The SatADSL Management: A Solid Team Delivering Cutting-Edge VSAT Technology

The SatADSL Management: A Solid Team Delivering Cutting-Edge VSAT Technology

When professionals meet, good things often happen. The founding partners of SatADSL, all from the telecommunications industry, prove this every day. One day, they decided to unite their expertise and talent to create SatADSL. And today, their enthusiasm and professionalism are rewarded by the company’s growing success. Introduction to the founding partners of SatADSL, a team of unusual personalities…

Thierry Eltges, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of SatADSL
Thierry holds an engineer’s degree. He begins his career in the 1980s at the Belgian Ministry of Science Policy and continues to work over the next decade for the European Space Agency (ESA) at the European Space Technology Center in Noordwijk, Holland. In the years 2000, Thierry starts his own company for consulting services ‒ Sea & Space Exploration, still active today. His customers include ESA and industrial companies such as Newtec or satellite telecommunications operators such as SES. For 10 years, Sea & Space Exploration specializes in market research for launching new products. Following a study for ESA in 2011, he decides to start SatADSL with the current management of SatADSL.

Fulvio Sansone, the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of SatADSL
Fulvio graduated in electrical engineering from the University of Naples. He also holds an MBA and has over 20 years experience in satellite communications, intelligent transport systems, positioning and location-based services. He has worked for companies like Oracle Corporation as International Business Development Director and External R&D Director, European Satellite Operators Association (ESOA) as Secretary-General, ERTICO as Development Manager Satellite Positioning, and the Belgian mobile and satellite communications company SAIT-Radio Holland as Business Development Manager and Business Unit Manager. He joins Sea & Space Exploration in 2009.

Michel Dothey, the Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) of SatADSL
Michel holds a civil engineering’s degree from the Free University of Brussels. He has over 35 years experience in telecommunications companies, including SAIT-Radio Holland, where he started as a project manager and became head of the R&D department. There he meets Fulvio and later Thierry, in charge of supervising the ASE program of SAIT Radio-Holland. Michel goes on to work as a telecommunications consultant for, among others, the Belgian public-service broadcasting organization (RTBF). Before joining SatADSL in 2012, he also worked for a food company as Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer.

Caroline De Vos, the Chief Operating Officer (COO) and PR Manager of SatADSL
Caroline holds a Master in Physics from the Free University of Brussels, a Master in Space Science from the University of Liège and a Space Executive MBA from the International Space University.  She starts working as a systems engineer for ESA, where she first meets Thierry. She continues as Project Manager and Marketing & Communication Manager at Space Checker, an innovative company offering vehicle tracking and monitoring services for critical satellite data (speed, pressure, load temperature, etc.). Caroline then joins Space Application Services, an ESA sub-contractor, to manage the strategic definition projects for crewed missions to Mars. She is also an astronaut candidate and works for several months at ESA’s European Astronaut Training Centre in Cologne. In 2006, Caroline joins Sea & Space Exploration and contributes to several telecommunications market studies, including the one initiating the SatADSL adventure.
 

 

Funding boost for New Zealand public broadcasting

Funding boost for New Zealand public broadcasting

Funding boost for New Zealand public broadcasting

Public broadcasting allocated additional 15m NZ dollars in 2018 budget

New Zealand Broadcasting, Communications and Digital Media Minister Claire Curran announced the allocation of an extra NZD 15m (USD 10.2m, GBP 7.8m, EUR 8.7m) for public broadcasting on 11 July.

This additional funding is to be spread between RNZ (Radio New Zealand), the NZ On Air funding agency and a new fund targeting “under-served audiences”. This increase results from a recommendation from a Ministerial Public Media Advisory Group which found that NZ public media were funded at a lower level compared with those in developed countries of a similar size (Norway, Finland, Denmark, Ireland) as well as in Australia and Canada.

Welcome boost

This extra funding represents a 11.4% boost on the 2017 NZD 131.116m budget for public broadcasting. It will be allocated as follows:

  • NZD 4.5m for RNZ, “so that it can extend its multimedia services to reach more people in different ways – “RNZ + Stage 1’.”
  • NZD 4m for NZ On Air, “to enable it to boost its reach to under-served audiences such as children, and for innovative on-line drama.”
  • NZD 6m for a Joint Innovation Fund “to pilot a new type of sector-wide collaboration that would see RNZ commission content for its platforms from the commercial sector in a joint venture with NZ On Air.”
  • NZD 0.5m for the Ministry for Culture and Heritage (MCH) to undertake research on capacity for media collaboration and the levels of funding for an effective public media

NZ On Air is an independent Crown entity funding agency, which finances media projects and content, including television programmes and activities, community broadcasting as well as local music and artists and other projects that support local content and are important to New Zealanders.

NZ On Air describes its funding model as “unique in the world. Its flexibility has allowed us to follow the audiences, ensuring that as audiences find their media in new ways and places, they can still find local content.”

RNZ was established under the Radio New Zealand Act 1995 as a stand-alone, Crown-owned entity with major responsibilities being National Radio, Concert FM and Radio New Zealand International. RNZ is funded through NZ on Air (92%) the MCH and Parliament’s Office of the Clerk (8%) and receives no advertising revenue.

RNZ total expenditure in 2017 was NZD 38.981m.

The RNZ Charter, reviewed every five years, sets out RNZ operating principles

Wide and varied offer

RNZ offer has evolved and expanded since the 1995 Act. It includes now:

RNZ National, which broadcasts round-the-clock, its programme mix includes news and current affairs, documentaries and features, drama and music. At least 33% of the music it broadcasts is New Zealand in origin.

Talk-orientated programmes make up 60% of air time. Specialist features and documentaries produced exclusively for RNZ National focus on the interests of particular groups in the community.

Māori programming can be heard across the schedule.

RNZ Concert is RNZ’s fine music network. Music comprises 85% of air time. Much of this is classical, with additional specialist music programmes covering jazz, contemporary and world music.

Concert actively promotes New Zealand music and composition, providing an important showcase for the best of the country’s performing artists. “Its specialised production department commissions work from New Zealand musicians and composers, and initiates an extensive range of music programmes. The station delivers live broadcasts of concerts and recitals both of New Zealand artists and visiting international artists.”

Concert also features international programmes selected from public radio broadcasters overseas.

RNZ Pacific (formerly Radio New Zealand International or RNZI) provides a wide range of New Zealand programmes to listeners in the Pacific and beyond.

RNZ Pacific programmes are streamed online, and are available also in North America, Europe, Asia Pacific and Africa on World Radio Network (WRN – in ), on SW frequencies around the Pacific, and some Pacific stations rebroadcast also RNZI News Bulletins and other features.

In addition to its English-language programmes, RNZ Pacific broadcast daily short (4 – 10 minutes each) news bulletins in the following languages: Niuean, Cook Island Maori, Tongan, Samoan.

NZ Parliament broadcasts all sittings of Parliament.

The RNZ News service “provides vital elements throughout [its] 24-hour programming schedule, bringing impartial news and information to New Zealanders every day.”

Online Broadcasting

RNZ provides live-streaming of all its broadcasting services: RNZ National; RNZ Concert; RNZ Pacific, and the Parliamentary Network.

Most spoken word content is also available on-demand, with an online programme library which currently features more than 170,000 individual items.

Online broadcasting services are accessible through the RNZ website and smartphone applications.

What about television?

There is no public-funded television network in New Zealand.

TVNZ (Television New Zealand) is a Crown-owned fully commercially-funded commercial TV network.

It operates three channels, TVNZ 1, a general interest channel (news and current affairs, locally and internationally-produced drama, general entertainment and documentaries) TVNZ 2, which targets a younger audience with  dramas, comedies and reality TV shows, and TVNZ Duke, airs comedies, dramas, documentaries, movies and sport.

Sources

NZ On Air Annual Report 2017; RNZ Annual Report 2016/2017; TVNZ Annual Report 2017

EXCLUSIVE – 10 DAYS AT SEA: The Real Story of the Aquarius

EXCLUSIVE – 10 DAYS AT SEA: The Real Story of the Aquarius

Euronews to air exclusive, behind-the-scenes documentary filmed on board the migrant ship that divided Europe.

Lyon, France – 13 July 2018 – On Monday, July 16 at 9 p.m., Euronews will broadcast an exclusive documentary based on its extraordinary reporting on rescue operations in the
Mediterranean, where the Aquarius became unexpectedly caught up in Europe’s bitter dispute over migration.

Euronews correspondent Anelise Borges spent 10 days on board the Aquarius, a rescue vessel operated by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) and SOS Méditerranée. Anelise was the only television journalist on board. She filmed around the clock, using only an iPhone, to capture the human story of the men, women and children who risked everything to reach Europe. Her reporting became an essential source for other media outlets covering the migration issue.

The documentary, “10 DAYS AT SEA: The Real Story of the Aquarius” begins with the rescue of more than 200 people from the Mediterranean over five hours. It was a complex
and dangerous operation during which two refugees drowned. The Italian coast guard then brought hundreds more rescued people to the Aquarius, which ended up with more than 600 refugees and migrants, including 120 unaccompanied minors and seven pregnant women.

The film then follows the decision, by Italy and subsequently Malta, to refuse the Aquarius access to their ports – and the excruciating wait to know who would take the migrants in. It also portrays the bitter debate and unresolved tensions within the EU over what to do with migrants who attempt the dangerous crossing of the Mediterranean Sea.

The documentary captures the bonds of friendship that formed between the migrants and the rescue workers during the voyage, and the emotional farewells as they disembarked in Spain to begin a new life.

Aloys Vimard
Coordinator for Médecins Sans Frontières
“I hope this will help bring a different reaction – and that Europe will focus on the
dignity and on the security of these people.”

Anelise Borges
Euronews correspondent
“I think that the most powerful aspect of the work that we journalists do is that
every story changes you in a way. Everywhere you go, you come back a different
person. Everyone you meet makes you just a little bit more human. Aquarius
was an extraordinary journey into the hopes, and fears, of people. Human beings
like you and me. And that was the most important part of the story I had to tell
during those days at sea”

Deborah Turness
President, NBC News International
“Euronews is investing in frontline journalism, capturing Europe’s story on the
ground in the places where change is happening. “Ten Days at Sea” is the result
of this commitment, and of the extraordinary work of our correspondent Anelise
Borges. Her journalism had real impact and told a story that the world would
never, otherwise, have seen. We are all very proud of Anelise and of this film.”

The documentary will be broadcast on all Euronews platforms according to this schedule:

 

Date Time (CET)

16/07/2018 21:00:00
17/07/2018 21:00:00
18/07/2018 21:00:00
19/07/2018 14:00:00
19/07/2018 21:00:00
20/07/2018 18:00:00
20/07/2018 21:00:00
21/07/2018 21:00:00
22/07/2018 11:00:00
22/07/2018 21:00:00

follow Euronews and Africanews teams on Twitter: @euronews_group

for breaking news follow: @euronews @africanews

 

Media contact : For media enquiries :
Euronews NBC Universal
James Connell Christina Marker
Head of Press and Public Relations Coordinating Editor
t +33 (0)4 28 67 05 35
james.connell@ext.euronews.com
ppr-serv@euronews.com
t +44 (0)2 07 84 38 777
+44 (0)7 82 59 23 865 / +44 (0)7 49 01 11867

christina.marker@nbcuni.com

www.euronews.com www.nbcuniversal.com

Euronews
Euronews seeks to empower people by providing journalism without judgement, a trusted meeting space where
people can have conversations about the issues that matter. A team of more than 500 journalists from 30 different
countries strives to live up to the “All Voices, All Views, All Welcome” slogan, producing news in 12 languages
for television, the web, mobile apps, radio, YouTube and all major social networks. Euronews reaches 450 million
households worldwide and 125 million viewers monthly, according to the 2017 Global Web Index.
Through a partnership with NBC News, announced in June 2017, Euronews is increasing its capacity to produce
original programming and engage in cutting-edge news gathering.
Euronews Group: Euronews was launched in 1993 from Lyon, France. Africanews, the first pan-African
multilingual and independent news outlet, began broadcasting in April 2016 from Pointe-Noire, Republic of
Congo.
www.euronews.com www.africanews.com

Russia threatens France 24 with losing licence

Russia threatens France 24 with losing licence

Move follows French media regulator warning to RT France

The Russian federal agency regulating the mass media and telecommunications, Roskomnadzor, warned French international TV news channel France 24 that it was in violation of a Russian media law for being “under the control of a foreign legal entity”, Russian news agency Tass reported on 29 June. The law limits foreign ownership of media companies in Russia to 20 per cent.

In a letter to the channel Roskomnadzor warned France 24 that it could be stripped of its licence.

A day earlier the French broadcast media regulator CSA had issued a warning to RT’s French-language outlet, RT France, over what it said was a misleading report about a suspected chemical attack in Syria broadcast earlier this year.

RT France said that “the misleading association between the translation and a specific video clip aired on 13 April was the result of a purely technical glitch, which has since been put right.”

The CSA didn’t fine RT France, but it has the authority to do so or to suspend its licence.

Clear retaliation

Roskomnadzor’s threat is seen as being a clear retaliation to the CSA warning, as confirmed by comments made by RT chief editor Margarita Simonyan to Russia’s state news agency RIA Novosti. “Russia is a big country, unlike many, we can afford ourselves the luxury of tit-for-tat measures,” Simonyan was quoted saying.

Russian court fines RFE/RL over alleged “foreign-agent” violations

Russian court fines RFE/RL over alleged “foreign-agent” violations

US Department of State, Broadcasting Board of Governors, OSCE denounce the move

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) reported on 05 July that it had been fined by a Moscow district court for allegedly failing to comply with a Russian law regulating media outlets branded by the government as “foreign agents”.

The ruling comes seven months after the Russian Justice Ministry classified the following nine US international broadcasting and news services as “foreign agents”: Voice of America (VOA), RFE/RL, Current Time TV (the Russian-language TV network run by RFE/RL in cooperation with VOA), and six RFE/RL affiliated news services: the Tatar-Bashkir Service of RL (AzatliqRadiosi), Sibir.Realii, Idel.Realii, Faktograph, Kavkaz.Realii, Crimea.Realii.

“Sharp new escalation (…) worrying and unacceptable”

RFE/RL President Thomas Kent said the prosecution of RFE/RL was a “sharp new escalation in a series of Russian actions aimed at hamstringing the work of the company and at casting public suspicion on its Russian staff.”

John Lansing, CEO of the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), the federal agency that oversees the five US international broadcasting networks, released a statement condemning the ruling. Lansing described it as “worrying and unacceptable,” saying it represented “an escalation in a targeted campaign against RFE/RL and VOA,” and added that it “will not deter us from our mission to inform and engage people – in Russia and around the world – in support of freedom and democracy.”

The US Department of State spokesperson issued a statement that said “we condemn the selective targeting of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) and Voice of America (VOA) under Russia’s law on ‘foreign agent’ media outlets.”

The statement further called “on the Russian government to uphold its commitments under the Helsinki Final Act and its obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political rights to respect the exercise of fundamental freedoms, including freedom of expression, in Russia.”

OSCE and CPJ denounce foreign agents branding

For his part the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Representative on Freedom of the Media, Harlem Désir, “denounced the fine imposed on Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) for not complying with a Russian law regulating the activities of media outlets branded by the authorities as ‘foreign agents’.”

The day the State Duma’s information and communication committee approved legislation that would allow authorities to label private persons as foreign agents, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) released a statement condemning the move as “the latest step in the Russian authorities’ systematic policy towards obstructing the free flow of news.”

“We call on Russian authorities to reverse course and allow its citizens to receive information and opinion from a wide range of sources,” said a CPJ official.

Match of the Day World Cup coverage goes live with Vizrt’s Augmented Reality Graphics

Match of the Day World Cup coverage goes live with Vizrt’s Augmented Reality Graphics

Match of the Day’s live studio in Moscow presents the most dynamic and ambitious virtual effects to date.

Moscow’s Red Square is the center of the football universe as the world’s broadcasters cover the World Cup. The BBC’s iconic Match of the Day is broadcasting to UK living rooms, as well as digital platforms and social media channels with coverage that includes hundreds of hours of match footage, studio discussion, interviews, news packages, and analysis.

Augmented reality in Red Square

Match of the Day Live’s Red Square studio features augmented reality (AR) graphics to help pundits and hosts tell the story of each match with stats, team news and a few surprises along the way. This is all set up with an impressive view of St. Basil’s Cathedral in the background.

The aim is to let the viewer feel that they are being taken directly from Red Square into the live stadium action with a 180-degree camera move.

Croatian tracking specialists, stYpe are providing tracking for six cameras in the studio while the UK’s Alston Elliott (AE) were challenged to design and are operate AR graphics to compliment the broadcaster’s teams. Vizrt’s Viz Engine is the workhorse behind all of the graphics rendering, including AR in the studio and virtual set extensions to hide the massive amounts of production systems in the Red Square studio.

“AE is delighted to be working with BBC Sport to assist with the delivery of its highly impactful World Cup studio in Moscow, said Stuart Coles, Chief Commercial Officer at Alston Elliott. “To be involved with such a high-profile event undoubtedly inspired our creative, R&D and broadcast engineering teams to really push the boundaries of what is possible and we are both proud and delighted with the results achieved.”

“BBC Sport, AE, stYpe and Vizrt have worked on many major events together, and in my view make a veritable AR dream team. We’re incredibly proud that four RedSpy systems are tracking every camera movement from the Red Square studio and truly excited to be covering the World Cup together, making it another successful collaboration,” said Stype Cajic, stYpe CEO.

“We’re very proud that BBC Sport and Alston Elliott continue to innovate with our technology, this year’s World Cup is the boldest yet for all involved, let’s hope England’s football team do us proud too” said Mark Pizzey, Vizrt’s Key Account Manager.

About Vizrt

Vizrt is a worldwide market leader in the areas of real-time 3D graphics, studio automation, sports analysis and asset management tools for the media and entertainment industry. This includes interactive and virtual solutions, animations, maps, weather, social media, video editing, compositing, and multiplatform VOD and live playout tools. Vizrt has customers in more than 100 countries worldwide including CNN, CBS, Fox, BBC, BSkyB, Sky Sports, CBS Sports, Fox Sports, Al Jazeera, NDR, ITN, ZDF, VICE, The Washington Post, TF1, CCTV, NHK and the list keeps growing. Vizrt has nearly 600 employees and operates in 40 offices worldwide. Vizrt is a privately owned company by Nordic Capital Fund VIII. For further information please refer to www.vizrt.com