23 March 2007
Somalia’s interim government, acting through its Committee for the National Security Council, has ordered the Al Jazeera office in Mogadishu to stop its operation from Thursday 22 March 2007. There have been no any explanations or reasons provided for the decision.
Wadah Khanfar, Director General of the Al Jazeera Network, stated that: “Al Jazeera, while expressing its disappointment of the decision to close our office in Mogadishu, reasserts its commitment to the principles of the free press and defends the right of viewers to know what happens across the world with impartiality and integrity.”
Al Jazeera has confirmed that it will continue to cover events in Somalia from other sources and locations as it has in the past when previous governments closed down its offices. Al Jazeera English has been noted reporting the situation in Mogadishu since the Al Jazeera office closure, using agency pictures.
22 March 2007
South Africa’s public broadcaster, SABC, has announced that it intends to launch an international, satellite-delivered news channel to Africa. Again.
Over the last two years, SABC has been planning a foray into international TV, with SABC Africa as the brand, drawing on resources from the Corporation – Africa’s largest broadcaster – but also with contributions from other channels. SABC Africa didn’t get off the ground partly, says SABC news and current affairs chief Snuki Zikalala (pictured), because of the reliance on other organisations’ bureaux to provide much of the news.
SABC International plans to do things differently this time. The SABC has been developing its own news bureaux across Africa and in Europe and other strategic locations to bolster its newsgathering capabilities. With these in place, SABC International can launch and it’s set for next year, although there will be a trial in June.
SABC International will have to compete with Al Jazeera English, BBC World, CNN International, France 24 and other global news channels that are focusing on developing African distribution. At the same time, Kenya-based news agency chief Salim Amin is fast developing a commercially-funded pan-African news channel.
There is much going on out there.
20 March 2007
Content integration, playout and distribution services for Top Up TV Anytime
Three-year deal to facilitate on-demand services for digital terrestrial television
Solution encompasses integration with Arqiva-provided SDN multiplex system
Arqiva has secured a contract to provide content integration, playout and distribution services for Top Up TV to facilitate overnight delivery of selected programming to set-top boxes. The three-year deal will see Arqiva providing Top Up TV Anytime with three playout channels from Chalfont Grove to Arqivas switching centre in London. The integrated content will then be delivered to the SDN digital terrestrial television multiplex system at Arqivas Feltham media centre, ready for transmission.
Simon Dore, chief technical officer at Top Up TV said, We needed a flexible solution that combined content integration with a reliable distribution network. Arqivas existing relationships with the DTT multiplexes combined with their offer of a solution tailored to our needs made it an ideal technical partner.
John Bozza, head of broadcast sales at Arqiva added, Top Up TV Anytime is an innovative approach to providing programmes on-demand and makes very efficient use of digital terrestrial capacity. Were delighted to be playing such a crucial role in the delivery process.
20 March 2007
GlobeCast, the worlds leading content management company via satellite and fiber for professional broadcast, announced today that it has been selected by MobiTV, the global leader in mobile and broadband television and music services, to manage critical content ingestion to support the delivery of live television to MobiTVs mobile and broadband platforms in North America.
From its digital broadcast center and teleport in Los Angeles, the Companys IP broadcasting hub in the U.S., GlobeCast is furnishing 24/7 channel ingest via satellite, signal encoding, monitoring and connectivity of live channels for delivery into MobiTVs proprietary technology platform(s).
By centralizing our channel ingestion, MobiTV is now able to easily ingest and move channels on a global scale across GlobeCasts worldwide network of teleports, satellite capacities and a global fiber ring, said Kay Johansson, CTO for MobiTV. Not only do we have more flexibility to scale internationally, we have a solution in place that protects our proprietary technology while keeping our partners content secure.
The agreement with MobiTV confirms GlobeCasts growing leadership position as a global content manager and aggregator for IP-delivered video to telco, cable and mobile platforms.
20 March 2007
RadioScape announced today that it will immediately extend its current multi-standard radio product line to support all digital standards required for the French market. This will enable the development of multi-standard radio receivers capable of supporting DAB based standards including T-DMB and DAB+, as well as DRM (Digital Radio Mondiale), and current analogue standards AM and FM.
On March 12th, 2007, Industry Minister, Mr François Loos, issued a ministerial decree for the transition to Digital Radio in France based on a multi-standard approach. The AM band (short, medium and long wave) will experience a renewal through the adoption of digital standard, DRM. In addition, the T-DMB implementation of the DAB standard will be used in both Band III and L-Band, with the likely incorporation of the recently announced DAB+ standard.
John Hall, RadioScapes CEO, commented: This is a breakthrough moment for the French radio market. Finally, the transition to digital has begun and, as expected, both DAB and DRM standards are joint winners. We will support both the receivers market with our multi-standard module product line, as well as the broadcast market with our proven DAB broadcast systems. Given our significant experience in DAB and DRM standards we are uniquely positioned to enable the French market to go digital.
Multi-standard DAB/DRM receivers now shipping
Over the past 3 years, RadioScape has pioneered the development of multi-standard radio receiver technology to support both DAB and DRM standards. RadioScape is now shipping the award winning RS500 module, which provides reception for DAB (Band-III & L-Band), DRM (LW, MW & SW), FM-RDS, AM (LW & MW) including AMSS, automatic alternative frequency switching (AFS), EPG (DAB), SD-CARD Recording (DAB/DRM) and playback of MP3/WMA files.
Andrew Dewhurst, RadioScapes Product Manager for Receivers, added: The requirements of the emerging Digital Radio market in France are a perfect natural transition of existing standards support for our multi-standard product line. We can immediately assist manufacturers in the development of their receiver product plans given the significant expertise already developed with the current generation of DAB and DRM radios. Our multi-standard module family is currently being enhanced to incorporate support for additional DAB implementations, including DAB+, and will be available later in the year.
Broadcast systems already support multiple DAB implementations
RadioScapes Broadcast Systems product line already supports multiple implementations of the DAB standard including DAB audio, T-DMB and DAB-IP, with DAB+ coming later this year. Over 85 broadcast systems are on air at major broadcasters and network operators around the world to support DAB audio as well as DMB based multi-media and mobile TV transmissions.
European broadcast industry eyes multi-standard future
The announcement this week in France follows a year of close collaboration between Radio France, RMC, RTL, SIRTI (regional radios), NRJ and the Lagardere group radio stations who joined forces with the objective of obtaining statutory regulation for the introduction of broadcasting standards, which would give the green light to the adoption of digital radio.
A number of countries across Europe and Asia have already adopted the DAB standard, but the emergence of DRM for the digitisation of the AM bands is a more recent phenomena. Already 18 broadcasters are now broadcasting on DRM with over 28 services now on air, amounting to over 230 hours per day.
In the UK the BBC has announced that it is to undertake a trial of DRM, which will allow it to explore digital radio using medium-wave frequencies. The trial will broadcast BBC Radio Devon using the new technology in the Plymouth area and will last for a year from the end of April.
20 March 2007
Radio Netherlands Worldwide (RNW) is pleased to announce the appointment of Andy Clark as the new Head of the English Department. Andy will take up his new role in May. The Current Head of English, Mike Shaw, is retiring this summer.
Andy Clark joined RNW in 1998 as producer on Newsline, and in 2003 launched the weekly discussion show Amsterdam Forum. In 2006, Andy joined the small editorial team based in The Hague. He returns to work full-time in Hilversum as the English department rolls out its new programming.
