28 September 2007
RRSat Global Communications Network Ltd., a rapidly growing provider of comprehensive content management and global distribution services to the television and radio broadcasting industries, announced today that it has signed an agreement with Loral Skynet to offer distribution of video content to the Asian Market via a powerful digital platform using Loral Skynet’s Telstar 10 satellite.
Through the multiplexed content delivery platform, RRSat customers will gain access to over 80 million cable households across 33 countries in Asia using Loral Skynet’s Telstar 10 satellite. RRSat will complement its video offering by supplying comprehensive, content management and distribution services.
“We are extremely excited about this new cooperation with Loral Skynet. This platform will offer customers a total end-to end solution, from broadcasting through distribution, enabling channels based out for the US, Europe and Middle East the ability to further expand their services to new regions in Asia.”
Commented Mr. David Rivel, CEO and Founder of RRSat, “Through this shared platform customers will have access to the leading Loral Skynet Telstar 10 satellite and RRSat’s comprehensive content management platform”.
28 September 2007
Host broadcaster TVH calls on GlobeCast for end-to-end SD and HD contribution services
GlobeCast is putting HD in the spotlight at the 2007 Rugby World Cup, providing end-to-end satellite and fibre contribution services for host broadcaster TVH as well as other major broadcasters, and experimenting with uncompressed HD signal transmission, an exciting development that promises to make life easier for telecoms wishing to transmit HD footage in a timely and cost-efficient manner.
To service its clients at this major event, GlobeCast will deploy a fleet of 15 SNG vehicles to matches in every corner of France, including three trucks dedicated to HD. It will also provide on-site production, dedicated facilities and network capacity to deliver High Definition coverage of the games.
Host broadcaster TVH asked GlobeCast to transmit coverage in SD and HD from the matches to its International Broadcast Centre (IBC) outside Paris. Additionally, for the first time in Europe, GlobeCast will provide long-distance, terrestrial transport of non-compressed HD signals a development that promises to help telcos transport HD video without modifying infrastructures, updating equipment or compromising quality. This experiment will be held at matches in Marseille.
As a security measure, GlobeCast will also ensure the transport in SD of all backup feeds via satellite.
The Rugby World Cup, which starts at the Stade de France on 7 September, will be one of the biggest sporting events of the year and GlobeCasts expertise in providing broadcast services from major competitions such as this will ensure secure and flawless quality of coverage.
28 September 2007
Al Jazeera Sport Channel (JSC Sport +1/ JSC Sport +2) announced today that it has reached more than one million subscribers, an unprecedented figure in Arab television subscriber history.
I and the entire Al Jazeera Sport Channel staff are delighted by this achievement which we have accomplished in only a few years since the Channels launch in 2003. This is a testament to the Channels superb content which our subscribers recognize and value, said Ayman Jada, the Managing Director of the Sports Channel.
The Channel has acquired a long list of TV rights for top quality regional and global sporting events including the Qatari, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Argentinean, Portuguese and Japanese leagues. In addition, Al Jazeera Sport has the TV rights to some of the most important European football competitions such as the English, Spanish, French and German Cup, not to mention the European League Cup, the competition that Al Jazeera Sport has had the exclusive rights to since last season.
On September 1, 2007, three subscribers (Ibrahim Yousef, Naser Al-Qahtani, Muftah Al-Hajiri) who had entered the Channels One Million Subscriber Competition were announced as the lucky winners of the draw and will drive home with their prizes from Ford: Focus, the new Escape and Edge.
The cars will be given to the winners today at a celebration held in Dubai, UAE, to mark the one million subscriber figure. The celebration will be attended by the Channels senior management and stars including Ayman Jada, Rabeh Madjer, Tarek Dhiab, Said Aouita, Karim Alami, Hichem Khalsi and Yousef Saif.
Hussein Murad, Sales and Marketing director of Ford Middle East said: “We are proud to support Al Jazeera Sport Channel and congratulate them on their unprecedented accomplishment, surpassing the one million subscriber mark. Ford Middle East and Al Jazeera Sport Channel are one in reaching out to the youth. While Al Jazeera Sport provides quality programming through its premier sports programs, Ford is relentless in its commitment to provide cutting-edge products that connect well with the youth, complementing their lifestyles and giving them the total ownership experience.”
28 September 2007
TV One Pakistan has selected ENPS – Associated Press news production system to expand its broadcasting operation with a new 24-hour news channel called News One.
Based in Karachi, TV One is a popular entertainment channel that brings top-rated dramas, soaps and lifestyle programmes to the people of Pakistan, as well as to the Urdu-speaking community across the world. In the past, five-minute news bulletins every hour have kept its audience up-to-date with current affairs, but now a dedicated news channel will offer viewers greater choice.
With ENPS newsroom technology at its heart and WASP 3D providing real time on-air graphics, the channel has an ambitious output in mind. Over the next year, News One will provide top-quality up-to-the-minute coverage of events such as the presidential, national and local elections – as well as the yearly budgets.
When asked about the selection of ENPS, Jan Nizamani, technical General Manager of TV One said: We turned to ENPS because we felt secure in the professional expertise of AP and because we were aware of its reputation as being widely used by the worlds leading broadcasters.
TV One and News One are part of Airwaves Media, owned by Interflow Communications, one of Pakistans leading advertising agencies. Interflow Communications launched the first privately owned TV channel in Pakistan in the early 1990s as well as launching TV ASIA in the UK.
News Ones reporters join over 4500 journalists already using ENPS across Asia and the Asia Pacific. This impressive stable of clients includes Indias leading national broadcaster and the largest terrestrial network in the world, Doordarshan; Mediacorp Singapore; TVB Hong Kong and CNBC Pakistan.
“We are delighted to welcome TV One as our second ENPS customer in Pakistan, said Eric Bowman, APs Director of International Business Development, Newsroom Systems. TV One is taking on an impressive challenge in establishing a 24 hour news channel in a matter of months, and we hope that ENPS will form the backbone of this channel. We look forward to a long and fruitful working relationship with Mr. Nizamani and his colleagues, he added.
26 September 2007
Veteran Quantel artist and solo practitioner of OliverTwist, Sam Hamann, has acquired a Quantel eQ editing/ effects/ grading/ deliverables system, which in his words will take him into the next decade of HD post production.
Hamann began his career in Los Angeles at Planet Blue in 1986 as a Quantel Paintbox artist. From there he joined post production power house Post Logic where he became one of the first artists to use the revolutionary Quantel Henry effects editor and Hal compositor in 1992. Fifteen years on and Hamann is still making a living with the Henry – that is until mid September, when he takes possession of his eQ.
The Henry is a true workhorse and it has served me well over many happy years and what Ive loved most about it is its easy to use, artist inspired interface, said Hamann. However, lately I have had to turn away jobs because my clients want to work in HD. The eQ and its HD capabilities was a logical next step for me, its interface is similar to the Henry and it has that Quantel thinking that Im a fan of.
Ad agencies make up the majority of Hamanns client-base, the largest of which is Admarketing, a full service advertising, sales and publishing firm. Much of his work revolves around producing retail spots along with on-air promos and network packaging.
Its exciting for us to continue our relationship with Sam and help him expand his capabilities to compete and win business in both SD and now HD, said Lee Turvey, Regional Sales Manager, Quantel. The eQ opens up more revenue streams for Sam. He now has editing, effects, grading, deliverables and more in HD and SD. He can do so much more on the eQ and earn more money with all the new services he can provide. The rich toolset and first class support will help Sam win even more business and its great for us to be a part of that.
Hamann said, I think the eQ will reunite me with many old clients that are delivering material in HD. Theyve fallen away because I didnt have the equipment to do the work. Now I will be able to move into the future while I reach back to reunite with these old clients who are doing work in hi def and are looking to work with me again.
26 September 2007
One of Canadas largest communications companies, Rogers Media, has chosen a Quantel Enterprise sQ server-based production system for its Canadian cable television sports specialty channel, Rogers Sportsnet. System integration will be provided by Applied Electronics.
The Rogers Media system comprises eight sQ servers with 1000 hours of HD storage. Eighty-four sQ Views, 14 sQ edit software and six sQ edit plus systems, two sQ records and four sQ plays round out the news production system. Rogers Sportsnet is seen by 174,000 people a day.
Quantel is a company that understands broadcasting, said Frank Bruno, Vice President, TV Engineering for Rogers Media. They specialize in it and arent trying to be all things to all people. We opted for the sQ for many reasons–the main being that we needed to go HD and we loved Quantels easy to use interface.
In addition, the system they ultimately went with had to be proven technology. Bruno said they werent in the position nor did we want to be in a position to be the first company to use an untested product.
One of our prerequisites was the system had to support 120 users at all times, said Bruno. It had to be robust and possess built-in back up mechanisms and it had to have the toolsets for all these applications to be simple to use. Quantel met all of our criteria.
Rogers Media plans to start rehearsing with the system the first of November.
Enterprise sQ is specifically designed for live broadcasting, providing a true one-stop, no-copy production environment, with ingest, editing and playout all being achieved in the same box.
