11 September 2006
Using the enhanced power and stretched coverage of the new BADR-4 satellite, seamless high speed content & file exchange to/from any location within the whole Middle East / North Africa will now be easier and cheaper than ever.
Today at the International Broadcasting Convention (IBC), Arabsat (Arab Satellite Telecommunications Organization), the leading satellite operator in the Middle East and North Africa region, based in Saudi-Arabia, the ASBU (Arab States Broadcasting Union), based in Tunisia, and Newtec, based in Belgium, announced they have signed a major partnership for the progressive deployment of their MENOS project. The ASBU, which is currently operating a large international radio and television satellite exchange network on the Arabsat satellite fleet, has awarded a contract to Newtec for the supply and installation of a revolutionary broadband IP-based satellite network for the exchange of multimedia services to be operated on Arabsat’s soon-to-be launched new BADR-4 satellite.
The “Multimedia Exchange Network Over Satellite” system that will be proposed to ASBU members and Arabsat customers as a result of this partnership will definitely open amazingly exciting new horizons for satellite-based content exchange throughout the Arab world –and beyond, by providing our region with a truly ground-breaking project at the forefront of cutting-edge technologies. MENOS will be the largest and fastest ever feed and file exchange network for Broadcasters and Corporates, encompassing the entire Middle-East/North-Africa (MENA) and Europe.
Uniquely combining the power and flexibility of IP-based communications with the most advanced satellite transmission and data compression technologies, the MENOS system fully exploits the bandwidth efficiency of the DVB-RCS, DVB-S2 and MPEG-4 standards. It’s been developed by Newtec specifically to match the particular requirements of the ASBU members for media files exchange within the MENA region.
Mr. Khalid BALKHEYOUR, Arabsat President & CEO, enthusiastically welcomed the official launch of this major project on which Arabsat and the ASBU have already been actively working together with Newtec for 2 years as part of Arabsat’s strategy to rapidly expand its offering of Value-Added Services throughout the MENA region: We are extremely proud to have been able to reach this stage hand-in-hand with such remarkable organizations as ASBU and NEWTEC, introducing together into the Middle East this unique and amazing combination of IP and cutting-edge satellite transmission technologies” he commented, confirming Arabsats strong commitment to always remain at the forefront of state-of-the art technology and service offering. “We are honored by their trust in our system and confidence in the unbeatable performance of Arabsat’s constellation of BADR satellites at our 26° East primary video location he concluded.
In the first phase of its deployment, this system will be used daily by the 25 full members and associated members of ASBU to exchange real-time broadcasting content via a central HUB and 52 remote terminals; Ultimately, ASBU members have already planed to use up to 450 remote terminals within MENA: The MENOS concept offers exactly what broadcaster and satellite operators are looking for: More services and less satellite costs. MENOS will offer the technology required for our members and as well as other potential users in the region to build their own VPNs for their own national and regional operations. We are pleased with the partnership with Arabsat in this project that will allow us to continue our successful cooperation with them. We relied on Newtecs expertise in the past for the successful digitalization of our radio and television networks and trust they will show the same high level of innovation, quality and service for this project said Mr. Abdelhafidh HARGUEM, ASBU Director General.
Arabsat and the ASBU have entered into a Joint-Venture agreement for the MENOS space segment whereas Ku-band will be used from the new Arabsat BADR-4 satellite, scheduled for launch early November 2006.
The implementation of MENOS by ASBU and ARABSAT will offer numerous opportunities for ASBU members and other ARABSAT customers to access new services or improve existing business models. Newtec considers it as a privilege being able to support ASBU and ARABSAT to strengthen their leading position in the Arab world added Mr. Serge Van HERCK, Newtec CEO.
In a second phase, MENOS will be made available to any Arabsat customers for either Media content file exchanges or to large Corporations, Enterprises, and SMEs for high-speed data file exchange. — The network operational readiness is expected by mid-2007.
11 September 2006
Intelsat and Telenor Satellite Broadcasting (TSBc) jointly announced that they have entered into an agreement to interconnect the two companies fiber networks in London, providing customers of both Intelsat and Telenor with expanded, seamless access to new regions and services through each provider.
Under the agreement, Telenor now has complete access to services on Intelsats 51 satellites and globalConnex Media fiber and teleport network. This enables Telenor to offer global, end-to-end solutions to its broadcast customers who are primarily located in the UK, Scandinavia and Eastern Europe. Telenor expects this new capability to generate particular interest among European broadcasters
who are seeking to carry U.S. professional sports content, especially for basketball and ice-hockey, which are already carried on Intelsats U.S. fiber network in both high definition (HD) and standard definition (SD).
The London interconnect, being established as an extension of Intelsats successful partnership with Broadwing Communications in the U.S., will allow Intelsat to provide its customers worldwide with services originating and terminating in six of Telenors European points-of-presence (PoP). Content will pass through the interconnect in first generation, with no format changes or conversions necessary. This will allow Intelsat to better support coverage of sports and news events originating in the region, and improve access to DTH platforms on Intelsat and Telenor satellites that are co-located at 1ºW.
This agreement is the latest phase in our successful, long-standing relationship with Intelsat. We expect this interconnect will significantly expand our customer service in Europe, said David Gilmore, Telenors Commercial Director. We look forward to bringing enhanced sports and news coverage in both SD and HD to programmers in Europe, as well as marketing the 1ºW European DTH platform to programmers worldwide.
Stephen Spengler, Intelsats Senior Vice President, Europe, Africa, Middle East and Asia Pacific Sales, said, The expansion of our presence in London is another example of how Intelsat, working in partnership with customers such as Telenor, is continuing to deliver more flexible and comprehensive solutions. Our
customers can now access the huge quantity of content carried on our network each day and reach global cable and DTH platforms in more than 40 cities on three continents via a simple fiber connection.
11 September 2006
Content management and delivery company GlobeCast has expanded its mobile television offer into the United Kingdom and Switzerland, breaking the 100-channel mark for its mobile television offer. GlobeCast was recently chosen by Orange UK and Orange Switzerland (via Alcatel CIT) to deliver channels to their mobile television bouquets, consolidating GlobeCasts position as the worlds leading provider of live television-to-mobile delivery services. GlobeCast will provide both Orange UK and Orange Switzerland with a turnkey solution from channel origination to delivery of the final bouquets via its extensive worldwide satellite and fibre network.
From its technical operations center in central Paris, GlobeCast will be responsible for aggregating and delivering five live channels on Orange UKs Orange TV offering. GlobeCasts solution for Orange UK includes satellite downlink of the channels from the Eurobird satellite, decoding, encrytption and fibre connectivity to Oranges Multimedia Operations (OMO) center in Leeds. The five key channels delivered by GlobeCast CNN, Eurosport, Smash Hits, Kerrang and Kiss will be added to Orange UKs larger bouquet of over 50 channels.
Similarly, GlobeCast is currently responsible for aggregating and operating Orange TV in Switzerland, thanks to a deal with Alcatel. The bouquet offers thirty general and thematic channels, including Eurosport, MTV and BBC World. GlobeCasts solution for Orange Switzerland includes satellite downlink of the channels, delivery of the bouquet via fibre to Orange Switzerlands mobile TV network and 24×7 supervision.
These two offers come in addition to the 77 television and radio channels that GlobeCast currently delivers to Orange France. Orange France launched its direct-to-mobile television and radio service at the end of 2004 as part of its development of broadband mobile services. At launch, only 11 channels were available but since February 2005, when GlobeCast was selected to manage the bouquet, the line-up has tripled to include 61 television and 16 radio channels.
11 September 2006
Harris Corporation announced that it has fulfilled a significant order for a range of Harris broadcast equipment for Jordan Media City Co. (JMC) in Amman, Jordan.
The equipment is being used to support a new multichannel playout facility dedicated to the Arab Satellite Communications Organisation (Arabsat), the leading satellite services company in the Middle East.
The order included nine NEXIO(TM) server platforms, an Integrator(R) Gold wideband digital multi-rate router, an Inscriber(R)G3(TM) HD/SD- selectable character generator (CG) system, Videotek(R) TVM-850 test and measurement instruments, NEO(R) SuiteView(TM) modular multiviewer and a range of infrastructure products.
11 September 2006
The Associated Press (AP) and the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) marked the tenth anniversary of the agreement to install ENPS – the electronic news production system – for its global broadcasting operation. Today, ENPS is used in 40% of the world’s newsrooms by more than 40,000 reporters, writers, editors and producers across 48 countries. The ENPS installation at the BBC continues to be the largest broadcast newsroom operation in the world, supporting around 12,000 users responsible for all of the BBCs radio and TV news programmes.
ENPS tracks thousands of words of text, hundreds of hours of audio, and video streaming in and out of the BBC everyday. It feeds online operations and helps the World Service broadcast in more than 30 languages.
ENPS is a vital technological structure which holds together BBC News, from the 24-hour news operations in London, to the smallest regional radio station, to the furthest far-flung foreign correspondent with laptop and modem. This huge global operation gives journalists unparalleled access to networked information and more control from their desktops and in the field.
The BBC – a pioneer in news technology – selected ENPS in 1996 from an original slate of 65 companies. Since then, there has been a revolution in newsroom integration and constant refinement of the system.
“When we started in 1996 with ENPS we had 4,600 work stations, today we have grown to around 7,000 work stations, said Adrian van Klaveren, Deputy Director of BBC News. Throughout, ENPS has been flexible enough to adapt to our growing needs and allowed us to be effective and competitive.”
AP led the development of the MOS protocol introduced in 1998 which has been crucial to the development of the integrated newsroom. It has enabled journalists to access multiple third-party applications through the ENPS window. This means ENPS can integrate a range of production functions including video servers and editors, audio servers and editors, still stores, character generators, and special effects devices. MOS is used by more than 50 manufacturers in development of interfaces for easily connecting and integrating newsroom computer systems and broadcast production equipment.
“ENPS sits at the heart of our domestic and international news output and a complex matrix of broadcast systems. MOS is the communication path that holds this matrix together, linking our core news production system with the necessary video and audio servers to get our programmes to air,” said Julie Foster, the BBCs ENPS Project Director. “It’s a very stable and resilient broadcast environment.”
ENPS is designed for multi-language use and operates in over 40 languages. Different scripts can be selected e.g. Arabic, Greek, simplified and traditional Chinese and the Indian language scripts. In addition, on-screen commands and other text can be modified to native language and even local dialects.
Looking to the future, the BBC and Associated Press have joined forces with the UK’s leading broadcast journalism courses to provide a major free training initiative for the next generation of TV and radio journalists.
Today, all journalism courses accredited by the Broadcast Journalism Training Council (BJTC) can install the ENPS news production system free of charge enabling undergraduate and postgraduate students to gain practical experience of work in a newsroom environment.
11 September 2006
Al Jazeera International, the 24-hour English-language news and current affairs channel, headquartered in Doha, announced that they have appointed renowned factual broadcaster Nick Clark as presenter at their London broadcast centre. Nick will present the news at weekends alongside Barbara Serra who joined Al Jazeera International from Channel Five News. He will report from across Europe during the week.
Royal Television Society award winner, Nick Clark has a diverse background in news journalism. He has worked at the BBC, ITV News, Discovery Channel and the UKs ITV London Weekend Television (LWT) plus Carlton TV.
Speaking on Nicks appointment from the channels headquarters in Doha, Director of News, Steve Clark said, I am delighted to confirm that Nick Clark has joined the line-up of presenters at our London broadcast centre. He brings a wealth of expertise and experience to the channel. Al Jazeera Internationals London bureau chief, Sue Phillips said, Nick Clark is a fantastic addition to our team of talented presenters. I am thrilled to welcome him on board.
Confirming the news that he has joined the channel, Nick Clark said “Im thrilled to be joining Al Jazeera right at the start of a whole new era for global news. Everything about the set-up appeals to my news sensibilities its going to be quite an adventure.
