28 November 2005
SES ASTRA, an SES GLOBAL company has closed a new long-term agreement with MTV Networks Europe for further capacity on an ASTRA satellite at the orbital position 19.2° East. MTV will use the newly contracted transponder to launch TV channels for different European markets, but primarily France and the Netherlands with MTV European, MTV NL, MTV Idol, MTV Pulse, and Nickelodeon France. MTV and Viacom have now contracted seven transponders in total from SES ASTRA.
28 November 2005
The new President of the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU) is Genichi Hashimoto, President of NHK-Japan.
He was elected at the General Assembly in Hanoi at the weekend to succeed Zainal Abidin Iberahim of RTM-Malaysia, who has been acting ABU President since Katsuji Ebisawa resigned from the post early in 2004.
Mr Hashimoto will serve a three-year term, starting on 1 January. An engineer by training, he joined NHK in 1968 and was General Managing Director/Executive Director-General for Engineering before becoming President.
26 November 2005
After the UK’s Daily Mirror newspaper published news about the American president’s intention to bomb Al-Jazeera’s headquarters in Doha and some of its bureaux abroad, on 24 November the satellite channel issued an appeal to the world’s media to investigate the facts behind this report. Voicing the fear that, if proven correct, this news item would confirm previous American threats against Aljazeera, and it would also confirm that the bombing of Al-Jazeera bureaux in Kabul and Baghdad and the consequent deaths of Al-Jazeera reporters were deliberate and premeditated acts against Al-Jazeera. In its statement, Al-Jazeera Channel noted that, if proven true, these acts are not only directed against against the Qatar-based channel but against the freedom of expression and democracy in general.
Al-Jazeera Head Wadah Khanfar is currently in London, calling for the facts to be made public and delivering a letter to Tony Blair. The report in the Daily Mirror alleged that Mr Blair had persuaded the US President not to bomb Al-Jazeera’s HQ in April 2004. The UK’s Attorney General has warned newspaper editors against publication under the Official Secrets Act. The controversy has grown with MPs tabling a Commons motion calling for the memo to be made public and accusing ministers of using the Official Secrets Act to save political embarrassment rather than protect national security.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme, Mr Khanfar said: “This news that we have heard is very concerning. We demand a proper explanation and we would like to know the facts.” He said the matter was very important and that it concerned not only Al-Jazeera but journalists across the world.
Al-Jazeera has also asked the White House for an explanation.
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
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.
