15 February 2017
Arabsat and ONT have signed an agreement to launch a Tunisian broadcast platform on Arabsat Badr-4 at 26°E.
This platform operation will start by end of Q2, 2017 and will allow Tunisian and regional broadcasters to have direct access from Tunis to the growing 26°E neighbourhood with a coverage encompassing MENA and Western Europe.
“This platform is the result of the long term cooperation between Arabsat and the Office National de la Telediffusion Tunisien (ONT) which had started several years ago “said Khalid Balkheyour, CEO of Arabsat. “It will enhance our relationship with Tunisia where Arabsat is already present through our Satellite Control Station as well as the HQ of our strategic partner ASBU.”
“Expanding our cooperation with Arabsat will enable us to meet our customers’ needs and position ONT as a true one stop shop. We believe the 26°E neighbourhood will continue its growth through the addition of exclusive TV channels respecting the traditions of the region” added the CEO of ONT Mr Dhaker Baccouch.
Rohde and Schwarz was chosen for the installation and commissioning of the platform with the most up to date technical specifications.
(Source: Arabsat press release)
14 February 2017
Third satellite in the Intelsat EpicNG High-Throughput fleet, now with unmatched resilience over one of the world’s most trafficked routes
Intelsat S.A. (NYSE: I), operator of the world’s first Globalized Network, powered by its leading satellite backbone, today announced the successful launch of the Intelsat 32e satellite aboard an Ariane 5 launch vehicle from French Guiana. Liftoff occurred at 16:39 EST. The satellite separated from the rocket’s lower stage at 17:06 EST and signal acquisition has been confirmed.
Intelsat 32e is designed to overlay certain beams of Intelsat 29e, the company’s first Intelsat EpicNG spacecraft, increasing the throughput available in the highly-trafficked Caribbean and North Atlantic routes and providing resiliency for mobility network service providers servicing those shipping and air routes. The satellite is located at 317º East.
“This is the first of three Intelsat EpicNG satellite launches planned for 2017 as we continue to deploy our high-performance overlay on the world’s first Globalized Network. With the addition of Intelsat 32e, Intelsat is now the only satellite operator with HTS resiliency over the world’s busiest air route,” said Stephen Spengler, Chief Executive Officer, Intelsat. “Intelsat 32e also increases our capabilities to support the growth of our maritime customers in the Caribbean and the Atlantic, such as the exclusive use of our services for broadband to most of the world’s largest cruise ships sailing the Caribbean right now.”
The Intelsat EpicNG design reflects the company’s innovative approach to introducing high-throughput technology to the world’s largest community of commercial-grade satellite networks which operate on the Intelsat fleet. The design optimizes performance at the user level, providing unmatched signal efficiency and a high-speed return link perfect for uploading user-created videos to the web or back to the home office. Intelsat EpicNG is backwards compatible and fully interoperable with Intelsat’s existing satellite fleet and terrestrial infrastructure, allowing customers to use currently deployed network hardware to access the high performance connectivity. The platform’s open architecture allows customers to have control over service offerings and hardware selection, providing differentiation of service offerings.
Intelsat’s next planned launch is Intelsat 35e, scheduled aboard a SpaceX Falcon flight in the second quarter of 2017.
Supporting Resources:
(Source: Intelsat press release)
8 February 2017
The winners of this year’s DStv Eutelsat Star Awards, the unique pan-African competition that encourages young minds to explore innovative thinking in science and space technology were announced tonight in Nigeria. The sixth edition shows sustained interest from African learners aged 14 to 19, attracting over 1,000 entries from 20 countries. Levels of accuracy, creativity and originality were judged to be higher than ever before, both in the essay and poster categories.
Prizes from out of space
Entrants to the essay category were inspired to envision the role played by satellite technology in Africa’s future. The winner in this category, Leoul Mesfin from Ethiopia, struck the judges for his analysis of continental and country specific needs and for closely developing the topic. He has won a trip to Paris and onwards to a launch site to witness a rocket blast into space to place a satellite into orbit. The runner-up in the essay category was Davids Bwana from Tanzania who wins a trip for two to visit MultiChoice facilities and the South African National Space Agency near Johannesburg.
In the poster category, first place went to Emmanuel Ochenjele from Nigeria for his depiction of a constellation of diverse satellites all contributing towards the advancement of solutions to challenges such as global warming, conservation of biodiversity and stable energy supply. He will visit Eutelsat in Paris and a satellite factory to see how satellites are operated. Aobakwe Letamofrom Botswana was the runner up in the same category. The four winning schools attended by award winners and runners-up were also rewarded with a DStv installation, including dish, TV set, PVR decoder and free access to the DStv Education Bouquet.
A new generation on the fast-track for positive change
Claudie Haigneré, Europe’s leading female astronaut and now special advisor to the Director General of the European Space Agency (ESA), chaired the jury of the Awards for the first time. She commented: “Taking part in the DStv Eutelsat Star Awards for the first time has been quite simply a mind-changing experience, especially as this year’s topic was particularly challenging. The visionary ideas on Africa’s future satellite landscape developed in essays and posters underscore how Africa’s youth expect technology to drive positive change for their continent. The Jury engaged in intense discussions to award the most realistic and creative proposals that deserve to stand out on the African stage. Our congratulations go to all the finalists for their work and to the winners for their brilliant ideas.”
She was assisted in her duty by a panel of international skilled industry experts: Ronke Bello, CEO at Innovative Technology Literacy Services Ltd (Nigeria), Elizabeth Ohene, journalist and former Minister of State to the Ministry of Education, Science and Sports (Ghana), Prof. Stephen Simukanga, Former University of Zambia Chancellor and now Director General of the Higher Education Authority, Jenerali Ulimwengu, well known writer, columnist and lawyer (Tanzania).
The winners were announced in the presence of the Hon. Permanent Secretary, his Excellency Sunny Echono, representing the Minister of Communication Technology who said: “This sixth edition shows sustained interest from African youths, adding fresh impetus to the mission shared by MultiChoice and Eutelsat to encourage young minds to positively change their world via innovative thinking in science and technology. This can be attested to by the number of Ministries, Departments and Agencies present at this event.”
(Source: Eutelsat press release)
6 February 2017
Current Time, an up-and-coming player in the Russian media market, will mark on Tuesday, Feb. 7 the formal launch of its 24/7 digital and TV stream.
With a mission to bring real news to Russian-speaking audiences everywhere, Current Time is engaging audiences from Lithuania to Kazakhstan and providing an alternative to Kremlin-sponsored media. The day-long video stream builds on the successes of individual daily news programs started in 2014 and 2015.
First and foremost a digital news and current affairs network, Current Time’s daily lineup features hourly live newscasts and sharp political debate, in addition to innovative programs covering business, entrepreneurship, civil society, and culture. It is also a leading destination for documentary films that are otherwise unavailable inside Russia.
“Led by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in cooperation with the Voice of America (VOA), the Current Time digital network is a signature accomplishment of the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG),” said BBG CEO and Director John Lansing. “Current Time embodies all of the priorities I set forth to maximize the agility, efficiency and impact of the BBG networks and allow us to more effectively address the rapidly evolving global media environment.”
Public demand for Current Time’s content is reflected in its wide distribution network, comprising 32 cable affiliates in Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Germany, and Israel. Its live video stream is available across Eurasia, to more than 7.3 million subscribers to 36 satellite, cable, and IPTV services. The stream is also hosted on the digital platforms filmon.tv and MeGoGo, with more than 100 million monthly users, and on the Eutelsat Hotbird-8 satellite, which reaches 135 million households from Iceland to Turkey.
While TV remains the dominant media platform in much of Current Time’s target region, the network’s innovative digital unit takes the network’s content direct to growing mobile and web audiences, who have viewed its clever social videos on corruption, politics, and the ordinary challenges of daily life more than 160 million times in 2016 on Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter, and Russian social networks such as VKontakte and Odnoklassniki. An average of 1 million people per month visited the network’s website and mobile news and video apps.
The network’s Russian name, “Nastoyashchee Vremya,” has a triple meaning that aptly describes Current Time’s purpose — to provide its Russian-speaking audience content that is truthful, current, and real.
RFE/RL is a private, independent international news organization whose programs — radio, internet, television, and mobile — reach 27 million people in 26 languages and 23 countries, including Russia, Ukraine, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, the republics of Central Asia and the Caucasus, and the Baltic states.
VOA delivers news and information in more than 45 languages to a measured weekly audience of more than 236 million people. With 75 years of experience, VOA is a trusted source for accurate information about news events, freedom of expression, civil society, and change.
VOA and RFE/RL are two of the five networks of the Broadcasting Board of Governors, an independent federal agency supervising all U.S. government-supported, civilian international media.
6 February 2017
Simon Fell, Director of the EBU Technology and Innovation Department, has been elected to chair the World Broadcasting Unions (WBU) Technical Committee (TC) for a two year term (2017/18). The WBU brings together the eight broadcasting unions in matters of common interest. The elected management team for the WBU-TC is Simon Fell (Chair), Amal Punchihewa, ABU Technical Director (Vice-Chair), and John Lee, Chairman of the NABA Technical Committee (Vice-Chair).
The WBU-TC has worked together and shared knowledge of broadcast technology and prepared common recommendations on such matters as broadcast spectrum and programme production for many decades. Simon Fell explained: “The world’s broadcasters face many common challenges, which include protecting broadcasters and their customers from IT security threats, understanding the impact of 5G on broadcasting, investigating whether there can be common file formats for programmes, and much more. I am looking forward to working with my colleagues across the world to the benefit of us all.” Simon Fell leads the team spearheading developments in media technologies at the EBU. He has four decades of experience, formerly with ITV as Director of Future Technologies; previously he helped establish Carlton Television where he held several executive positions and helped launch digital broadcasting.
He is currently Chairman of the ETSI Mobile Broadcast Convergence Group and previously has been President of DigiTAG and chaired the Technical Council at the UK’s Digital Television Group, and was Chairman of the HD Forum. Additional roles include Director of Engineering for Rushes, Chief Engineer of 625 and establishing Channel Four. His early career included periods in the USA with Rank Cintel and at YTV in Leeds. He is a Fellow of both the SMPTE and RTS.
Amal Punchihewa is currently the Director of Technology & Innovation at ABU. In that position, he leads a team of specialists, driving innovation of media technology in the best interest of ABU members. He facilitates technical guidelines and standards, providing expertise related to the convergence of media, and involving technical needs. He is an advisor to IET Vision and Imaging Technical and Professional Network, having previously served as an Executive committee member. He possesses more than 30 years of experience in all three sectors of broadcasting; viz. academia, research and industry, including roles in regional capacity building in media and as head of engineering of national TV-Sri Lanka. He graduated with B.Sc. (Eng) Hons. specialised in Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering from Sri Lanka, M. Eng. from Technical University of Eindhoven, the Netherlands & PhD from Massey University in New Zealand. He is a Senior Member of IEEE, Chartered Professional Engineer-CEng, Fellow of IET (UK) & Fellow of IPENZ (New Zealand).
John Lee retired in December 2016 as Executive Director, Technology Solutions, for CBC/Radio-Canada, Canada’s national television and radio public broadcaster. In this role, he was responsible for all DTV and Radio transmission facilities, all satellite stations and facilities, telecommunications, mobility, telephony, unified communications; and for IT, including data centers, end-user computers, applications, Information Security and governance. In 2001, he and his project team won the Canadian Gemini Award for Outstanding Technical Achievement for the National Satellite DVC Project and, subsequently, the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) International Broadcasting Excellence Award in 2002. He was the executive sponsor of the Next Generation Converged Network (NGCN) project, a high-speed 58 city software defined fibre-optic network which won the 2012 CBC President’s Award for Technical Innovation.
John Lee is a Vice-President of the North American Broadcasters Association (NABA) and is Chairman of NABA’s Technical Committee. He is Vice-Chairman of the World Broadcasting Unions (WBU) Technical Committee.
About the World Broadcasting Unions (WBU)
The World Broadcasting Unions (WBU) is the coordinating body for broadcasting unions who represent broadcaster networks across the globe. It was established in 1992 as a coordinating body at the international broadcasting level. Since then, the WBU has provided global solutions on key issues for its member unions. The North American Broadcasters Association (NABA) acts as secretariat for the WBU.
The broadcasting unions who belong to the WBU are the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU), the Arab States Broadcasting Union (ASBU), the African Union of Broadcasting (AUB), the Caribbean Broadcasting Union (CBU), the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), the International Association of Broadcasting (IAB/AIR), the North American Broadcasters Association (NABA) and the Organizacion de Telecomunicaciones Iberoamericanas (OTI).
