24 January 2005
PanAmSat Corporation announced on 19 January that its subsidiary, PanAmSat Asia Pty. Ltd. had acquired certain of the business assets from the receivers of TARBS World TV Australia Pty. Ltd. The agreement includes the subscriber list, intellectual property and subscriber-installed equipment of TARBS, an Australian pay TV provider. Concurrently, PanAmSat announced that PanGlobal TV had opened for business as Australias new multi-ethnic Direct-To-Home (DTH) platform.
The assets we have obtained will help facilitate the growth of the PanGlobal TV platform by assisting our channel partners to reach the ethnic TV audience in Australia, said David Ball, vice president, Asia-Pacific. “PanGlobal TV is up and running offering Arabic, Serbian and Russian channels and is capable of reaching all of the homes formerly served by TARBS. Additional channels are planning to join the platform shortly.
PanGlobal TV is hosted on the PAS-8 Pacific Ocean Region satellite. MySAT, the Arabic Pay TV service, offers the following networks through PanGlobal TV: ART, LBC, Al Jazeera, ART Movies, Future TV, MBC and Noursat. Horizon World Plus TV Pty Ltd is distributing a bouquet of four Russian television channels on the PanGlobal TV platform in Australia. They are: RTVi, Teleklub/Detski Mir, Nashe Kino and RTR Planeta. TV Plus offers Serbian services Pink TV, BN and BK Sat.
PanGlobal TV is a joint marketing alliance between PanAmSat and GlobeCast Australia, which offers a range of transmission services to international broadcasters who wish to reach Australias diverse multi-cultural communities. The service transmits digital television channel signals from either GlobeCast Australias Sydney teleport or the PanAmSat Napa Valley, California teleport to the PAS-8 Ku-band Australia beam. The teleports offer digital encoding, signal processing and transport services in addition to the uplink service to the satellite. PanGlobal TV offers backhaul to either the Napa teleport or the Sydney teleport by satellite, fiber or hybrid satellite/fiber contribution. TARBS had antennas serving more than 50,000 Australian homes. These antennas are included in the assets that were acquired from the TARBS receiver. The relationship with the subscriber is directly between the programmer and the consumer.
21 January 2005
Harris Corporation announced on 20 January that it has been awarded a three-month, $22 million contract by the Iraqi Media Network (IMN). The contract scope includes training, programming support, systems integration and deployment work for IMN, the country’s public television and radio broadcasting organization. The network has operating locations in Baghdad and in more than 30 other locations throughout the country. Funding for the contract will be provided solely by the Iraqi government.
“We’re pleased to support Iraq’s public broadcasting network at such a crucial point in this country’s transition to democracy,” said Howard L. Lance, chairman, president, and chief executive officer of Harris Corporation. “IMN will play an important role in reporting on the upcoming national elections, and Harris and its local partners will provide vital support services through this contract.”
Work on a previous IMN contract was successfully completed in early January. Originally awarded to Harris in January 2004 by the Defense Contracting Command, that contract scope included requirements for broadcast and printing equipment, broadcast studio and transmission systems design and integration, network operations, and employee training. “In spite of the obvious security challenges, the Harris team created a world-class broadcast environment and successfully upgraded the production capabilities of Al Sabah, the national newspaper,” Lance said. “As the capabilities of the media network have grown, so have the dedication and professionalism of the more than 1,000 IMN employees, who are all Iraqi citizens.”
The Harris team completed construction of a news studio and an entertainment studio in central Baghdad. The public television network, named Al Iraqiya, now has a 24-hour news desk and programming that features 80 percent Iraqi content including news, sports, business, and weather coverage. Public radio programming includes both “talk” and “music” formats. IMN has full capability to produce live entertainment and news commentary programs. New equipment and facilities for the Al Sabah newspaper helped to increase production capabilities from 60,000 to 350,000 copies per day. Harris Corporation was supported by two important teammates on the contract: the Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation International (LBCI) and Al Fawares, a Kuwaiti company with Iraqi ownership.
Harris Corporation is an international communications technology company focused on providing assured communications products, systems and services for government and commercial customers. The company’s four operating divisions serve markets for government communications, tactical radio, broadcast, and microwave systems. Harris provides systems and service to customers in more than 150 countries.
21 January 2005
The venue for the ABUs 2005 General Assembly and annual meetings has been changed to Hanoi, Vietnam. ABU Secretary-General, David Astley, made the announcement on 20 January after several months of discussions with Radio the Voice of Vietnam (VOV). He said that the Secretariat had been advised by Prasar Bharati in November that they were unable to host the 2005 General Assembly in India as planned.
VOV had previously indicated interest in hosting the General Assembly in 2005, so we immediately contacted them to see if they could step into the breach, and this week we were delighted to learn that they had obtained Government approval to proceed, Mr Astley said. The President of the ABU, Katsuji Ebisawa, said from Tokyo: I am very grateful to our Vietnam members for their generous offer to host the 2005 General Assembly. We look forward to visiting the wonderful city of Hanoi for what I am sure will be a memorable event.
The General Assembly will be hosted jointly by VOV and Vietnam Television (VTV) and the dates of the meetings will be November 21-28, with the Administrative Council meeting being held on November 24 and the three-day General Assembly opening on November 26. Mr Astley said that the dates were about two months later than last year to avoid the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. The dates were also chosen to avoid clashing with the WSIS meetings in Tunis on November 16-18, and the World Media Environment Summit in Sarawak on November 30 December 2, he added.
20 January 2005
The Beijing News Awards Committee presented Voice of America (VOA) Mandarin Service China correspondent Kunghua Chang with the first-ever “Award for Excellence in Broadcast News” in a ceremony in China’s capital city on 19 January.
Chang, 57, was recognized for his report on a Mandarin language proficiency competition in August 2004. The report profiled some of the university students from 39 countries participating in the competition, focusing on their experiences studying Mandarin and how language can cross the divides between nations.
Chang, of VOA’s Mandarin Service, is one of two VOA correspondents in Beijing. A native Mandarin speaker, he has reported on a wide variety of subjects, including in-depth coverage and analysis of China’s political and economic developments.
VOA Mandarin broadcasts 13 hours a week of television programming and 12 hours a day of original radio programming to millions of viewers and listeners in China.
19 January 2005
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19 January 2005
Harris Corporation announced the formation of a new Software Systems business unit within its Broadcast Communications Division. The new business unit brings together the resources of Harris’ automation business and Encoda Systems, a global leader in broadcast media software that was acquired by Harris in November 2004. The combined solution set enables Harris to provide total content delivery solutions to existing and emerging broadcast, enterprise and government markets. Serving call letter broadcasters, cable/MSO and satellite service providers, advertising agencies, media rep firms, and enterprises, the new Software Systems business unit will offer modular, standards-based workflow management and service management solutions engineered with open APIs for maximum ease of integration and future scalability.
“Today’s announcement comprises the next chapter of Harris’ mission to deliver systems that drive customer business results,” said Jeremy Wensinger, president and general manager of Harris’ Broadcast Communications Division. “The inception of the new Software Systems business unit – and the open, standards-based solutions it offers – represent an important proactive position for Harris in customizing solutions that increase functionality, productivity and revenue.”
The new software systems business unit expands Harris Broadcast Communications Division’s organizational structure and will be key to extending the top-of-mind position Harris already enjoys in broadcast transmission hardware to emerging software areas. Software Systems becomes the fifth business unit of Harris Broadcast Communications, joining Radio Broadcast Systems, Television Broadcast Systems, Networking and Government Solutions, and Broadcast Systems Europe (which develops European-standard transmission products). With the significantly expanded capabilities of the new Software Systems business unit, Harris will be able to offer end-to-end content delivery solutions across the distinct phases of content creation, distribution and transmission.
John Sorensen, former chief executive officer of Encoda Systems, has been named president of the new Software Systems business unit. Sorensen joined Encoda Systems in 1987 as the principal designer and developer of the company’s industry-leading traffic management and billing software systems for the cable/MSO market. He is a highly regarded IT industry expert who previously held positions with Unisys and Hewlett-Packard.
“It is evident that Harris is expanding from a hardware-focused, transmission system provider to a provider of integrated workflow solutions that are applicable to broadband, advertising, digital asset management, automation and ‘back office’ technology,” Sorensen said. “With Harris’ solutions set, we can facilitate the flow of content from its inception through delivery. The progress we’re making today continues to strengthen the breadth and depth of the solutions we’re bringing to market – and further positions Harris to capitalize on this evolving opportunity for comprehensive and nonproprietary next-generation automation and traffic platforms.”
