8 May 2006
SES ASTRA, an SES GLOBAL company, has announced today that it has signed a long-term satellite capacity agreement with Discovery Communications.
As of 1st February this year, XXP, a German factual based mainstream entertainment channel, has extended its analogue transmission from four to 24 hours per day (transponder 12, frequency 11,376.50 MHz, vertical polarisation). XXP has been using analogue capacity from ASTRA on the prime orbital position 19.2° East since May 2001. XXP is also distributed in digital on ASTRA.
Discovery Communications acquired a controlling stake in XXP in March 2006.
8 May 2006
Eutelsat, one of the worlds leading satellite operators, is reaffirming its commitment to the Asian communications market with its participation at this years Broadcast Asia, Asias premier broadcasting and multimedia technology event.
In order to strengthen its commercial proposal to the Asian broadcasting market Eutelsat has joined forces with RRSat, a leading provider of end-to-end transmission and production services. Using a digital video platform located in Israel that uses Ku-band capacity on Eutelsats W5 satellite, Eutelsat and RRSat can offer content providers an efficient and reliable means for reaching DTH, cable headends, hotel and conference centres in south-east Asia. In addition to geographic reach, RRSat offers broadcasters network engineering and custom-tailored end-to-end solutions including conditional access and standards conversion.
International broadcasters who have already selected the platform as their preferred point of entry into south-east Asia include EuroNews, Trace TV and World Fashion Channel.
Eutelsat broadcasts more than 1,800 television channels and 900 radio stations to an audience of 120 million cable and satellite homes in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. Public and private broadcasters using capacity include. Eutelsat, as a pioneer in satellite broadcasting and broadband services, is actively involved in supporting the development of digital broadcasting services in Asia. Through satellites located in the orbital arc from 15 degrees West to 70.5 degrees East, Eutelsat provides a flexible in-orbit resource with superior coverages that enable free-to-air channels and pay-TV operators to reach satellite and cable homes in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, large parts of Asia and the Americas.
8 May 2006
Al Arabiya has reinforced its number one position in the region by receiving four awards in April which honour the news channels presenter excellence and bespoke website content.
At the Fourth Arab Media Festival in Beirut, Tahar Barakat and Najwa Kassem received the awards for best male and female presenters respectively, while Al Arabiyas website, alarabiya.net took the accolade of Best Website of an Arab News Channel.
The Fourth Arab Media Festival, organized by the Lebanese Universitys Faculty of Information and Documentation, drew media professionals from across the Arab world and culminated in the last day award ceremony. The awards were based on a sampled cross-section of the Lebanese population.
In Amman, Al Arabiyas website team won the Best Strategic Planning for Arab Websites award for the launch and management of investinsaudi.com. The Al Arabiya team worked in conjunction with the Saudi Public Commission for Investment, a government body dedicated to developing investment in the Kingdom.
8 May 2006
The new Touch It, Touch Screen LCD Video system from Wohlers Video Division swept the key awards at NAB2006, receiving a Television Broadcast NAB 2006 Top Innovation Award, TV Technology STAR (Superior Technology Award Recipient) Award, the Broadcast Engineering Pick Hit honor and Videography Vidy Award.
Recognized for innovative technological advancement and the achievement in the advancement of broadcast, production, and postproduction technology, the Touch It Series offers a simple and easy way to monitor multi-channel video, provide routing, as well as external video screen output in a compact and versatile space saving 3RU. The touch screen video monitor is ideal for multi-camera live shoots, machine rooms, and outside broadcasts.
The new Touch it LCD touch screen video monitor has dual high resolution 7 LCD panels, offering video confidence monitoring for up to 12 channels of composite video. The Dual 7 wide screen high resolution touch screen monitors twelve, 1.8 thumbnail images on left with touch screen selection of image appearing on right screen at full size. Any of the 1.8 thumbnail images can easily be selected by a simple touch of the screen to view as a larger 7 wide screen image on the second LCD panel.
The Touch it series offers a video and an audio and video version, the Touch It Plus which consists of the same innovative features of the Touch it and includes 12 stereo analog audio inputs, and output routing of selected video.
Wohler Technologies is the world leader of in rack audio and video monitoring solutions. Since 1987, the worldwide broadcast industry turns to Wohler to provide standard or custom solutions to their audio and video monitoring needs.
8 May 2006
Harris Corporation announced that its comprehensive Leitch high-definition (HD) conversion portfolio continues to gain momentum in customer acceptance, as demonstrated by the recent surge in worldwide sales during the company’s third fiscal quarter ended March 31, 2006, which saw Leitch product sales increase significantly over the previous quarter.
“High definition is taking hold strong and fast, and broadcasters are increasingly looking for advanced, cost-effective, integrated solutions that will see them through the transition,” said Tim Thorsteinson, president elect of Harris Broadcast Communications Division. “This stream of recent successes in HD conversion follows a heavy period of new product introductions that provide customers more advanced HD conversion feature sets, higher-quality processing and more cost-effective solutions.”
The growth is attributed to broad acceptance from leading broadcast customers such as CBC/Radio-Canada; EchoStar, Hearst-Argyle Television and Mobile TV Group in the United States; and Gearhouse in the United Kingdom.
“Our station group needs are really diverse, so we need a full offering of HD conversion solutions – not just a few products,” said Martin Faubell, vice president of engineering, Hearst-Argyle Television. “The Leitch HD conversion products provide us with the feature sets, quality and price points that meet the stations’ needs.”
Harris offers a wide range of HD processing applications within its industry-leading Leitch modular platforms, NEO(tm) and 6800+(tm), as well as the award-winning X75(tm)HD standalone processor. With this HD conversion portfolio, Harris provides customers with the broadest set of applications, feature sets, processing choice and price points in the industry.
8 May 2006
The first Arab Broadcast Forum, the most important gathering to date in the Arab world of regional and international broadcast news journalists and executives, will take place on June 4 and 5 at the Emirates Palace Hotel, Abu Dhabi. The inaugural event, hosted by Al Arabiya News Channel and Abu Dhabi TV, will be announced today at a press conference and will provide a global forum for hundreds of news professionals to discuss the most powerful issues in the Arab media.
The Arab Broadcast Forum will provide a dynamic interactive forum where broadcast news professionals, journalists and political leaders can exchange views, ideas and experiences. We will engage in in-depth and thought-provoking debate from the beginning and we invite all media in the region to participate in this industry first, says Jim Gold, Managing Director of the Arab Broadcast Forum.
Leading executives from top Arab and global broadcasters have defined a content-rich agenda that will shape the perceptions and behaviour of the Arab media in the 21st century. The interactive forum will address: – Embedded in Danger: The continuing dangers of covering Iraq; – New Technology and Citizen Journalism: How does it affect Arab news broadcasters; – Technological Minaret: How media savvy Islamicists reach new audiences by using all aspects of the media; – Women & Arab Media: A look at how women are faring in the Arab broadcast news media; – Lost in Translation: How global broadcasters are now focusing on reaching the Arab viewer and a look at the new players; – Thinking Global/Reporting Local: Do Arab broadcasters focus too heavily on pan-Arab and international issues to avoid covering local stories?; – Arab Perceptions of the West: Results of a major new comprehensive study are released.
Jihad Ballout, Director of Communications at Al Arabiya adds: The forum is a vital opportunity to promote the rise of investigative journalism and technological advancement of the Arab media, while addressing the challenges of transparency and risks in reporting the truth. Debate will challenge perceptions and ultimately drive change towards more professional, balanced reporting.
We believe the Arab Broadcast Forum is needed in this region, says Nart Bouran, head of news at Abu Dhabi TV. The revolution in news broadcasting on the Arab airwaves has been remarkable in the past 15 years and its now time for the industry and its leaders to look back, take a hard look at where weve come and how we can all improve over the next 15 years.
