14 June 2004
June 7 marked the first broadcast from ESPN’s new purpose-built, 120,000 sq. ft. state-of-the-art Digital Center in Bristol, CT, and also the beginning of regular High Definition transmissions of its flagship SportsCenter programme. In the process, the US sports fan benefitted from the same leap of viewing experience as the change from black and white to colour in the 1960s. The new HD SportsCenter programme represents the output of the world’s first fully tapeless integrated digital HD production system.
The broadcast technology behind this feat of engineering is spearheaded by UK company Quantel. The digital production system comprises 6,000 hours of random access storage on 68 Quantel HD broadcast servers and nearly 250 Quantel edit and viewing stations. June 7 is the realization of an incredible 18 months’ partnership between ESPN and Quantel,” says Richard Taylor, Quantel Executive Chairman. “When we first started it was all little more than a gleam in our eyes. Now, Quantel technology and ESPN sports coverage prowess are together creating a revolution. We know that the sports broadcasting industry around the world is watching with bated breath. Soon every major sports broadcaster will be following the trail blazed by ESPN and will go HD,” Taylor concludes.
“Sports coverage on television is about providing fabulous pictures with all the immediacy, drama and stats so loved by the sports fan,” adds Chuck Pagano, ESPN Senior Vice President of Technology, Engineering and Operations. “Our Digital Center allows us to achieve this beautiful stuff in; beautiful stuff out.”
8 June 2004
As announced at NAB 2004, Harris Corporation has developed new technology that offers FM stations a significantly more efficient method of transmitting an HD Radio(tm) signal. The patents-pending approach of the company’s new Split-Level Combining System can reduce an FM station’s energy costs by as much as 25 percent over High-Level Combining, and enables stations to continue using existing FM analog transmitters that are already operating near peak capacity.
“This new, more efficient method of adding HD Radio to FM stations is sparking great interest among FM broadcasters,” said Jeremy C. Wensinger, president, Harris Broadcast Communications Division. “Our engineers estimate that a station’s overall power consumption could be between 5 and 25 percent less than with High-Level Combining.”
Split-Level Combining utilizes the existing FM transmitter and a new common-amplification FM/HD Radio transmitter to generate the required FM analog power. Driving both ports of the high-power combiner with analog FM power improves combining efficiency, reduces combiner losses, reduces existing FM transmitter power requirements and improves overall system efficiency, resulting in lower monthly operating costs. With the Split-Level Combining System, the analog transmitter is no longer required to operate at higher-than-normal power levels to offset combining losses.
Split-Level Combining also allows a station to use the existing transmission line and antenna system for optimum radiation of both the digital and analog signals. Additionally, for stations with physical space constraints at their transmitter site, Split-Level Combining allows broadcasters to remove the current backup transmitter and utilize the common amplification FM/HD Radio transmitter as a lower power backup FM transmitter.
8 June 2004
Currently in its pilot phase, DW’s new service MCAST could soon be offering multimedia phone owners regular news reports and up-to-date news briefs from DW-WORLD three times daily, in partnership with Orange and Vodafone. With MCAST, cell phone providers just send the information package once, and any number of subscribers can click and receive. It’s a financial dream come true for the providers, who stand to cut transmission costs by 70 to 90 percent.
“We have created a platform for people to comfortably consume media content,” explained Wilfried Runde, the Internet specialist in charge of Deutsche Welle’s MCAST project. And at just 5 per month for news updates delivered three times a day, the service is good value for money.
After initial trials in Israel, a second pilot was launched in Athens in June. Runde sees it as a good opportunity for Deutsche Welle to reach even more people around the globe. “For the first time, we can offer the mobile transmission of our information to a new user group,” Runde said.
8 June 2004
Ya.com Internet Factory, owned by T-Online International AG (subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom) and SES ASTRA have signed a collaboration agreement to launch, for the first time in Spain, Yacom Satélite, the new broadband Internet access services through satellite, targeted at over five million Spanish people who do not have access to ADSL. ASTRA provides the technology that is able to close the digital gap in Spain.
Yacom Satélite provides broadband access to the Internet with speeds of between 256 kbps and 768 kbps depending on the offer chosen, and a return channel through the switched telephone network. The service also includes 10 e-mail accounts of 50 MB; 1 e-mail account of 100 MB, an anti-virus and anti-spam service and 50 MB of space for personal/commercial pages, in the pack called Banda Ancha Sat Home 24 h (Broadband Sat Home 24 hr). The service also offers 120 free-to-air television channels from ASTRA on computer screens. Yacom Satélite is currently undergoing pilot testing and the commercial launch to the residential and business market is planned for next quarter. The price will be less than 17 euros a month for the Banda Ancha Sat Home (Broadband Sat Home) package.
In Spain, 10% of homes receive ASTRA digital TV, with a penetration figure reaching 1.34 million. Also, another 3 million homes with a communal antenna receive ASTRA, which simplifies the installation of the new service. According to Guillermo Mercader, Chief Executive Officer of Ya.com, The launching of Yacom Satélite is another step forward to make broadband Internet accessible to everyone at an affordable price and to help close the digital gap in Spain. 21% of the Spanish population (slightly more than five million people) are now living in 6,414 municipalities without access to ADSL service.
8 June 2004
On 2 June Antoine Schwarz took up his new position as Director General of Radio France Internationale (RFI).
He succeeds Jean-Paul Cluzel who has moved to become Director General of Radio France.
Both terms are for five years.
