SatNews

Satellite Industry Intelligence Since 1983

SatBroadcasting™ — AfriCast, MEASAT Satellite Systems, T-VIPS, TelVue

[SatNews] For those involved in the SatBroadcasting™ environment, here is important market segment news that could well be of interest to you…

  • AfriCast infopage + registration
    The market for TV services in Africa is developing at a fast pace. In 2010, Sub-Saharan Africa had 34.5 million TV households, forecast to grow to 42.1 million by 2015. Among them, 3.5 million households are payTV subscriber, representing a penetration of 11 percent. Satellite TV still dominates the market — however, new technologies (DTT, online TV, Mobile TV), coupled with the imminent switch to all digital, means that the broadcasting market is due to experience great changes and increased competition in the years to come. AfricaCast is a timely event that will drive the transformation of Africa’s TV market. This two day summit will bring together decision makers from the entire broadcasting ecosystem, including broadcasters, satellite providers, cable companies, telecom operators, regulators, content providers and production facilities. A business-focused conference agenda to help delegates seize the growing opportunities in Africa’s TV market by:
    • Examining the evolution of the communications, media and TV ecosystem and the role of new players in the market
    • Understanding the new business models and services enabled by new technologies and regulation
    • Assessing how the improvement of network capacity will affect the provision TV services
    • Developing successful strategies to manage the transition to digital TV services
    • Fostering innovation to deliver attractive services to the consumers
    • Promoting the production and distribution of local content to suit the specific needs of African customers
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    Co-located with AfricaCom, the largest telecommunications event on the continent, AfricaCast will enable attendees to listen to more than 150 high level speakers from across the broadcast and telecommunications industries. The event will be sponsored by SES Astra, SecureMedia, Envivio and Alticast.



  • MEASAT-3 infopage
    MEASAT Satellite Systems Sdn. Bhd. (“MEASAT”) has revealed that a long term agreement had been signed with Solar Entertainment Corporation (“Solar”) for renewal of capacity on the MEASAT-3/3a satellites. This agreement further extends Solar’s services with additional capacity on MEASAT-3 for two new channels. Solar has been a core customer on MEASAT’s fleet of satellites since 2004 when it used MEASAT-1 to distribute four SD channels. The channels number has now increased to 10 SD channels and one HD channel, all distributed via the MEASAT-3/3a satellites. MEASAT distributes a variety of SD and HD channels via its MEASAT-3/3a video neighborhood at 91.5 degrees East, including news, general entertainment, sports and factual programming. This slot will be further strengthened with the launch of the MEASAT-3b satellite, which is scheduled for the end of 2013.



  • T-VIPS’ TVG640 infopage
    T-VIPS, a global leader in professional video contribution and distribution solutions, recently launched the TVG650, an MPEG-4 Contribution Encoder, and the TVG610, an MPEG-4 Contribution Decoder. Both products will ship in Q4. The TVG610 and TVG650 are part of T-VIPS’ Video Gateway line of compact, powerful and cost-effective products designed for real-time contribution. The new products are high-end, flexible solutions, handling the encoding and decoding of MPEG- 4, 4:2:2, 10-bit video, supporting output on ASI and IP/Ethernet. Key features include:
    • SD up to 30 Mbit/s, HD up to 60 Mbit/s
    • 10-bit or 8-bit video resolution
    • 4:2:0 or 4:2:2 chroma sampling
    • Support for MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 AVC compression
    • Low latency mode
    • Simultaneous output in ASI and IP/Ethernet
    • Up to four IP output streams on dual Ethernet ports
    • Flexible Forward Error Correction (SMPTE 2022-1)
    • Integrated DVB-S/S2 demodulator on Decoder
    • Integrated HD-to-SD down conversion on Decoder
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    The TVG650 and TVG610 combine easily with other T-VIPS products to provide a robust satellite or telco contribution solution, in particular the CP525 cMUX Remultiplexer for intelligent processing, multiplexing and scrambling of MPEG-2 transport streams, and the TNS541 Seamless TS Monitoring Switch for intelligent 1+1 redundancy switch-over between two MPEG-2 transport streams.


  • TelVue HyperCaster brochure download
    TelVue Corporation (OTCQB: TEVE.PK – News) (Pinksheets: TEVE.PK – News) has introduced its B1000 HyperCaster™ IP Broadcast Server which provides cable operators a hassle-free, low-cost way to launch high quality, professional grade, 24×7 digital television channels within minutes of un-packing. Hardware savings of up to 75 percent can be achieved through the elimination of real-time encoders and legacy baseband play-out systems. The B1000 HyperCaster provides IP origination for up to 20 independent digital broadcast channels supporting local origination (LO), leased access (LA), PEG channels and longform advertising. When the B1000 HyperCaster™ is used in conjunction with the TelVue Connect™ cloud-based Broadcast Content Management System, cable operators can achieve dramatic workflow improvement and labor cost reductions of 60 to 80 percent in typical LO/LA operations. The B1000 HyperCaster™ supports CableLabs® MPEG-2 Transport with both MPEG-2 and H.264 encoded video files in standard or high definition formats, including ATSC. The HyperCaster’s native IP over Gigabit Ethernet interface easily integrates with copper or fiber IP network architectures. The B1000 is a compact 1 RU server with dual power supplies and a high reliability solid state hard drive for the operating system and high capacity SATA2 RAID for content storage. In addition to the full suite of scheduling and content management, capabilities of the new B1000 HyperCaster™ include:
    • High Channel Densities. Originate 1 to 20 channels in SD or HD formats, fully supporting both MPEG-2 and H.264 networks all with a server occupying a single rack space
    • IP Capture enables simultaneous broadcast of live streams and IP-to-file capture for archival and re-broadcast
    • New MPEG Transport processing allow the HyperCaster™ to interoperate seamlessly with modern Digital Ad-Insertion and EBIF-based Interactive TV applications
    TelVue Connect™ allows operators to avoid the cost and time investment in dedicated facilities and equipment for on-premise media drop-off and encoding and outsource the entire process to the cloud. TelVue Connect™ uses the cloud to handle large media file uploads, transcoding, content management, content delivery to destination networks and channel scheduling. In the TelVue Connect™ cloud, content is automatically converted to the proper format and delivered to the operator’s broadcast server. The B1000 HyperCaster’s full integration with TelVue Connect™ means that the operator can schedule LO/LA contributor series into pre-assigned time slots using flexible rules and recurring patterns such as “once a week at 8PM.” This allows contributors to self-manage their episodes within a series, effectively distributing the channel scheduling task amongst the contributors.