23 May 2006
Luxembourgs national broadcaster, RTL Télé Lëtzebuerg, has selected a Quantel sQ integrated production system for all its news and magazine programme production needs.
RTL chose the Quantel system after extensive evaluation of all the available systems on the market. The new system is in fact replacing a first-generation Quantel production system which RTL installed nearly ten years ago one of the very first server-based news systems to go into operation anywhere in the world. The competition was stiff this time round, but were happy to be working with Quantel again, said Jacques van Luijk, RTLs production manager.
Quantel knows how to build reliable servers, and the sQ editing interfaces are very accessible and easy to use especially important for our journalists, who we will be soft-starting into pre-editing then editing with voice-over directly on the system, van Luijk continued. Another key factor in Quantels favour is the transparent workflow it gives us a seamless progression from ingest to newsroom to editing and playout. Its a small market in Luxembourg so we have to use our equipment to its fullest potential the Quantel workflow makes this feasible.
The new sQ system will be used to produce a full two hours of news and magazine programming every day. It will also act as the playout server for all the commercials that will be broadcast within the programmes; SGT automation will upload these into the sQ system from archive and automatically place them in the running order.
Installation is scheduled for July, and RTL is planning to go on air with the new system in September 2006. It is configured around two sQ servers with a total of over 400 hours of dual broadcast and browse storage, 27 sQ View, sQ Cut and sQ Edit desktop editing applications for journalists and producers and six sQ Edit Plus craft editors. The system will be fully integrated with RTLs Norcom newsroom computer system via MOS, all running under SGT automation.
23 May 2006
Harris Corporation today announced that it has received an important order for its Inscriber® RTX system from Arab Radio and Television Network (ART), located at Jordan Media City Co. (JMC) in Amman, Jordan. The initial Inscriber® RTX installation will provide the on-air brand design and graphics capabilities for three of ARTs television channels.
We have been working with Harris for a number of years in fact, our whole transmission centre is played to air from the Leitch NEXIO servers. It seemed appropriate to add the Inscriber® RTX, as this product interfaces perfectly to the servers and offers a complete workflow solution, said Hassan Merei, director of engineering at ART Network. Key to our decision to purchase the Inscriber® RTX was the ability to design a bespoke system with a price/performance that met our exacting graphics needs. We are expecting to roll out the Inscriber® RTX across a number of other channels before the summer.
Inscriber® RTX puts full creative control in the hands of broadcasters, allowing them to create a purely custom broadcast solution. A powerful development tool, Inscriber® RTX enables users to create eye-pleasing layouts consisting of advanced design elements and data from multiple sources, using common programming languages.
ART is one of Harris key customers in the Middle East, and we are delighted that the company has taken delivery of our Inscriber® RTX to provide the on-air graphics and branding for three of its channels, said Dave Dougall, vice president of sales, Europe, Africa and Middle East, for the Harris Broadcast Communications Division. The Inscriber® RTX has a substantial following worldwide, and there has been a huge surge in interest for this product in the Middle East. We are excited about the prospect of adding to this initial ART order over the coming months.
ART originates 28 channels of sports, movies, series, music, and childrens educational and social programming, and also retransmits about 50 pass-through channels, which allows for local commercials and interstitial to be added prior to transmission.
23 May 2006
Early this morning, in an exclusive radio broadcast from Dharmsala, India, the Voice of America aired the first live debate in Tibet’s history between two candidates vying for the position of prime minister of the Tibetan government-in-exile, the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA). Dharmsala is the seat of the CTA, as well as the residence of its spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama.
During the debate, the candidates-Samdhong Rinpoche Lobsang Tenzin and Juchen Thupten Namgyal -discussed methods of dealing with China, which has occupied Tibet since 1949. Both candidates voiced their support for the Dalai Lama’s “Middle Way Approach,” which seeks genuine autonomy, but not independence, for Tibet. Samdhong Rinpoche Tenzin said, “There is no need to change this policy in the future.”
The exiled government’s election, which is scheduled for June 3, 2006, will be only the second direct election ever held among Tibetans. The first was in 2001, and prime ministers are limited to five-year terms. Due to the CTA’s government-in-exile status, only members of the Tibetan diaspora may vote. They are estimated to number over 111,000, with the vast majority residing in India. Approximately one-third cast their votes in the March 18, 2006 primary, in which incumbent Prime Minister Samdhong Rinpoche Tenzin secured 82.6 percent of the vote, while former appointed Prime Minister Namgyal received 6.96 percent.
The debate was broadcast live in Tibetan from 12 noon – 2 p.m. local time on shortwave and FM frequencies in Tibet, India, and Nepal, and on VOA Tibetan’s live Internet stream. Tenzin Tsundu, a young Tibetan activist, described the debate as “very informative, educational, and useful to Tibetan people.” Candidate Namgyal said: “It is quite clear that we are in a very critical period in our history.”
VOA’s Tibetan Service broadcasts a one-hour television news show every week and four hours of radio programming per day. In addition to news, show topics include health, culture, language, music, literature, and youth issues.
23 May 2006
Due to the flooding in Surinam, Radio Netherlands has added some extra shortwave transmissions relaying Radio Boskopoe, a local public radio station in Totness, the capital of the Coronie district, that normally broadcasts on FM. With the addition of shortwave frequencies, Radio Boskopoe can reach the entire country. Programmes are in Dutch and Sranan Tongo.
1359-1500 UTC Bonaire 15540 kHz 133 degrees
2059-2157 UTC Bonaire 15540 kHz 133 degrees
1015-1045 UTC Bonaire 6020 kHz 110 degrees (an extension of the regular
0930-1015 UTC transmission to the Caribbean).
Makeover on Bonaire
The Radio Netherlands relay station on Bonaire in the Netherlands Antilles is almost 40 years old. The existing shortwave transmitters have been in service since the station opened, and are overdue for replacement. The Board of Governors of Radio Netherlands recently approved an investment of some four million euros in the station, which delivers shortwave broadcasts to the Americas, Africa, Australia and New Zealand.
16 May 2006
In May and June 2006, the Broadcast Integration Roadshow will be traveling to 16 European cities with a total of 26 presentations. These presentations will be focusing on the integration of broadcasting solutions for TV and post production.
They will comprise Partner Days, i.e. presentations for partners and system integrators of Apple and NorCom, and Tech Forums targeted at TV and radio broadcasters as well as media companies.
With NorCom Apple News Production System, NorCom Information Technology AG is the worlds first company to offer an all-in Apple-based TV and media production solution from the ingest to the playout phase together with archiving including video, audio, graphics and automation.
The NorCom Apple Content Production System is an end-to-end solution for TV and radio broadcasters, agencies and post-production specialists. Now everyone from graphic designers to journalists involved in the production of multimedia content, such as news and sports coverage, can benefit from a single integrated user interface.
The NorCom Apple Content Production System offers a homogenous solution for the MAC OS but can also be deployed in hybrid environments. As a result, the NorCom Apple Content Production System constitutes a cost-optimized solution with a price of around 60% below comparable alternatives.
Early registration is advised on account of limited capacity. This can be done at NorComs website at www.norcom.de, where further information is also available.
15 May 2006
RadioScape has used its world-class RF and software expertise to create the first, software-controlled, single chip RF front end that can handle six frequency bands — Band III and L-Band for Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB), medium wave, long wave and short wave for AM and Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM), and Band II for FM. The RF chip combines with a standard DSP chip that runs RadioScapes baseband digital radio software and also controls the RF IC to form a two chip solution, which dramatically reduces the power consumption and size of modules compared with current generation solutions.
This new RF IC is a breakthrough technology for RadioScape that will revolutionise multi-standard, multi-band digital radio, said John Hall, RadioScapes CEO. There is nothing like it in the market and is the result of a major initiative that we started over two years ago to create a technology platform for our next generation consumer radios. The objective was to create a highly flexible RF device that would complement our software-defined radio approach, timed to coincide with the emerging DRM market, and we have done that.
Until now, the only way to create a comparable multi-band digital radio was to create independent RF front ends for each of the different frequency bands each consuming power and adding to the bulk of the product. Our unique partitioning of the radio system allows us maximum re-use of the digital components by loading only the appropriate baseband stack into the DSP as and when required. explained Dave Hawkins, VP of Business Development at RadioScape. We have used the same approach in our RF IC, which reuses internal functionality to best suit the frequency band and standard required at the time. Dynamic configuration of the RF path on the RF IC is controlled by the DSP using software algorithms to ensure the optimisation of both performance and power consumption. The result is a multi-frequency RF device that requires less than half the power used by the equivalent circuits in our current generation of multi-standard modules.
Available only in a RadioScape module offering, the RF IC will be used to create a new range of modules that maintain the size and pin configurations of existing modules to enable manufacturers to quickly take advantage of this latest RadioScape innovation and benefit from the lower power consumption that it offers. RadioScapes RS200 family provide highly optimised DAB and FM reception whilst the RS500 family provides additional features and functionality, such as fully integrated Digital Radio Mondiale and AM reception, in addition to DAB and FM. Full details of the new RF IC-enhanced modules will be available shortly along with samples in June.
This is the first time that a single, front end RF chip has been implemented to handle these six, very different, frequency bands. While this chip uses both zero-IF and super-heterodyne methods to achieve the stringent requirements of the variety of standards and frequencies, RadioScapes pioneering software-controlled approach enables a significant part of the implementation to use common circuitry. A major benefit of this challenging approach is the dramatic reduction of the external component count by over 150 items relative to equivalent designs which implement these standards. The high level of integration of the chip enables the board real estate for the front end RF to be reduced from 30 sq cms (covering both sides of the board) to only 9 sq cms on a single-sided board design for all standards and even smaller if a subset of standards and frequency bands is required.
