post production workhorse. The eQ, which is configured with the QColor in-context color correction option, was supplied and supported through Quantels Swiss reseller, Pixelstream aG.
tv productioncenter made an extensive evaluation before confirming its purchase, with particular emphasis on HD capability. Crucial to tpcs decision in favour of the resolution co-existent Quantel system was its high efficiency, multi-resolution capability and superb ergonomics.
tpc was formerly the production department of Swiss TV until it became an independent company in 2000. It has since become the largest supplier of audio visual media and broadcast productions in Switzerland. The eQ will take its place in the post production department, which supports SD and HD editing and imaging for news, sports and magazine programmes as well as documentaries, entertainment and cultural broadcasts.
tpc is confident that the eQ gives it everything it needs for the multi-resolution world, enabling it to produce highest quality results in multiple formats in very short timescales. During the test phase we focused on HD post production, says Max Hermann, Post Project Manager at tpc. We were won over by eQs efficiency, its ability to work with multiple resolutions and formats and last but not least, its brilliant user interface all very important factors in HD post production.
22 November 2005
GlobeCast – a leading global content management and delivery company and subsidiary of France Telecom – has completed the build out of its new Technical Operations Center (TOC) in Miami. The new center is designed to support the companys newly inaugurated IPTV Super Headend, capable of aggregating hundreds of television signals from around the globe in MPEG-2 and MPEG-4, and providing IP encapsulation and retransmission of content via satellite for distribution to local IPTV headends across North America. The upgrade of the Miami facility is a central component to the companys expanding offer of fully managed content delivery services for emerging IP-based video and rich media.
All current and future IPTV services, including IPTVComplete – a joint offering with Eagle Broadband (AMEX: EAG) providing more than 200 channels via IP video – will originate from the new TOC in Miami, situated at GlobeCasts existing 85,000 square foot digital broadcast complex.
GlobeCasts plan and design considerations have maximized the facilitys versatility enabling it to deliver and manage its wide range of IP-based Content Management Services, including IPTV. Technical capabilities at the TOC enable the use of multiple compression technologies and allow compatibility with multiple middleware providers.
The TOCs throughput capacity of the uplink infrastructure exceeds data rates used in most C-Band, Ku-Band and Ka-Band satellite services. The uplink multiplexing system provides an advanced Digital Video Broadcast (DVB) Conditional Access System (CAS) scrambling in addition to the broadcast industrys standard Conditional Access systems. This technology, Advanced Encryption System (AES) enables secure and reliable distribution of data and/or video services to be downlinked, and multicast to commercial and residential subscribers from one or more digital headends.
22 November 2005
While the national press and media in Russia face severe restrictions — in some cases outright government control — local newspapers still have the freedom to report independent stories, said the editor of a local Russian newspaper. Diana Kachalova, Editor-in-Chief of “Moi Rayon,” a regional weekly newspaper in St. Petersburg, told an RFE/RL audience last week that local newspapers that show they are committed to covering local news can survive, because of a growing sense of community in some Russian cities.
Kachalova, winner of the 2005 Paul Klebnikov Prize, said she and her colleagues started “Moi Rayon” three years ago with three regional editions, but have since expanded to 11 editions covering all 13 districts of St. Petersburg. The newspaper, which is free to the public, relies on advertising fees for income — mostly from local merchants. It is distributed at 500 sidewalk stands, all “painted a bright orange” according to Kachalova, and often protected by the “local businesses who keep an eye on the stands.” The newspaper also receives financial support from its primary investors — the owners of a construction business whom, Kachalova said, “decided to also serve the public” by helping to start the newspaper. The owners, according to Kachalova, “in three years have never tried to change the paper’s editorial policy or articles,” although “they would like to see [the paper produce] a profit” — so the challenge for the staff is “to match the audience and the advertisers.”
In order to maintain its independence, the newspaper does not accept grants from the Russian government, at neither the local nor national level, Kachalova said, and has until now also turned down political advertisements — even during the Duma elections. For these reasons, she said, the newspaper can have a great deal of independence, because “there are no instruments for the government to threaten the newspaper.” Although the staff does get three to four angry calls every week from businessmen unhappy about a story, few result in court cases.
One of the goals of “Moi Rayon,” Kachalova said, is to present to its readers how local and national events affect them. She believes that if the newspaper delivers the facts about a story, readers can then draw their own conclusions and form opinions for themselves. Kachalova said that earning the trust of readers is paramount. Giving people the information so that “they can fight for justice and that they can win,” is also an important goal for the newspaper. “Small voices on the small local level,” Kachalova said, are key to changing attitudes and improving life for Russians. Coverage of issues often includes “side bars which tell the readers what you can do to help yourself,” said Kachalova, and “one reader has already won a first court case.”
Some of the local issues that “Moi Rayon” has covered include construction projects, health care, and corruption. For example, Kachalova said, there is a great deal of local concern that residents of St. Petersburg are losing their neighborhood parks and open space as a result of the city’s construction boom. A survey of local businessmen by the newspaper showed that “if there were no bribes, prices [for goods] would be 15 to 25 percent lower,” she said. Even on national stories Kachalova looks for the “local angle,” to show readers how they are directly affected by events and policies. Kachalova added, however, that her readers “don’t care about the war in Chechnya anymore,” unlike the first war in Chechnya when “everyone talked” about it.
