13 November 2012
OASYS, the leading developer of IT-based automated playout solutions, has appointed James Ng as Sales Director for the Asia Pacific region. Based inSingapore, he is responsible for strengthening the company’s regional focus by providing OASYS’ local partners and resellers with commercial support directly from within the Asia-Pacific region.
James Ng joins OASYS with 23 years of experience in digital media and production, technical sales, pre-sales and business development roles. He has built a wealth of expertise in system design, high speed storage architecture and converged workflow environment, having led and managed Technical Media Services, a system integration company based in Singapore, for over 10 years.
OASYS has also appointed Mike Kenna as Sales Director for EMEA to oversee commercial operations in the region. As the company extends and deepens its global operations, his role will include managing OASYS direct sales, while also building on the existing network of resellers to maximize sales in EMEA.
Mike Kenna brings 25 years’ experience in technical sales, pre-sales and business development roles with major professional video equipment manufacturers including Quantel, the Softelgroup and Ericsson Television. He is renowned for his strong engineering and technical background coupled with sound business development and technical sales skills.
About OASYS OASYS has been leading the transition to software-based playout solutions for over 20 years. We realised the benefits of using IT and the latest video card technology early, implementing powerful playout software solutions that were easily scaled, maintained and flexible. Our software incorporates the benefits of extensive experience in delivering reliable on-air operation using IT broadcast technology. Our references span the world, and our customers tell us that our software and support really make the difference in their operations. www.oasys.com
13 November 2012
RRsat Global Communications Network Ltd., a leading provider of comprehensive digital content management and global content distribution services to the television and radio broadcasting industries, announced today that it was selected by European Broadcasting Union Network (EBU) to provide digital media content delivery services and be their main hub between Asia andEurope for the coming years. Sports, news and special events, broadcast in both standard and high definition, will be delivered through RRsat’s teleports for the EBU Network.
The EBU Network is a world leading alliance of public service media organizations, with members in 56 countries inEuropeand beyond. The EBU Network operates Eurovision, the media industry’s premier distributor and producer of entertainment, culture and music content as well as top quality live sport and news events such as the Eurovision Song Contest, the UEFA cup, national elections and other major European events.
RRsat will establish bi-directional fiber connectivity between RRsat’s teleport inIsraeland EBU Network’s headquarters inGeneva,Switzerland, and will provide all broadcast services for EBU Network to and fromAsia. Furthermore, RRsat will be responsible for EBU Networks’ occasional use of satellite to satellite transmissions and traffic monitoring utilizing EBU capacity on three different satellites.
Avi Cohen, RRsat’s Chief Executive Officer, commented: “We are honored to have been selected by EBU Network as the main partner for their Asia-Europe digital media content management and distribution. Over the past couple of years, we have invested in our infrastructure in order to provide broadcasting services for sports and other special events (OU services) and this selection is an important recognition of RRsat’s consistent high level of service. It positions RRsat among the leading OU service providers around the globe.”
Paolo Pusterla, Head of Procurement, EBU Network commented: “We have selected RRsat after carefully evaluating all their capabilities, including their teleport services, fiber network, master control room (MCR), engineering team and coordination/booking skills. Our recent visit to RRsat’s new state of the art teleport inIsrael, established our confidence that we have a partner that can address our needs for the long term.”
About the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) Network
The EBU network is the world’s foremost alliance of public service media organizations, serving 85 national media organizations in 56 countries inEurope and beyond. Its mission is to defend the interests of public service media and to promote their indispensable contribution to modern society. It is the point of reference for industry knowledge and expertise. The EBU operates Eurovision, the media industry’s premier distributor and producer of top quality live sport and news, as well as entertainment, culture and music content. The Eurovision satellite and fibre network is the largest and most reliable in the world directly plugged in to public service media everywhere. Visit the website www.ebu.ch
About RRsat Global Communications Network Ltd.
RRsat Global Communications Network Ltd. (NASDAQ: RRST) provides global, end-to-end, content management and distribution services to the rapidly expanding television and radio broadcasting industries, covering more than 150 countries. Through its RRsat Global Network, composed of satellite and terrestrial fiber optic capacity and the public Internet, RRsat provides high-quality and flexible global distribution services 24/7 to more than 630 channels reaching multiplatform operators, Internet TV and direct-to-home viewers worldwide and also offers occasional use services for sports, news and events with a fleet of flyaways and over 10 transportable satellite news gathering services (SNG) units. More than 130 television and radio channels use RRsat’s advanced production and playout centers comprising comprehensive media asset management services.
www.rrsat.com
24 October 2012
RTS SAT makes its debut in full MPEG-4 to Australia and New Zealand
GlobeCastAustraliatoday announced a major upgrade that will allow the company to deliver its customers the first high-quality MPEG-4 services on the Optus D2 DTH satellite platform. GlobeCastAustraliais the leading provider of broadcast services forAustralia,New Zealand, and thePacificIslandsand is part of the worldwide GlobeCast group.
GlobeCastAustralia’s Chief Executive Simon Farnsworth said: “We have invested in MPEG-4 to give our customers access to the latest world-class technologies to help them innovate and grow.”
GlobeCast will commence its new MPEG-4 service with its channel partner RTS SAT, on behalf of EURO World Network (EWN). EWN operates a DTH and IPTV distribution platforms inAustralia; using GlobeCast Australia DTH satellite distribution on Optus D2.
Mark Lobwein, Chairman of EURO World Network said, “It is a pleasure to be working with GlobeCastAustraliain this region for our blue chip customer, RTS SAT. GlobeCast has been looking after DTH services inAustraliafor over a decade and we are excited to be working with them to deliver this new technology for our satellite customers.”
Farnsworth said MPEG-4 offers GlobeCast customers:
o Increased household penetration potential because of its higher-quality video delivery to large-screen flat-panel displays
o Higher-quality sound with an option for Dolby® audio
o Greater bandwidth efficiency and value
GlobeCastAustralia’s enhancement of its Optus D2 DTH platform includes upgrading four carriers to state-of-the art Thompson Video Networks MPEG-4/MPEG-2 encoders. The Optus D2 DTH platform coversAustraliaandNew Zealand.
RTS SAT will be available in both MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 until the end of the year.
23 October 2012
The edge of space was where Felix Baumgartner stood Sunday, October 14 2012. At 39km or 128,100ft, already setting a world record for highest manned balloon flight, Baumgartner leaned forward and rapidly disappeared from camera view.
9 minutes later Felix Baumgartner was on the New Mexico desert ground, fists in the air in triumph. His decent set additional world records for becoming the first skydiver to break the speed of sound, reaching a maximum velocity of 1,342km/h (833.9mph), and the record for highest ever freefall.
The entire event was broadcast live on youtube.com where another record was broken for simultaneous views. More than 8 million viewers watched the descent through youtube’s streaming service. The event was broadcast by 77 stations across 48 countries around the world.
All the graphic content for TV and for live stream was provided by Vizrt Technology. The joint team of Vizrt and netventure personnel, represented on site by Yan Heydlauf of Vizrt South West Europe and Stefan Meyer of netventure Germany, gathered live data from capsule telemetry, mission clocks, chest pack information, bio-meds and other mission information in Red Bull Stratos Mission Control in Roswell, New Mexico. All data for several websites were fed by web services provided by netventure using data centers in Germany, Austria, Ireland and the US.
The team used Viz Graphic Hub’s shared memory to distribute content simultaneously between New Mexico and the Red Bull Stratos studio at Servus TV in Salzburg, Austria. A Viz|Trio operator simply called up “pages” in a Viz|Trio show while the content was constantly being updated live using scripting and Viz Graphics Hub shared memory maps. Three Viz Engines, Vizrt’s real-time 3D compositing engine, were used to display the on-air graphics and video compositing. At Servus TV, netventure film Austria, which has been in charge of live graphics services for two years, used the same Viz|Trio show to broadcast this successful event. The several Viz|Trio systems were used to display on air graphics and all the studio monitors.
“Red Bull has been an exciting partner for us to work with over the last few years. From the Red Bull X-Fighters to this amazing jump, they are constantly pushing the limit and bringing us fun new challenges.” said Petter Ole Jakobsen, CTO Vizrt. “We congratulate Felix for this landmark accomplishment.”
17 October 2012
BBC World Service has announced the availability of new apps which will give consumers access to its range of multilingual news content via Nokia’s Series 40 devices, including the Nokia Asha smartphone range.
The apps offer up-to-date news content from the websites spanning 11 language services of BBC World Service: BBC Arabic, BBC Brasil (in Portuguese), BBC Chinese, BBC Hindi, BBC Indonesia, BBC Mundo (in Spanish), BBC Russian, BBC Turkce, BBC Ukrainian, BBC Urdu and BBC Vietnamese.
In addition to reading all the latest news updates via the app, users of the Chinese, Indonesian and Arabic apps can also listen to radio news bulletins in these languages.
The apps will be available on the installed base of existing Series 40 devices, in addition to the expanding Nokia Asha device range – including the recently announced Nokia Asha 308 and Nokia Asha 309 smartphones.
BBC Global News Controller of Digital and Technology, James Montgomery, comments: ‘The development of such a wide range of BBC languages apps for Nokia phones means the reach of our languages services continues to increase by offering audiences simple mobile access. Nokia’s Series 40 devices are still the most popular in the world, with more than 675 million handsets in the market to date. BBC is committed to its digital audiences across the world, who use less sophisticated handsets but still seek access to unbiased and trustworthy reporting.’
Bryan Biniak, VP & GM, Global Partnering & Application Development, Nokia, says: ‘We are committed to bringing great, locally relevant app experiences to Nokia consumers around the globe. As the world’s best known news source, we’re delighted to see the BBC extend their mobile reach to our base of 675 million Nokia Asha and other Nokia Series 40 devices in the market, with these local language apps. The incorporation of Nokia Xpress Browser technology will help drastically reduce data consumption for our consumers in low bandwidth countries, while delivering a fantastic news app experience.’
The new BBC apps are free and available to download in local languages from Nokia Store.
15 October 2012
SatLink Communications Ltd., a leading teleport and HD Playout Centre delivering content to every corner of the world, has today announced that it has been selected by six Nigerian TV Channels to provide end-to-end broadcast services and content distribution to Central and Pan-Africa on the AMOS 5 satellite Ku-band and C-Band platforms. The broadcasters will also be utilising SatLink’s end to end broadcast solutions including the company HD Playout Centre services to enable the distribution of the customer’s TV channel to suit African market demands.
Utilising the AMOS 5 satellite, on 17˚East, Central-Africa Ku-band reach, SatLink will enable two international Christian Religious Channels, Voice of God (VOG) and Champions of Fire TV (CFTV) and Hola TV, a Nigerian entertainment channel, to effectively distribute content easily to Direct to Home viewers in the Western Africa, Eastern Africa and Central Africa regions.
On the C-band beam, Hosanna Broadcast Network will contribute their Christian and entertainment programs to Pan Africa, CFTV will broadcast also on Amos 5 C-band via Satlink and Optima Sports TV will be broadcasting two terrestrial sports channels carrying premium content from the UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League, the FA Premier League, La Liga and the Bundesliga to its audience of Sub-Saharan African viewers.
The selection of the AMOS 5 Ku- and C-band will extend the channels’ reach to many of the emerging broadcast markets within Africa including Nigeria, Uganda, Kenya, Ghana, Tanzania, Zambia and Mozambique. The provisioning of these services from one provider was one of the requirements for all channels as they looked for fully professional, reliable and redundant solutions that enabled them to directly access the African viewers. Taking advantage of SatLink’s HD Playout Centre, Christian channel Voice of God (VOG) and Hola TV will Playout and Uplink their channels directly from Jerusalem to SatLink’s MCPC platforms.
David Hochner, CEO of SatLink, commented: “These latest African customer announcements represent an important milestone in our engagement with the African market place as a strategic focus for our company. These are perfect examples of where we can add value to African broadcasters looking for an end-to-end service including all equipment and installations as well as satellite distribution and playout services to deliver localised content into and out of Africa. ”
He continued: “One of the key challenges facing broadcasters trying to extend their reach into Africa is finding a partner that is able to provide the full range of end-to-end broadcast services that are needed to make an impact. This is more than providing the uplink, turnaround and downlinking services, broadcasters are asking us for the full playout services capabilities and importantly the localisation of content dependent on the specific region. We are seeing a great demand, particularly from those channel’s based within Africa, for the provisioning of these services all from one sole provider. With our strategically located teleport as the gateway to Africa, the infrastructure and fully professional playout services already available and in use and our AMOS 5 platforms, we are the perfect partner for those broadcasters looking to transmit and distribute content to, within and out of Africa.”
