S lingPath, the unique online SNG training course we’ve developed, is now live and

students are signing up for the first course, Basic SNG Operations - in fact we have gradu-ates already.

At NAB we exhibited SlingPath for the first time, and had over a hundred visitors to the booth, proving that we’d come up with some-thing that the industry was looking for.

It also featured at BroadcastAsia in Singa-pore in June, and we’ll be showing SlingPath on two stands at IBC in Amsterdam in Septem-ber (thanks to Sat-Comm and GigaSat).

For those of you who have not heard about the program, SlingPath training is aimed at people who are expected to operate SNG up-links but have little or no technical background in the area. As this has traditionally been the domain of the experienced SNG uplink engi-neer, many are struggling.

For these ‘newbies’, who are also expected to undertake their primary job function of cam-eraman, picture editor or reporter, there is a scarcity of suitable cost-effective training of-

fered, apart from a couple of hours with some-one showing them how to basically get on-air.

SlingPath is a web-based training (WBT) course, where a participant purchases a ‘seat’ on the course and undertakes online training that takes approximately seven hours to com-plete (though not necessarily all in one sitting), within a twelve month period.

The aim has been to produce training that is operator-orientated, relevant, affordable, and competency based. Most importantly, it needs to give the participants confidence in what they are doing.

Not only that, but we wanted to get industry endorsement, and we are delighted to report that to date, both SUIRG (Satellite Users Inter-ference Reduction Group) and WBU-ISOG have

(Continued on page 3)

BeaconSeek offers

• Sat-Comms Consultancy

• Project Management

• Systems Integration

• Broadcast Engineering

• Location Event Planning

• Training

• Market Studies

• Marketing Communications

• Regulatory Affairs Advice

www.beaconseek.com

L I N E O F S I G H T - S P R I N G 2 0 0 7

T H E T R I M E S T R I A L N E W S L E T T E R A B O U T S A T E L L I T E N E W S G A T H E R I N G - I S S U E 1 0

SL I N GPA T H LAU N C H E D U N I Q U E S N G T R A I N I N G C O U R S E N O W O N L I N E

I N S I D E T H I S I S S U E :

And Another Thing 2

NAB Report 3

SNG - 2nd Edition 5

MPEG-4 Ahead 6

Soap Box 10

Newssgathering 10

SNG At Lower Cost 12

News Roundup 13

Web Index 14

Close To The Flange 11

Line Of S ight - Spr ing 2007

N AB was, quite frankly, pretty boring. Re-assuringly, I hear that other market sec-

tors were similarly uninspiring, so at least it’s wasn’t just our part of the broadcast industry.

The roundup of what there was to see at NAB is perhaps the thinnest I’ve had to put together in the three years that LOS has been running (yes, that’s right, we’ve been going for three years now, and this is the tenth edition!) - one might be forgiven for thinking that the SNG market has almost stood still this year.

With developments in new methods and materials used in constructing systems over the last few years. it was perhaps inevitable that we would reach a plateau of advance-ment at some point.

The lack of progress in MPEG-4 and DVB-S2 in SNG is more puzzling. The focus seems to be more on reducing the cost of obtaining and owning SNG systems (see the article on page 12) than in pushing ahead new tech-nologies.

We have two guest contributors to this issue. I’m delighted to welcome Ian Trow of Envivio, who has written a very informed arti-cle on the direction of MPEG-4, particularly for contribution i.e. including SNG.

Ian has been involved with video compres-sion for over a decade now, and I’ve had fre-quent contact with him both in his former life

at Tandberg as well as in his current position with Envivio - so I’m confident he knows about the subject!

I’d also like to welcome Tom Jennings from Wolf Coach in Massachusetts, USA, who has given his opinion on the SNG industry in the US in our newly-christened “Soap Box” column.

I hope you enjoy the issue, and thanks again for your support for Line Of Sight - and don’t hesitate to let me know what you think as we can only improve with feedback. I’m also always looking for new contributors, so if you fancy writing a piece, do get in touch. ◙

Jonathan Higgins

Page 2

“The lack of progress in MPEG-4 and DVB-S2 in S N G i s m o r e puzzling. ”

AN D AN OT H E R TH I N G …

los@beaconseek.com

“We are reaching the limits of the laws of physics in terms of how small and light systems can be made.”

Line Of S ight - Spr ing 2007 Page 3

T his year’s NAB had very little in the way of particularly new products aimed at satel-

lite newsgathering – very much a case of “same old same old” – and it looks like this niche market might be running out of steam in terms of new technological developments.

As many of us have realised for a while, we are reaching the limits of the laws of phys-ics in terms of how small and light systems

can be made, and so some manufacturers are focusing on refinements of existing technolo-gies, demonstrating how they can offer prod-ucts at lower cost to the end-user than before.

Disappointingly, NAB revealed little of this - instead manufacturers were generally showing the transformation of ‘launches’ from NAB and IBC last year into real product.

Hunting around the usual suspect's stands, it was hard to find anything radically “new”.

On the AvL Technologies stand they were showing their new 1260 Carry-On Suitcase an-tenna, available with both Ku- and Ka-band feed systems, fitting into two cases under 100 lbs (48 kg). This is the big brother of their 9060 terminal launched last year.

On the Frontline stand, what was claimed to be the first C-band Mercedes Sprinter was on display.

Featuring a 2.4 metre antenna with dual 750W HPAs, it’s designed for transmitting HD

already endorsed the training as meeting their requirements.

At the end of the training, each participant gets a certificate which features the endorse-ment of SUIRG and WBU-ISOG.

The basic SlingPath online theory module Basic SNG Operations costs a very affordable US$595 - and SNG equipment manufacturers, satellite operators, and others will either be promoting the training, offering it to their cus-tomers, and/or providing the practical training element which follows completion of the online theory module.

The participant can complete it at their own pace, and retake modules as many times as needed without penalty within that period should they have a particular difficulty.

The SlingPath scheme does not stop there. With the steady advances in technologies, the graduates will need to keep their knowledge fresh, and so they will be required to periodi-cally re-take a ‘refresher’ version of the training to maintain the validity of the certification.

There has been widespread support for the

initiative across the satellite communications community. The training was beta-tested by a number of organizations, including satellite operators, SNG manufacturers, and broadcast-ers, as well as freelance uplink engineers; and a number of their suggestions have been imple-mented into the final build. Several major US networks and other broadcasters have already signed up for seats.

We have officially appointed the first two PTCs (Practical Training Centres); Globesat in Cyprus, who will cover the Mediterranean, North Africa and Middle East; and Digiworkz in Singa-pore, covering South East Asia. They will both be in a position to offer the practical element of the training scheme from late 2007. We are currently in discussion with potential PTCs in three locations in the US, and one in India. Oth-ers will follow in early 2008.

So remember the name – SlingPath (slingpath.com) – and what it stands for – SNG uplink training for the 21st century delivered by leading experts in the field. ◙

SL I N GPA T H LAU N C H E D

visit slingpath.com

Frontline’s C-band Sprinter AvL 1260 Carry-On Suitcase

SO WH A T’S NE W? DI S AP P O I N T I N G NAB

“ One has to wonder at the bravery

of these two guys launching another

SNG vehicle-mount antenna into the already highly competitive US

market”

“ Patriot were showing a compact

SNG terminal which bore a striking

resemblance to the SWE-DISH IPT. ”

Line Of S ight - Spr ing 2007 Page 4

under even the most arduous link conditions. It’s been built for ARCTEK Satellite Produc-

tions in Minneapolis. The Sprinter is about a third of the size of conventional C-Band trucks used in the US.

Two ex-employees of Vertex in Texas have set themselves up in business as Sat-Lite Technologies, offering two variants of a 1.8m antenna packaged for vehicle mounting using an AvL mount.

One model is features a low-cost SMC reflector, while the other has a reflector made from carbon-fibre. Both called Peloris, these antennas are available for the C- ,X- , and Ku-bands.

One has to wonder at the bravery of these two guys launching another vehicle- mount SNG antenna system into the already highly competitive US market.

In the Outside Exhibits area, UK manufac-turer GigaSat were showing the production version of their three-axis motorized 1.2m diameter system, first shown at NAB last year

in prototype. The FA-120 features a multi seg-mented carbon fibre reflector, where the seg-menting of the antenna has been done in a clever offset design so that when packed for shipment the petals “nest” together to form a lower profile.

Patriot Antennas, known for their trans-portables and larger aperture antennas rather than true SNG flyaways, were showing (seemingly tongue-in-cheek) what seemed to be a compact SNG terminal which bore a strik-ing resemblance to the SWE-DISH IPT. Patriot were tight-lipped about the capabilities of this intriguing little box manufactured in Korea.

Another manufacturer not particularly strong in the SNG market globally is Andrew Corporation, but they were showing a new low-cost 1.2 metre antenna based on a design bought from Qinetiq in the UK. Aimed at low-budget SNG applications, the antenna has a simple controller and a price tag of around US$15,000.

Perhaps the most exciting new exhibit launched at NAB which created a substantial amount of interest was SlingPath, a unique training initiative in the industry.

But then I would say that, wouldn’t I? ◙

S O WH A T’ S N E W? D I S A P P O I N T I N G NAB

Sat-Lite Peloris 1.8m variants

GigaSat 1.2m and its clever petal “nest”

“ …the whole book has been generally

updated since it was written over 7 years

ago ”

Line Of S ight - Spr ing 2007 Page 5

S O W T S N E W ? I S P P O I N T I N G N B

Basic SNG Operations

$595

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SA T E L I T E NE W S G A T H E R I N G 2 N D E D I T I O N P U B L I S H E D W ell, it’s been a long time coming - but at

the end of May, the second edition of Satellite Newsgathering finally hit the Amazon site in the US, and in Europe around the time this is published.

So what’s different from the first edition? Well, the whole book has been generally up-dated since it was written over 7 years ago.

Most chapters have had some alterations, and a whole new chapter has been addedde-aling with fundamentals of IP, including its application in SNG. The chapter on Inmarsat has been updated to include the introduction of BGAN.

Naturally, new compression schemes such as MPEG-4 and VC-1 have been added, as well as discussion of DVB-S2.

So it remaims the only book dealing with SNG in its entirety. ◙

Contents: Foreword; From the Beat of the Distant Drum; From Launch to Transmission; Boxes Or Wheels; Squeezing Through The Pipe - Digital Compression; 21st Century Transport - SNG Over IP; Have Phone, Will Travel - Inmar-sat Services; Across The Spectrum - Regula-tion & Standards; Fitting The Pieces Together - Satellites & Operations; Get There Be Safe - Safety & Logistics; On The Horizon; Appendi-ces; Glossary; Bibliography.

Softback; 480 pages; 244 illustrations

Price: GBP 39.99 / US$64.95 / €59.95 Available from Focal Press, Amazon, Barnes &

Noble; and signed copies from BeaconSeek

T he broadcaster’s desire to efficiently use bandwidth has driven the development of

video compression standards and algorithms. H.264 is part of the vast MPEG-4 stan-

dardisation effort to develop and improve on MPEG-2 and MPEG-1.

While MPEG-2 currently serves the vast majority of broadcasters needs for contribu-tion and broadcast, MPEG-4 was conceived to provide a more flexible and efficient compres-sion solution.

In short MPEG-4 was designed to offer performance that bettered MPEG-2, utilising bandwidths more usually associated with MPEG-1.

H.264 is the part of the MPEG-4 standard of most interest to both contribution and broadcast applications, offering the prospect of the most advanced compression toolset to address both challenging environments.

H.264 is also known as MPEG-4 Advanced Video Coding or MPEG-4 Part 10.

This article intends to deal with the appli-cation of the H.264 standard in product for the contribution market, rather than deal with the technical intricacies of the standard itself - there are plenty of heavyweight text and pa-pers that deal with the H.264 standard in com-parison with predecessor compression stan-dards! Contribution Quality - what does this mean?

Contribution involves the transport of me-dia content (video, audio, metadata, and ancil-lary data) between professional users.

This usage is distinct from broadcast in that media exchange is only between profes-sional users and not the end user, as is the case for broadcast.

The key aspect for contribution is picture quality which is quantified as being equivalent to uncompressed or very mildly compressed source material capable of being edited with-out taking account of the source of origination.

It is assumed that the material is full frame rate and usually maintained at 4:2:2 sampling.

This excellent description is part of the DVB Commercial Module’s specification for Contribution codecs. Other useful DVB classifi-cations include:-

• Broadcast Quality, equivalent to existing Satellite, Terrestrial and Cable broadcast emission. Again it is assumed that this is full frame rate but at a quality not as-sumed appropriate for contribution appli-cations.

• Good Quality, commercially acceptable quality, not considered acceptable for con-tribution except as a last resort or for fast response news applications. For this appli-cation, the requirement to retain full frame rate can be relaxed.

• Acceptable Quality, distinct from Good Quality in that it is deemed commercially acceptable for low data rate applications.

• Mobile Phone Quality, equivalent to CIF and QCIF resolutions supported on modern handsets

The five classification delimit what is a confus-ing array of applications that all feature in current broadcast media and to a lesser or greater extent are addressed by the MPEG-4 compression solutions applied in Figure 1. MPEG-2, a tough act to follow

While MPEG-2 was initially targeted at addressing broadcast distribution applications, it wasn’t long before the standard was applied to more demanding broadcast contribution applications.

This resulted in rapid development of com-pression performance to match picture quality expectations and the adaptation of the original standard to take account of 4:2:2 chromi-nance support and ancillary data handling.

Broadcaster’s expectations have been set by MPEG-2 and any successor standard has to

“ High Definition has been the big

application area for H.264 ”

“In short MPEG-4 was designed to offer

performance that bettered MPEG-2, utilising bandwidths

more usually associated with MPEG-1”

Line Of S ight - Spr ing 2007 Page 6

MPEG-4 AH E A D I A N T R O W

Figure 1 - Contribution in the Broadcast chain

Broadcast Contribution

Line Of S ight - Spr ing 2007 Page 7

improve on the coding performance, offer improvements to work-flow or enable service provision outside the capabilities of MPEG-2.

H.264 delivers in all three areas, but a successful broadcast contribution application relies on understanding where broad-casters are under most pressure to improve existing services. Where AVC/H.264 can succeed in Broadcast Contribution

Broadly speaking H.264 enables the delivery of High Defini-tion, offers improvement to Standard Definition and facilitates video services over IP networks.

High Definition has been the big application area for H.264 and hence the area where a large number of compression manu-facturers have concentrated effort to establish the standard.

Specifically for High Definition, H.264 has achieved wide-spread success in broadcast applications. Adequate picture quality has been achieved for both 720P and 1080i broadcast applications at bit rates ranging from 8Mbps to 12Mbps. The large benefactors to the improvements offered by H.264 are cable, satellite and IPTV operators wishing to introduce cost ef-fective High Definition services.

H.264’s big break over MPEG-2 was that High Definition ser-vices hadn’t been economically viable with predecessor compres-sion standards and so H.264 had a clean run at the market with-out having to displace widespread MPEG-2 legacy infrastructure. This isn’t yet the case for H.264 usage in contribution applica-tions. So far no manufacturer has presented a product that has been able to conclusively displace the more mature MPEG-2 contribution encoders used for broadcast backhaul.

The recent World Cup in Italy in 2006 saw many broadcasters evaluating H.264 product only to revert to existing MPEG-2 provi-sion, citing lack of product maturity as the reason for not endors-ing the newer standard. This immaturity is a polite way of saying the picture quality is not good enough for High Definition contri-bution applications yet!

High Definition H.264 represents the cutting edge of com-pression product development and the demands of the ad-vanced compression toolset coupled with the expectation to sig-nificantly lower the bit rates utilised are difficult technical targets to attain within the ever tightening broadcast capex and opex budgets.

This is not to say that Contribution is beyond H.264. It is just recognising two dynamics within the High Definition compression market.

The first is the emphasis on satisfying the needs of the large broadcast market, H.264 is viewed as a must to enable distribu-tion of High Definition content.

The second factor involves the complexity of H.264 over MPEG-2 and the availability of technology and platforms to imple-ment viable product around.

Broadcast differs from contribution in two areas:- 1. Contribution requires high quality picture compression at

higher data rates when compared to broadcast applications. Both quality and bit rate are challenges, high picture quality requires mastery of the H.264 compression toolset and high bit rate involves efficient optimisation of a compression algorithm to a target product platform.

2. Contribution requires low latency performance to allow material derived from a compression system to be mixed with source material or facilitate live two way interviews to be con-ducted

Product platforms for compression can be classified in one of three ways:

• A dedicated custom designed chipset, Applications Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC)

• A custom design combining Digital Signal Processors (DSPs) and Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs)

(Continued on page 8)

MPEG-4 A H E A D

“ ... for both broadcast and

contribution the principal aim is to offer the best picture quality at the lowest possible

data rate, what is acceptable in terms of

picture quality is radically different in

both cases.“

• Use of a high end standard processor plat-form from Intel or AMD.

Initial H.264 product offerings were based around custom DSP and FPGA designs. These offered a flexible development platform allow-ing for vital algorithm development which is essential for the early adopter’s phase of any compression standard.

The disadvantage with this approach is three-fold - expense, physical footprint and power consumption. ASICs have been devel-oped to answer the requirements for solutions offering a lower cost with a smaller footprint. ASIC’s now account for the majority of prod-ucts addressing the distribution market.

While ASICs offer adequate picture quality for distribution applications their performance does not meet contribution needs in two criti-cal areas, video quality and end to end la-tency.

To reach the current level of broadcast performance, ASICs have employed multi pass techniques to achieve broadcast distribution quality, basically two or more concatenated compression stages are employed to optimise video quality at a given bit rate.

The emphasis on multi-pass encoding in ASICs pushes the end to end latency beyond that acceptable for broadcast contribution. Contribution applications require latency per-formance of the order of a few frames, milli-seconds rather than seconds as currently supported from ASICs.

The target bit rate range for broadcast is lower than for contribution, recognising the last mile bandwidth constraints governing television delivery. While for both broadcast and contribution the principal aim is to offer the best picture quality at the lowest possible data rate, what is acceptable in terms of pic-ture quality is radically different in both cases.

Broadcast is aiming for adequate picture quality between 4 to 12 Mbps, contribution is

(Continued from page 7)

Line Of S ight - Spr ing 2007 Page 8

targeting high picture quality between 8 to 25 Mbps.

While there is overlap between the bit rate ranges the two applications are at different ends of the video quality spectrum. For contri-bution applications two platforms exists that allow picture quality and latency performance targets to be attained, custom DSP and FPGA or standard processor platforms from Intel or AMD.

As is becoming the case for Standard Defi-nition, solutions employing these two architec-tural strategies will begin addressing the high demands of contribution applications over the next 2 years

Standard Definition applications are look-ing to iterative compression improvements to enable broadcast delivery over narrower band-widths, for example in the case of H.264, at-taining broadcast quality over T1/E1 lines (~1.5Mbps) has long since been a perform-ance target that MPEG-2 cannot satisfy. Stan-dard Definition applications represent a tougher market for H.264 to enter as MPEG-2, particularly the 4:2:2 profile, are well estab-lished and perform well at the targeted band-widths.

However, contribution involves media ex-change between professional users (i.e. a closed application, rather than broadcast which is open and has to interoperate with existing/legacy infrastructure often based around MPEG-2).

Therefore it is viable to consider replace-ment of MPEG-2 infrastructure provided a quality or workflow benefit can be proven by deploying H.264. On the quality front H.264 product can eventually deliver to the over hyped improvements over MPEG-2 when the standard was launched and early H.264 co-decs were being applied to the contribution market.

What is lacking is H.264 product that sup-ports 4:2:2 and can carry ancillary data. As with MPEG-2 a profile has been developed

Figure 2 - H.264 closing the gap between contribution and the wave of new devices and deliv-ery platforms

MPEG-4 A H E A D

Got something to say? Why not write a piece

for us? Fresh voices always

welcome

email us at los@beaconseek.com

within MPEG-4 that caters for the needs of professional user.

This capability is known as the Fidelity Range Extensions (FRExt) and caters for a number of contribution specific profiles.

• High Profile (HP), up to 8 bit video/4:2:0 chroma sampling

• High 10 Profile (Hi10P), up to 10 bit video/4:2:0 chroma sampling

• High 4:2:2 Profile (H422P), up to 10 bit video/4:2:2 chroma sampling

• High 4:4:4 Profile (H444P), up to 10 bit video/4:4:4 chroma sampling plus support for lossless coding and transform error colour space conversion for RGB video.

As well as the above features, advanced transform, prediction and quantization modes are covered by the High Profile that potentially can offer significant picture quality improve-ments over the Main Profile when available as CODEC product.

These advancements will undoubtedly be realised as compression products based on standard processor platforms or custom DSP and FPGA designs for high definition and stan-dard definition applications.

So far we have considered contribution within rather strict quality definitions that do not take into account the large number of applications using MPEG-4 as a key format to facilitate high quality video delivery. MPEG-4

has much to offer in terms of being more robust than predecessor standards when transmitted as files or live over IP networks.

Indeed much of the narrowband Satellite infrastructure being proposed for ad-hoc links is based around 3GPP devices and standards that use MPEG-4 to fulfil the video compression requirement.

These applications blur the distinction be-tween contribution, broadcast, mobile and the internet. While I have stuck to describing H.264 in the context of contribution, the scope of this definition is always under scrutiny as new de-vices platforms and network capabilities be-come available. A bright future for H.264 in contribution

H.264 will always be firstly a mass market broadcast standard.

However, the strength of the core compres-sion algorithm combined with the capability to open up public, narrow bandwidth networks for the distribution of contribution quality video will always provide a fertile application area for niche contribution product.

The potential is large for specialist manufac-turers able to understand the contribution mar-ket in the context of the new possibilities of-fered by H.264. References 1. High Level Requirements for Contribution

Codecs, DVB CM-AVC0056r4 Ian Trow is VP Technology at Envivio. ◙

Line Of S ight - Spr ing 2007 Page 9

MPEG-4 A H E A D

visit slingpath.com

“ … small local TV stations in deepest

America have been able to send back

stories on how their local troops are coping

in the conflict.“

“ A single engineer can theoretically control a fleet of trucks and

manage available bandwidth very

effectively.“

Line Of S ight - Spr ing 2007 Page 10

SOA P BOX Following on from the last few issues,

where we gave the opportunity for various “luminaries” in our industry to spout forth on the way they see both their business and the market in general moving, we’re now establish-ing this column as a regular soap box platform.

In this issue, we’d like to welcome Tom Jennings of Wolf Coach in the US to climb up onto the Soap Box.

P erhaps I am showing my age, but I still remember a time when owning an SNG

truck was a luxury afforded by only the very largest markets or top stations in a particular region. They required specialized engineer/operators with very specific skill sets and price-tags to match.

These days, one can hardly compete in the viciously competitive news market without an SNG truck. In fact, many stations have several.

Compelling factors that have made SNG trucks so popular include more affordable equipment hardware costs and simplification of the technology.

MPEG 2 encoding has allowed increasingly smaller trucks to transmit multiple paths of full motion video. Adding SNG capability to an exist-ing ENG platform has now become common-place and an estimated 50-60% of all ENG trucks we deliver have DSNG capability - 100% of the vehicles have DSNG provisions.

Fast forward to 2007 and DSNG trucks are about to make a quantum leap in functionality and capability. Of course HD is top priority on everyone's mind. While this presents band-width challenges with smaller antennas and amplifiers, it is only a matter of time before MPEG 4 and/or IP encapsulation solves this issue entirely. We are already seeing large shift

I t’s never been easier to get into the world of content contribution for newsgathering,

which, ignoring the use of cellphones to send mobile video clips, range from the lowest cost of a laptop and some software all the way up to a fully specified SNG truck – from US$5,000 to US$1 million.

It should be stressed that this pricing range is not a linear slope, but characterized by step changes in pricing.

For nearly two decades conventional ‘live’ TV newsgathering has commonly involved the use of a conventional satellite uplink and a satellite.

Although that is still the most obvious solu-tion, the unconstrained spread of access to the Internet and the relatively falling cost of laptops and software has enabled even the smallest station to get in on the act in putting their own local stamp on a particularly relevant news item anywhere in the world.

This has been demonstrated most clearly in

the last few years in Iraq, where small local TV stations in deepest America have been able to send back stories on how their local troops are coping in the conflict.

No longer necessarily dependent on just buying international items from the major news agencies or relying on generic feeds from bigger affiliate partners, a station can equip a news reporter with, say, a consumer-level Sony DV camera, Apple Mac PowerBook with Apple’s Final Cut Pro installed, and an Inmarsat BGAN satellite modem at a total cost of under US$ 5,000.

Even some freelancers have equipped them-selves with this cost-effective range of gear which can all be carried in a small bag. The reporter can use the Inmarsat satellite modem when in a very remote location, or where avail-able, save satellite costs of US$7/MB and use a hotel or internet café broadband connection.

The ubiquitous availability of mobile phone (Continued on page 11)

N E W S G A T H E R I N G B Y O T H E R ME AN S

to HD in all SNG platforms. The greatest advance however is the con-

cept of bi-directional SNG (and ENG) transmis-sion and IP-encapsulated video for purposes of providing remote control, telemetry, communi-cations and internet access over the estab-lished link. This has a direct effect on improved workflow, speed and effort required to get a story back to the station.

Companies like ND SatCom and On Call Communications have emerged to offer bundled packages that provide control, transponder space and scheduling software tie ins. In this latest scenario, a GPS system automatically locates the satellite via a one button control panel and establishes a bi-directional communi-cation with the remote trucks. From there, all electronics can be controlled, monitored and/or adjusted from a remote site, (often the chief engineer’s desk). Internet access and IP phone lines can easily be established based on the service provider which minimizes cellular charges.

Engineers will no longer need to travel into the field. A single engineer can theoretically control a fleet of trucks and manage available bandwidth very effectively. From the field, a photographer can be dispatched with the truck and press a single “Deploy” button.

They can then close the doors of the truck and focus on the creative aspects of the story and all technical functions can be managed from the station. This allows any station to own, manage and control and SNG truck regardless of market size and or talent pool limitations in the field.

Tom Jennings is Director of Broadcast Sales at Wolf Coach, an L3 company ◙

“ … the quality of ‘live’ pieces is often

questionable, but you can’t deny the economics.”

networks also enables the use of a 3G/HSCSD/GPRS data card in the laptop to ac-cess the studio file server from places that one would never imagine possible.

This is of course for a edited pieces – for live contribution, the reporter has to have some kind of videophone capability (Inmarsat BGAN cannot directly accept a video input) - though that facility is included in the latest series of Apples MacBook Pro laptops.

There are also a number of bespoke broadcast ‘live’ video software packages avail-able from Emblaze VCON, Livewire, and Quick-

(Continued from page 10)

Line Of S ight - Spr ing 2007 Page 11

Link. Alternatively, there are compact hardware

solutions available from 7E Communications and Streambox that are designed to work with Inmarsat BGAN.

You can’t have failed to notice the increase of use of broadband to deliver reports on many news bulletins, and some global newsgathering networks are in the vanguard of covering ever more news at ever lower cost by bypassing the expensive satellite link wherever possible.

In particular the quality of ‘live’ pieces is often questionable, but you can’t deny the eco-nomics. ◙

CL O S E TO TH E FL A N G E … E X P E R I E N C E S O N T H E R OA D

If you want to share your on-the-road ex-periences, please send a n e m a i l t o los@beaconseek.com — we really like to fea-ture individual stories about life out on the road ...

T aken by Chris Kelley of Control 1 Communications, this stunning picture of what may have been the largest gathering ever of SNG trucks anywhere in the world occurred at Virginia Tech

University in the US during coverage of the tragic school shooting in April (during NAB week - eerily just like Columbine in 1999). The guesstimate was that there were around one hundred trucks on site (not all can be seen in this shot).

N E W S G A T H E R I N G B Y O T H E R M E A N S

Suunto Tandem - The Best Compass/Clinometer

For Aligning SNG Uplinks - Precision Made in Finland

BUY ONLINE @

www.beaconseek.com

Line Of S ight - Spr ing 2007 Page 12

SNG AT LOWER COST

F or those of us familiar with the SNG industry, we’ve grown used to the size-

able price tags on the latest systems - but there are some changes coming.

For the other end of the budgetary scale, a number of SNG manufacturers are trying to reduce the cost of systems, both flyaway and vehicle mounted, in order to increase the size of the market.

Particularly in Europe, the existing SNG market is almost saturated with the princi-pal broadcasters now mainly into cycles of replacement rather than extensive new purchases - their budgets are increasingly being squeezed to produce more output for more outlets.

Hence a number of European SNG sys-tem manufacturers and system integrators are looking at the Middle East, Africa and the newer entrants into the EU as areas of growth; but not selling the same premium level of product that they would typically sell to a major network or uplink service pro-vider, rather a product that fits a more lim-ited budget.

How can they do this? The answer lies in several areas; utilising low cost VSAT anten-nas – both fixed and motorized; lower power HPAs to take advantage of the higher sensi-tivity of the latest generation of geostation-ary satellites; and lower cost MPEG-2 encod-ers now that the technology is at the end of its development life cycle.

VSAT (Very Small Aperture Terminals) describes small satellite earth stations, typically fixed, used for retail, banking cor-porate and government applications operat-ing as part of large scale networks for trans-ferring data at rates typically below 2 Mbps. The antennas for these systems are often seen on petrol stations, banks, and super-markets, particularly in rural areas where the cost of terrestrial connectivity is com-paratively high.

Strictly speaking, SNG is a subset of VSAT, though apart from having an antenna and using a satellite, there is very little else in common in the equipment.

The VSAT market is dominated by the use of very low cost terminals, and so the antennas are typically in the order of a few hundred dollars rather than the tens of thousands that a lightweight carbon fibre precision engineered fast-deploy SNG an-tenna alone costs.

However, for minimal cost SNG, where certain limitations in the ease of transporta-tion and speed of assembly can be accom-modated, such low-priced systems open up the market to low-budget broadcasters who had previously been inhibited from ventur-ing into SNG due to the high costs of the systems.

In addition, there are a small range of motorized VSAT systems for occasional use on vehicles for applications such as mobile bank branches, libraries, ‘blue-light’ com-

mand centres, and disaster recovery ser-vices. The principal manufacturers of such systems in this sector are C-Com and Moto-sat, both US-based.

These vehicle roof-mounted automated VSAT systems are not built to the same high quality as conventional vehicle-mount mo-torized SNG systems; instead they are de-signed for light-duty occasional use, where the antenna might only be deployed a few times a week or a month.

The other significant advantage of these systems, which have appeared in the VSAT market in the last few years, are that they are designed for non-skilled personnel to operate – ideal for new starters in the field. With innovative methods of locating and verifying the target satellite to be used, util-ising GPS location and DVB carrier identifi-cation, these are systems with minimal manual intervention and maximum automa-tion.

This results in a ‘red button/green but-ton’ style of operation, where upon parking up the vehicle, pressing a single button initiates a sequence where the antenna raises from its stowed position, and then searches and locks onto the desired satel-lite. Once the transmission is completed, another button push stows the antenna back down for travel and shuts down the system. These systems tend to rely on the operator always using a particular satellite, so that its position and parameters are al-ways stored in software.

Some SNG companies are taking such low cost motorized systems – typically cost-ing below US$12,000 from the VSAT an-tenna manufacturers – and reworking them to make them suitable for low cost mobile SNG applications.

The results are complete SNG systems which can cost around 60-70% of the typical cost of a conventional SNG rig, combined with only low operational skill level require-ments.

Disappointingly, at NAB there was little revealed of all of this - instead manufactur-ers were generally showing the transforma-tion of ‘launches’ from NAB and IBC last year into real product. ◙

M2Sat SNGstreamer - based on C-Com VSAT antenna

Industry This issue’s news is dominated by buy-outs ...

T andberg Television — manufacturer of the MPEG-2 equipment we’re all so fond of,

has been bought by Ericsson in a deal worth US$1.4 billion. Tandberg Television will con-tinue to operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of Ericsson retaining its corporate name and product brands.

S WE-DISH Satellite Systems - has been bought by DataPath, Inc., a provider of

satellite and wireless communications net-works. Datapath paid US$56 million in cash, and SWE-DISH will operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of DataPath, retaining its manage-ment team, corporate name and product brands.

I ntelsat - The majority shareholding of Intel-sat Holdings Ltd has been sold to a consor-

tium of investors headed by BC Partners. The BC group will acquire approximately 76% of the primary ownership of Intelsat Holdings, Ltd. for approximately US$16.4 billion includ-ing US$11.4 billion of debt. The existing shareholders of Intelsat, including funds ad-vised by Apax Partners, Apollo Management, Madison Dearborn Partners, Permira, and

Line Of S ight - Spr ing 2007 Page 13

NE W S RO U N D U P management will continue to hold approxi-mately 24% of Intelsat Holdings, Ltd

A ndrew Corporation - after announcing that it was looking for a buyer for its sat-comms

division, has now been bought out in its entirety by CommScope Inc. for US$2.4 billion.

P atriot Antenna Systems - has been bought by Cobham plc (who already own other sat-

comm companies such as ERA Technolgies, Sea-Tel, and TracStar) for US$18 million on a debt and cash free basis, with an additional consideration of up to US$27 million contingent on future performance.

Training

B eaconSeek - offers both bespoke courses for SNG manufacturers and operators as

well as a customized SNG training for satellite operators to train their customers - not forget-ting the newly launched SlingPath training scheme, of course! ◙

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Line Of S ight - Spr ing 2007 Page 14

Web Index 7E www.7e.com Advent www.adventcomms.com Andrew www.andrew.com AvL www.avltech.com C-Com www.c-comsat.com CPI www.cpii.com/satcomm e-BLS www.e-bls.com Emblaze www.vcon.com Envivio www.envivio.com Frontline www.frontlinecomm.com GigaSat www.gigasat.com Globesat www.globesat.tv Livewire www.livewire.co.uk Motosat www.motosat.com Patriot www.sepatriot.com Quicklink www.quicklink.tv Sat-Comm www.sat-comm.com Sat-Lite www.sat-litetech.com Sematron www.sematron.com Tandberg www.tandbergtv.com SlingPath www.slingpath.com Streambox www.streambox.com SUIRG www.suirg.org Xicom www.xicomtech.com WBU-ISOG www.nabanet.com/wbuarea/ Wolf Coach www.wolfcoach.com

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