EBU Acquires Additional Satellite Capacity Over Europe and the Middle East via Eutelsat W1
Summary
The European Broadcasting Union announced the lease of a 72 MHz transponder on Eutelsat W1 at 10 East, expanding Eurovision Network capacity to 38 low bit-rate and 14 high bit-rate permanent digital video channels. The added capacity enables protected dual-satellite feeds for major sports events and supports testing of new services including bandwidth on demand and IP video file transfer.
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EBU acquires additional capacity over Europe and the Middle East
Geneva, 8 May 2001 - The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) announced today a further step towards enhancing its coverage of Europe, the Middle East, the Gulf and the Arabian Peninsula, and providing improved services for these regions. This development comes in light of the acquisition by the EBU of a 72 MHz transponder with extended coverage over the Eutelsat W1 satellite position at 10° East. The lease brings the total capacity of the Eurovision network over Europe to a combination of up to 38 permanent low bit-rate channels (8-12 Mbit/s) and 14 permanent high bit-rate channels (24 Mbit/s) available for digital video contribution. Elaborating on the significance of this additional capacity, Mr Henri Pérez, Director of the EBU Operations Department said that the Union's Eurovision Network Services is now able to provide greater "reliability, flexibility and choice". For coverage of major sporting events, Mr. Pérez illustrated, the EBU can now offer broadcasters 'protected feeds', namely the simultaneous transmission of the same video feed from both the 7° and 10° East satellites, thereby securing to maximum levels a smooth coverage of the event for the broadcasters and setting new reliability standards, currently unique in the industry. Further still, the EBU can now be more accommodating and flexible in offering a choice of bandwidth and price, video backhaul traffic and/or exclusive circuits which broadcasters may require in conjunction with special news and sports events. Finally, Mr. Pérez concluded, the EBU will also use this enhanced capacity to test new services such as bandwidth on demand and IP video file transfer, all part of its continued efforts to provide television broadcasters with new services. The EBU's Eurovision Network provides ad-hoc transmission services used mainly to distribute sport, cultural and news programme material to its members and customers. In 2000 alone, Eurovision transmitted more than 100 000 news reports and 8500 hours of sporting and cultural events. Fully digital with a total capacity over Europe of up to 38 channels on five wide-band transponders on the new Eutelsat W3 and W1 satellites, Eurovision Network is the number one provider of international television transmission services in the world, covering Europe, North Africa, the Persian Gulf and now Asia with a permanent transponder lease on Asiasat 2. The EBU groups 69 national broadcasters from 50 countries in the European area. Its activities include operating the Eurovision and Euroradio networks, the co-ordination of news and sports programming, promotion of technical standardisation, stimulation of co-productions, and the defence and promotion of public service broadcasting. |
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