26 March 2004
GlobeCast has partnered with Brazilian telecommunications group, Embratel, to provide contribution broadcast services, internet and telephony for Brazilian terrestrial broadcaster, TV Globo for the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens. GlobeCast will also be working closely with four additional official Olympic Broadcasting rights holders, ATV and TVB in Hong Kong and Japanese channels, TV Asahi and Fuji TV, to provide specifically tailored packages including satellite transmissions and SNG services, for the duration of the games.
GlobeCasts services for rights holders form part of the companys comprehensive presence at the Athens Olympics. GlobeCast is offering extensive facilities for non-rights holding broadcasters, a number of which have already contracted with GlobeCast for their Olympics coverage, through its Broadcast Base formed in association with UK-based Gearhouse Broadcast and Athens-based Stefi Productions. The Broadcast Base offers non-rights holders a one-stop-shop for all of their production and broadcast requirements, including studios, work space, broadcast equipment, worldwide satellite transmissions, uplinking facilities, playout, conversion, encoding and mobile SNG facilities.
TV Globo will be providing Brazil with national terrestrial coverage of the 24th Olympic Games, and will be using GlobeCast and partner Embratel to manage its contribution delivery, via Intelsat satellites, from the Official International Broadcasting Centre. GlobeCast will be supplying a complete suite of transmission services including multiple two-way satellite and fibre paths from Athens, and two dedicated SNG vehicles for sports and news coverage from around the city.
For Hong Kongs two Olympic broadcast rights holders, GlobeCast will provide six satellite channels with encoding equipment, uplinks and compression for free-to-air ATV and a satellite uplink for TVB.
Japanese rights holders TV Asahi and Fuji TV have signed an agreement with GlobeCast to secure the use of one SNG vehicle each, complete with camera crew for the duration of the Games. This will enable both stations to film live stand ups and report on human interest stories from around the city of Athens.
Graham Smith, Head of European Sports, GlobeCast said: Our reputation for understanding the individual broadcast needs of national stations at major sporting events, and our ability to provide comprehensive tailored services has enabled us to offer our most extensive package to broadcasters at Athens 2004. Our relationship with many broadcasters, such as TV Globo, was established at the Sydney Olympics in 2000 where our Broadcast Base was used by numerous international broadcasters which have already signed up to work with us again. As a result of our continued commitment, industry experience and service levels we have been able to work with our clients to extend our offering to an increasing number of broadcasters looking to present complete and seamless sports coverage to their national home audiences.
GlobeCast is a member of the AIB.
25 March 2004
Michael McEwen, Secretary General of the North American Broadcasters Association (NABA) announced the appointment of Carol Darling as the new Executive Director of the Association. In this position, Ms. Darling will be responsible for the general management of the Association as well as providing broadcasting expertise and research to NABA members.
Ms. Darling is a respected Broadcast Executive in Canada whose expertise crosses a broad range of disciplines from Engineering to Business Affairs. Ms. Darling has been an active leader in technical and trade organizations in the broadcasting field and has served on Canadian and U.S. based task forces and advisory boards dealing with new communications systems and services. She is currently Chair of the Canadian Digital Television Inc. (CDTV) Technology Working Group and a Director on the Boards of Industry Canada’s Communications Research Centre (CRC) and CDTV.
A graduate engineer from Queen’s University, Ms. Darling’s previous positions include Vice President Business Development and Engineering at the Women’s Television Network (WTN), one of Canada’s most successful specialty networks, and Chair of Advanced Broadcasting Systems of Canada (ABSOC). Earlier positions at Nordicity Group Ltd. and Bell Canada focused on the development of new broadcast and telecommunications services. Most recently, Ms. Darling has provided consulting expertise to a number of organizations in the Canadian television industry.
Peter Smith, Chairman of NABA and Vice President of Advanced Technology at NBC, says the new Executive Director will play a key role in the work of the Association. Carols broad experience and understanding of broadcasting will greatly assist us in making the activities of NABA more relevant to our members Ms. Darling has been recognized for her contributions to the broadcasting industry through several awards including the Canadian Women in Communications (CWC) Trailblazer of the Year Award in 1997. She will assume the Executive Director position at NABA on April 12.
24 March 2004
BBC World Service programme Outlook will be coming live from Beijing in a broadcasting first this week on Thursday 25 and Friday 26 March. It’s the first time foreigners have been allowed into a Chinese broadcast studio for a live transmission with an overseas broadcaster. Outlook will join Radio Beijing for a co-production of the programme, the first time a state broadcaster has collaborated on such a project.
BBC presenter Frederick Dove and Radio Beijing host Jane Chung will look at how one of the world’s fastest developing cities has changed in the run up to the Beijing Olympics in 2008.With the preparations well underway, Outlook will be finding out how Olympic fever is affecting Beijing dwellers. Table Tennis player Deng Yaping, one of China’s biggest sports personalities and an Olympic Committee member, will be discussing her life in the public eye and the impact she thinks the games will have on Beijing.
23 March 2004
Euro1080, the first operator to broadcast in High Definition TV throughout Europe, is to use Irdeto Access content protection solutions for its two channels. The services, which launched in January this year, are free to air for now, but will be encrypted from May 1st 2004 using Irdeto’s conditional access technology.
Euro1080 distributes two channels. The Main Channel distributes a daily 12 hours’ programme to European households as well as to a range of venues to familiarise the public with the quality of HDTV has to offer. The Event Channel distributes event programmes (live or recorded) to so-called ‘event cinemas’, equipped with electronic projectors and surround sound systems, as well as to other venues such as theatres, opera houses and sport halls.
The channel bouquet will be protected by Irdeto Access’s content security solution; Irdeto PIsys. Designed to provide the highest levels of protection possible against the theft of content, assets and revenues, it can be scaled to handle millions of subscribers.
23 March 2004
TANDBERG Television, together with NDT, one of its business partners in the Peoples Republic of China, has secured a new contract with Shanghai Interactive TV for the provision of digital cable head-end and video delivery solutions. The deal will allow Shanghai Interactive TV (SITV) to expand its existing digital TV platform and offer enhanced services to two of its biggest broadcast customers, CCTV and the Chinese Football Primary League (CFPL).
The move demonstrates the strength of the existing relationship between SITV and TANDBERG Television and allows TANDBERG Television to build its presence within the ever-growing cable market in the PRC. In 2003, the company announced that it had secured contracts with over 15 cable operators, including Zhengzhou Cable TV, Shenyang TV, Xiamen Cable TV and Shanghai Cable Network Co., as well as being a key supplier to CBN for its cable ATM distribution system. The deal also continues the relationship between TANDBERG Television and NDT, as NDTs CEO Andrew Lo explains: We are delighted that SITV has chosen to work with ourselves and TANDBERG Television again. The deal shows just how effective our in-country partnership is in providing tried and tested world-class technology solutions to broadcasters and operators in the Peoples Republic of China. The market for digital cable in China is exploding and we are proud to be playing such an important role in its development, says Geng Liang, Sales Director of TANDBERG Television in China.
