9 September 2004
TANDBERG Television has secured a major contract to manage the turnkey deployment of The ABC National Digital ENG Network. The system will be supplied, integrated and commissioned by TANDBERG Televisions local engineering teams.
On completion, Australias national free to air broadcaster will have one of the most advanced digital electronic news gathering (DENG) systems in the world. The system, which includes TANDBERG Televisions award-winning Maximum Ratio Combining FFT diversity receiver technology, Voyager mobile DENG systems and CT2011 wireless camera systems, will be used for live news and event coverage across Australia.
The ABC has television coverage in metropolitan and regional Australia and has studios in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth, Hobart, Canberra and Darwin. The network creates and delivers thousands of hours of locally produced programming, a lot of which is filmed out in the field for live news, event or sports reporting. The ABC is currently using analogue microwave technology for ENG. However, changes to Australias ENG spectrum plan will reduce the available bandwidth for broadcasters in the 2.5GHz band from February 2005.
Australian broadcasters are therefore turning to digital ENG, not only to compensate for their reduced frequency bandwidth, but also to enable them to use a more sophisticated, reliable and flexible news gathering system that will enhance their local programming and extend their news gathering reach.
9 September 2004
Al Jazeera Channel has issued a media release expressing its outrage at the decision taken on 4 September by the Iraqi interim government to extend the closure of its bureau in Baghdad. This decision runs contrary to pledges made by the Iraqi authorities to pursue a policy of openness and to safeguard freedoms of the press and expression.
In the release, Al Jazeera re-emphasises its commitment to continue to cover Iraq in accordance with its editorial policy and professional values enshrined in its Code of Ethics, as it believes this important primarily to the Iraqi people, as well as the Arab and international communities at large.
9 September 2004
PanAmSat Corporation has teamed up with GlobeCast to launch PanGlobal TV. Hosted on the PAS-8 Pacific Ocean Region satellite, this new Australian DTH platform will target international broadcasters wanting to reach Australias 5 million multicultural viewers.
By joining forces with GlobeCast to form PanGlobal TV, PanAmSat has added another dimension to its already varied Asia-Pacific satellite offerings, said David Ball, vice president, Asia Pacific sales, PanAmSat. International customers looking to distribute their programming to Australias vibrant Pay TV market will be able to access an established DTH neighborhood of more than 60,000 homes, where the necessary antennas have already been deployed. This is the ideal opportunity to reach a fast-growing market.
GlobeCast is a leading DTH service provider worldwide, including in Australia with its successful DTH platforms, said Mark Lobwein, DTH Sales Manager, GlobeCast Australia. Through our relationship with PanAmSat, GlobeCast greatly expands its satellite portfolio over Australia, and its ability to offer customers a choice of Direct-to-Home distribution paths to this dynamic market.
PanGlobal TVs customer base will target international broadcasters who wish to reach Australias diverse multi-cultural communities. The service will transmit channel signals from either GlobeCast Australias Sydney teleport or the PanAmSat Napa Valley teleport. In addition to digital encoding, signal processing and transport, PanAmSat and GlobeCast Australia will uplink the space segment to the PAS-8 Ku-Band Australia beam. PanGlobal TV offers backhaul to either the Napa teleport or the Sydney teleport by satellite, fiber or hybrid satellite/fiber contribution.
www.pansamsat.com
www.globecast.com
7 September 2004
Link Research is to supply new wireless camera systems, transmitters, receivers, encoders and decoders to Australia’s Nine Network in a significant contract which will upgrade the broadcaster’s ENG trucks to the very latest digital newsgathering equipment. The order was placed through Link’s Australian agent, COMSYST.
The news trucks are to be equipped with four-input diversity wireless camera systems and direct satellite uplinks which will be able to transmit live TV pictures with no perceptible delay from outside broadcast locations.
Channel 9 has worked with equipment from Link Research for some time and has invested in Link’s wireless camera transmitters for newsgathering and flyaways. “The equipment from Link Research gives us three key functions that we need for our news teams: Flyaway, wireless camera transmitters and satellite uplinks. This makes it a very attractive choice,” said Ian Wyles, Head of OperationsAssistant Chief Engineer at Nine Network.
The Nine Network is Australia’s most highly rated television network, broadcasting right across Australia with companies in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth and Brisbane. As such, it is Australia’s leading news service and owns the rights to many of Australia’s foremost sporting events, including the cricket, the National Rugby League and the Australian Football league. It is committed to broadcasting superior quality programming in digital and well as analogue signals.
The LinkXP wireless camera system is recognised as an outstanding product internationally and won the coveted International Association of Broadcast Manufacturer’s Peter Wayne Award in 2002. In April this year, Link Research won the British Queen’s Award for Enterprise for Innovation in technology. Sales of LinkXP wireless camera systems are now in the hundreds, with companies such as Sky News, ABC, and NBC choosing LinkXP as they change over to digital ENG.
TV Globo of Brazil is one of the first broadcasters to order LinkXP wireless camera systems with the new wide-band transmitter and has placed an order for eight systems. Link Research’s new wide-band transmitter was first announced at NAB in April 2004 and is launched into Europe at IBC 2004. It allows the wireless camera system to operate at any frequency between 1.95 Ghz and 2.7 Ghz, to give the greatest operational flexibility. It will be useful at events where there are many broadcasters on site, making the frequencies crowded, or for working internationally, since the RF frequencies available vary from country to country.
7 September 2004
RadioScape, the only provider of end-to-end Digital Radio broadcast and receiver solutions, has demonstrated the worlds first complete EPG solution for Digital Radio. The EPG (Electronic Programming Guide) is broadcast using the latest version (v5) of RadioScapes Professional Broadcast System that is being launched at IBC. This is received and displayed using RadioScapes recently launched RS300L DAB module.
With the concept of the personal audio recorder it is now possible by using the information on forthcoming programmes displayed on the EPG screen to automatically schedule the recording facility of the RS300L to store programmes for later listening. The RS300L uses commercially available MMC and SD removable memory cards giving potentially hours of recording time. A USB connection is also available which enables audio to be transferred or streamed to a PC, as well as enabling the PC to control the receiver if required. RadioScape pioneered the use of EPG in DAB receivers back in 2002 with the Psion Wavefinder, which used a PC to decode and display the programme information. The 300L module now demonstrates how affordable, standalone receivers can now be developed and be brought to market based on this technology.
Unique Interactive will be showcasing its Digital Radio EPG Management System and its DLS scrolling text Manager ‘ManDLS’ on the RadioScape IBC stand. To demonstrate the flexibility of the two systems, the servers for the DLS and EPG services will be based in the UK and administered in Amsterdam. The UK servers will send EPG and DLS data back to the RadioScape Data Server for broadcast back in Amsterdam. The two systems will be used to illustrate a complete end-to-end system from user input to seeing the information received onto a stand-alone EPG capable receiver.
As part of the demonstration of the EPG Management System, the Workbench software will be available to create programme information ready for broadcast. Also ManDLS will be available to show how simple it is to setup up dynamic and interchangeable scrolling text services for Digital Radio.
7 September 2004
SES ASTRA and WORLDSAT have concluded an agreement that positions SES ASTRA to extend the provision of state-of-the-art satellite services to the entire African continent.
The agreement covers 24 C-band transponders on the WORLDSAT 2 (WS-2) satellite for the entire expected life span of the spacecraft. WS-2 is currently under construction with Alcatel Space of France and scheduled for launch onboard a Russian Proton booster under the auspices of ILS (International Launch Services) in fourth quarter of 2004.
The WS-2 African capacity will be marketed under the ASTRA brand name. Regional marketing support will be provided by the SES representation office based in Johannesburg, South Africa. SES ASTRA initiated service provision to Africa earlier this year with the steerable beam onboard ASTRA 2B at 28.2° East, which has been focused on Western Africa.
Ferdinand Kayser, President and CEO of SES ASTRA, states: “ASTRA will be marketing this capacity as ASTRA 4A. SES brings to Africa one of the most renowned and trusted brand names in satellite service provision. With the ASTRA 2B capacity we are already providing active service to our customer Accelon, notably in Nigeria, and, as of this month, also in Ghana. As part of our strategy of offering compelling satellite services to the entire African continent, we have secured state-of-the-art pan-African C-band satellite capacity from our sister company WORLDSAT. This agreement fits perfectly into SES GLOBAL’s strategy of maximizing synergies between operating companies to the best interest of our customers. ASTRA 2B at 28.2° East and ASTRA 4A at 37.5° West are SES’ beachheads into the African market and its vast potential for readily available, ubiquitous satellite-based communications solutions.”
Scheduled to replace Satcom C1 by the end of 2004, the WS-2 advanced high-powered C-band satellite will serve broadcasters, cable programmers, Internet service providers, government agencies, educational institutions, carriers and private networks throughout the Atlantic Region, including North America, the Caribbean, South America, Europe and Africa.
High-powered and state-of-the-art, WORLDSAT-2 will offer unprecedented levels of performance. Its advanced design and high power levels will provide service with higher data throughput to smaller antennas. Two zone beams, one each for North and South America, will complement one hemi beam, covering Europe and Africa. The beams may be interconnected through on-board switching on an individual transponder basis.
The WS-2 spacecraft carries 72 C-band transponders and features a design life of 15 years.
