24 February 2005
Ute Schaeffer has been appointed Head of the French service of DW-RADIO. She was previously in charge of Ukrainian programming at DW.
Deutsche Welle broadcasts in French for 3 hours per day, targetting listeners in francophone Africa. Programmes can be received via short wave and satellite, and via the broadcasters online platform.
DW has more than 120 FM partner stations in west and central Africa, and can fall back on a network of 25 correspondents in all countries in francophone Africa.
15 February 2005
Friendly match on 15 February to benefit Tsunami victims will be broadcast via satellite on GlobeCast Direct-To-Home Satellite platforms worldwide
GlobeCast, the world’s leading satellite services company, will be collaborating in the Football for Hope FIFA / UEFA Friendly Match to be held between Ronaldinho XI and Shevchenko XI on 15 February 2005 at the Nou Camp Stadium in Barcelona, Spain. The entire proceeds of this charity event will be donated to the FIFA / AFC Tsunami Solidarity Fund. GlobeCast will be on site in Barcelona to provide transmission, encryption and uplink to its broadcast platforms worldwide.
The top footballers in the world, led by FIFA World Player 2004 Ronaldinho and European Footballer of the Year 2004 Andriy Shevchenko, will compete in this friendly but fierce competition for a good cause. In response, GlobeCast’s broadcast professionals around the globe will work together to deliver coverage of this historic match to millions of potential viewers on every continent.
GlobeCast’s Direct-to-Home platforms will carry the game live from Barcelona to:
-Africa, via NSS-7 (C-band) and HOT BIRD 6 (Ku-band)
-Americas, via Hispasat 1C (Ku-band)
-Asia/Oceania, via AsiaSat 2 (C-band)
-Europe and Middle East, via HOT BIRD 6 (Ku-band)
This truly global coverage has been donated by GlobeCast as a token of solidarity with the victims of this terrible catastrophe. Coverage over Asia and Oceania is being provided courtesy of Asiasat, with uplink provided by Satlink.
15 February 2005
On 15 February 2005, the CBA celebrates the first meeting in 1945 which led to its existence.
The CBA was founded in February 1945 as the Commonwealth Broadcasting Conference. The first meeting, held in London, brought together representatives of a number of broadcasting organisations that had co-operated closely in reporting the Second World. It began with six members and is today an association of more than 100 broadcasting organisations in Europe, Asia, Africa, the Caribbean, Australasia, the Pacific, North and South America.
The title “Commonwealth Broadcasting Association” was adopted in Malta in 1974 as well as the CBA charter, which set out the principles and aims of the association stipulating that membership “shall be open to publicly owned national public service broadcasting organisations, or groups of such organisations, which are responsible for the planning, production and presentation of broadcast programmes in Commonwealth countries”. This was modified in 1995 to allow for membership of commercial companies with a commitment to public service broadcasting and to allow for affiliate membership.
Following the first conference in Britain in 1945, a subsequent meeting was again held in Britain in 1952 and then in Australia (1956), India (1960), Canada (1963), Nigeria (1965), New Zealand (1968), and then on a regular basis every two years continuing with Jamaica (1970), Kenya (1972), Malta (1974), Singapore (1976), Mauritius (1978), Australia (1980), Canada (1982), Hong Kong (1984), Britain (1986), The Bahamas (1988) Cyprus (1990), Botswana (1992), Canada (1994), Malaysia (1996), Gibraltar (1998), South Africa (2000), Britain (2002) and Fiji (2004).
The modern CBA is a respected international forum for broadcasters, promoting quality broadcasting through exchange of knowledge and skills, it runs broadcasting conferences, consultancies and training, has a number of broadcasting publications to its credit, helps broadcasters with funds in case of major crises like disasters and has recently made donations to the broadcasting organisations of the Maldives, Seychelles and Sri Lanka to help repair tsunami damage.
The CBA also runs a big bursary programme, and currently spends over £300,000 on bursaries to broadcasters each year.
As part of its 60th anniversary celebrations, the BBC’s Chairman Michael Grade gave the Commonwealth Broadcasting Lecture on 9 February 2005.
CBA will publish a book with the best of the Commonwealth Short Stories and Photographs called “The Spirit of the Commonwealth”.
15 February 2005
Harris Corporation has announced the agenda for a two-day DRM Symposium March 1-2 at the Marriott Hotel in Bucharest, Romania. The event is designed to inform and educate radio broadcasters from Europe, North Africa and the Middle East on how they can prepare for a digital future with DRM (Digital Radio Mondiale) technology, and will focus on Romania’s countrywide upgrade and expansion of its national broadcast infrastructure. Representatives from Harris and S.N. Radiocomunicatii S.A., Romania’s state-owned broadcast organization, will provide insight into the strategies behind the modernization program that is establishing 100 percent radio and television coverage throughout the country.
Day one of the symposium will begin with introductory comments from John Hall, manager of Radio Programs and High-Power Products for Harris Broadcast Communications Division’s Radio Broadcast Systems business, and a keynote speech from Gabriel Grecu, president of S.N. Radiocomunicatii. Mr. Grecu will discuss the advantages of upgrading the entire country’s broadcast infrastructure in two years, as well as his vision for a digital future in radio and television. Several presentations on DRM will follow, culminating with a DRM demonstration at a nearby 400 kW high-power AM transmitter site, the Tancabesti High-Power Radio station. Once at the site, Harris engineers will install a DRM exciter package inside the transmitter. The DRM exciter package will feature a content server for transmission of a multiplexed, bandwidth-efficient audio/data stream and a modulator to drive the digitally prepared signal to a DRM-ready receiver. Attendees will be able to listen to the results.
Day two will focus on Romania’s overall modernization program and cover all aspects from finance to technology and installation. Broadcasters from countries still relying on tube transmitters will learn how Harris’ television, radio, microwave and networking divisions worked together to provide a cost-effective, turnkey system that brought Romania ‘s antiquated system up to date with the solid-state analog technology favored throughout Western Europe. Discussions also will point to how Romania is now fully prepared for a digital future. Russia, Hungary, Bulgaria, Israel, Syria, Nigeria, Algeria, Turkey, Poland and the Ukraine are among the many countries expected to be represented during this conference.
“Now that we’ve established 100 percent national radio coverage, we feel it’s important to get the message out to our broadcasting peers faced with the same challenges that we’ve successfully addressed,” said Mr. Grecu. “Not only have we boosted our signal quality and coverage areas, but we were able to complete the installation in a span of two short years. It’s clear that our plan to upgrade the entire infrastructure at once was correct. It provides a clear return on investment and establishes a digital-ready infrastructure featuring the best in today’s solid-state analog technology.”
“The fact that Romania was able to boost its national coverage from 70 to 100 percent in a two-year period is impressive,” said Mr. Hall. “The overall goal of the DRM Symposium is to educate broadcasters on developing digital formats and inform attendees who are still relying on outdated technology that now is the time to upgrade. As Western Europe and other countries migrate to digital technology in the coming years, it’s important that others follow Romania’s lead and reap the immediate, significant benefits of solid-state analog technology and its seamless, cost-effective upgrade path.”
Between presentations and roundtable discussions, broadcasters will be able to observe a continuous demonstration of DRM and DAB receivers with live audio in the Marriott lobby. A separate DAB transmitter demonstration and related DAB discussions also will be on the Wednesday schedule for attendees interested in learning more about this growing digital format.
15 February 2005
Leading satellite services company GlobeCast, announced on 11 February the addition of Bosnian channel BN TV to its GlobeCast WorldTV Direct-to-Home satellite television platform the leading source of international television and radio in the United States. BN TV is the first Bosnian channel to debut on the service and is a key addition to the diverse European bouquet of worldwide programming on GlobeCast WorldTV. This coverage comes in addition to BN TVs existing availability in Australia and New Zealand on PanGlobal TV, a joint venture between GlobeCast Australia and PanAmSat. The channel now has access to a potential audience of millions of viewers across the globe.
GlobeCast – a subsidiary of France Telecom – manages proprietary Direct-to-Home satellite television platforms in Europe, America, Australia, Africa and Asia. GlobeCast WorldTV is the companys American Direct-to-Home Satellite Television Service on the Intelsat Americas 5 satellite.
GlobeCast is providing BN TV with transmission to America and Australia via satellite and fiber including uplink and space segment. The company receives BN TV via satellite at the GlobeCast Technical Operations Center in Paris. The signal is then fed via GlobeCasts proprietary ATM fiber network to the Los Angeles gateway in Culver City for conversion, encoding and turnaround to GlobeCast WorldTV on Intelsat Americas 5 for Direct-to-Home broadcast in America and to PanAmSats PAS-8 satellite for DTH broadcast on PanGlobal TV in Australia on behalf of BN TV’s distributor, TV PLUS.
Founded in 1998, BN TV is the highest rated TV channel in Republika Srpska (Bosnian Serb Republic) as well as one of Bosnia & Herzegovinas leading channels. The full time channel offers news and political programs such as PULS, STAV I KONTRASTAV, PREGLED DANA, SVET DANAS, as well as entertainment programs like NEDELJNO POPODNE, I TO SAM JA, VECE SA VAMA, SLUCAJNI PARTNERI and UZ ANK. Its primary news journal, BN MONITOR, is the highest rated news program in the country. This is a subscription-based channel, available to GlobeCast WorldTV subscribers in the U.S. for $17 per month. For further information on signing up for BN TV, call 1-888-988-5288 from the United States.
15 February 2005
Radio Netherlands announced that Joop Daalmeijer has been appointed as its new Editor-in-Chief, responsible for the programming and journalistic aspects of the organization.
Mr Daalmeijer has spent more than 30 years in Dutch broadcasting. Mr Daalmeijer says: “My heart is in journalism. For me, it’s a challenge to be in charge of the journalistic process within such an innovative organisation as Radio Netherlands, that operates internationally. Radio Netherlands reaches millions of people through radio, TV and Intenet, and adapts quickly to technical developments and changing needs.”
