31 May 2005
The AIB has submitted its response to the UK government’s Green Paper which is part of the review of the next BBC Royal Charter, due to start in 2007.
The AIB response, which has been forwarded to the UK Department of Culture, Media and Sport, carries the views of the Association’s members in regard to the future of the BBC, with particular emphasis on the BBC’s international operations.
“Part of the AIB’s role is to ensure that the voices of its members are heard by governments and regulators around the world,” commented Simon Spanswick, AIB chief executive. “We monitor media regulators and potential media legislation in many of the countries that AIB members operate in, and this includes the United Kingdom. The AIB makes sure that its members’ views are heard by legislators, regulators and politicians throughout the world.”
Download a copy of the AIB response by clicking on the link below.
25 May 2005
The AIB has announced that it will postpone the fourth annual AIB Global Media Business Conference, scheduled for 6 and 7 June in Montreal, Canada.
“We have taken this decision with extreme regret,” said Simon Spanswick, AIB chief executive. “In spite of an extremely strong agenda with excellent speakers from all over the world combined with the fantastic facilities offered by the CBC, the conference has not attracted sufficient delegates to provide the range of discussion, debate and networking that weve enjoyed at AIB conferences over the past three years.
“As a not-for-profit industry association, the AIB has to ensure that all its activities support and provide value for money to members,” continued Spanswick. “The risks of running a conference that is not fully attended are too great and that is why we decided, in conjunction with AIB member and conference host Radio Canada International, to postpone the 2005 conference.”
The AIB International Broadcasting Awards due to be presented at a gala evening at the headquarters of the Cirque du Soleil will now be rescheduled in a few weeks time.
Meanwhile, the work of the AIB on behalf of its members continues, providing market intelligence, lobbying, representation and marketing support. For example, the AIB is currently working on its response to the UK governments Green Paper on the BBCs Charter Review, incorporating the views of its global membership in a document that will be submitted to the UKs Department of Culture, Media and Sport on 30 May.
21 May 2005
Five Institutional and three new Affiliate members were approved for admission to the ABU by the Administrative Council at its half-yearly meeting in Islamabad.
The Institutional members are the International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, Prix Jeunesse, the World DAB Forum, the Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM) Consortium and the Association for International Broadcasting (AIB).
These are the first Institutional members to be admitted to the ABU following the approval of changes to the ABU Statutes by the Almaty General Assembly last year.
The Institutional membership category is designed for organisations with which the ABU seeks closer relationships through reciprocal membership arrangements. Admission is by the invitation of the Administrative Council.
The three new Affiliate memberships approved were National Geographic Venture, USA; Multi Carrier (Mauritius) Ltd; and Network 1 Pvt Ltd, India.
The Administrative Council also agreed to have the applications from four broadcasters for Additional Full and Associate membership submitted to the Full members for balloting.
The ABU now has 148 members in 55 countries and special administrative regions.
The 78th Administrative Council meeting was hosted by PTV Pakistan. The Council accepted an invitation from Radio Television Maldives to hold next years half-yearly meeting in the Maldives.
21 May 2005
Harris Corporation announced that Siemens Business Services has purchased its NetVX high-speed integrated video transport networking system for BBC News following a successful test during coverage of the U.S. presidential election.
Towards the end of last year BBC News was in the process of digitizing its Washington Bureau so the election became the ideal event to test the capabilities of NetVX. Within two days NetVX was installed to enable the BBC to use parallel networks for contributions to and from Washington. Among other benefits, NetVX makes it easy to switch from one type of network to another – the easiest and most cost-effective technology available to do this today.
NetVX provides an infinitely flexible platform that can handle multiple packet-based architectures such as ATM and IP over multiple networks such as microwave and satellite, and provide the same, and often greater, level of functionality than would previously be found in a myriad of individual hardwired components. Further, NetVX can scale to meet the BBC’s future requirements. With NetVX, analogue or digital video, audio, and/or data can be transported over any combination of networks simultaneously. NetVX systems can support various contribution and/or distribution applications including point-to-point or point-to-multipoint, local or centralized, unidirectional or bi-directional.
Siemens Business Services has a 10-year partnership with the BBC to deliver technology services to the BBC; where relevant, the company works with third parties – such as Harris – to deliver specific services.
“The BBC is recognized as one of the most trusted sources for news worldwide,” said Jim Denny, vice president and general manager of Harris Broadcast Communications Division’s Networking and Government Solutions business unit. “We are pleased to be able to provide an integrated platform that helps to ensure the reliability of their broadcasts.”
21 May 2005
Strong demand for HD programming helped PanAmSat return to profit in Q1. The results are the first since the US satellite operators IPO in March.
The company, which provides links for broadcasters, news organisations and telecoms groups, reported earnings of $1.1 million, compared with a year-earlier loss of $31.9 million. Revenues increased by 1.6 per cent to $208.8 million from $205.4 million, led by the companys fixed satellite services segment. For the year, PanAmSat forecast an increase in revenues of 3 per cent on earnings up 4 per cent.
21 May 2005
RadioScape, the world leader in Software Defined Digital Radio solutions, announced that the results of the trials in Cambridge, UK show that the design of DMB networks, for the carriage of video and multimedia services based on state-of-the-art codes, can proceed using essentially the same rules as for current DAB audio networks.
DMB is viewed by many as the next logical step in the evolution of DAB, said Dr. Les Sabel, RadioScapes VP of Technology. More importantly, it could also represent the next step in the evolution of mobile phones delivering the vision of video and data on the move that 3G promised but cannot deliver in a cost effective and efficient manner. A one-to-many broadcast technology, such as DMB, provides a broadband pipe of multimedia services that the one-to-one approach of 3G can only provide in small numbers and expensively.
There is concern about the viability of an alternative to DMB called DVB-H. This is a modification of Digital Video Broadcast Terrestrial (DVB-T) for handheld devices but has spectrum allocation issues as many countries are currently using these frequencies for analogue television. DMB, on the other hand, is based on proven DAB technology with spectrum, transmission towers and capacity already available for it in most countries. Current discussions indicate that for DVB-H to work effectively in mobile and indoor environments it will need to use transmission parameters similar to DAB. This will eliminate any real capacity advantages and still leave DVB-H with the issue of transmission power equirements due to its larger bandwidth.
Our field trials show that good DMB reception can be achieved with existing DAB transmitters that only use low amounts of power to cover a large footprint, Dr. Sabel explained. I have yet to see any comparative, quantitative evidence for DVB-H but, recent discussions indicate that for DVB-H to achieve the same footprint, network providers will typically require a five times greater density of transmitters. This will make DVB-H very expensive to establish and run — let alone the possibility of public concerns over yet more transmission towers. DMB clearly offers a much better, more cost effective solution for operators that can be implemented now as it based on proven DAB technology as can be evidenced by DMB pioneers in countries such as Korea and China where trial systems are already up and running.
Further details on the DMB trial results can be found on the RadioScape website.
