Newtec CEO Serge Van Herck hailed the company’s prospects in the Middle East after the company announced that it is playing a key role in a new advanced broadcast network in the Middle East  – MENOS (Multimedia Exchange Network over Satellite). The network recently launched, sees Newtec team up with the Arab States Broadcasting Union (ASBU) and Arabsat, among others.     Van Herck said the network was at the focal point of Newtec’s attempts to gain more of a presence in the Middle East. He told Satellite News, “Supporting ASBU and Arabsat in making this new technology a technological and commercial success is our key priority in the region. The broadcast community around the world is already looking closely to what is happening in the Middle East. This is a reference case that will be copied in other parts of the world.”
    MENOS is a full IP satellite based service that can support all potential transmission applications required by broadcasters. These include DSNG contribution uplinks to studios, primary distributions from studios to headends, international radio and TV exchange between studios and support for archiving video and audio content. Slaheddine Maaoui, director general of the ASBU said: “The official launch of MENOS is an extremely important milestone for ourselves, the Arab region and the broadcasting industry as a whole. The MENOS service is not only a powerful international exchange platform for radio and television, but a powerful IP based service that is going to revolutionize broadcast transmissions.”

Benefits of MENOS

Van Herck outlined some of the key benefits of the new system. He says, “ASBU and Arabsat can also provide TV and radio exchange services to customers, users and partners outside of the initial scope of the ASBU exchange system. ASBU members can also take advantage of the MENOS service for operating their national TV and radio exchange. In addition, customers outside the ASBU Organisation can sign a service contract with ASBU: ASBU will provide a ‘closed user group’ capability on the MENOS platform so that those customers can take advantage of the service without having to invest in their own expensive hub infrastructure and without the technical hassle of maintaining such a platform. On top of that, those customers will only pay for the service they consume; no need any more to lease satellite capacity that is not used for 75 percent of the time.”
    The MENOS system is “unique” according to Van Herck in the way it uses satellite capacity. He adds, “MENOS is also unique in the way it uses the satellite capacity. Advanced DVB-S2 (Digital Video Broadcasting – Satellite – Second Generation) modulation technology, combined with the statistical multiplexing of the data, voice, television and radio signals, ensures the optimum efficiency of the bandwidth usage and thus reduces operational costs.”
    The system is also more than just a system to exchange video and audio. According to Van Herck, “It offers an additional source of revenue for ASBU and Arabsat by allowing the development of many other IP-based services such as Voice over IP (VoIP), corporate VPNs and Internet broadband access services. In the future it is expected that several users in the region will migrate from their own small network operation, towards this MENOS service that is being operated by ASBU. The advantages of outsourcing their network operation are clear: it enables them to reduce operational and capital expenditure costs, while also benefiting from more services on the same IP-based platform.”

Terminal Costs

Terminal costs are also significantly lower. “MENOS terminals are connected to the network in an always-on mode. All network services and terminal features are available on a single graphical user interface. Starting a video or audio transmission requires no line-up procedure as the bandwidth reservation is done automatically. MENOS terminals require much less power and smaller dishes (1.2-1.8m) than point-to-point media exchange systems. The transmission equipment in the terminal is IP-based, resulting in an overall terminal cost that is only a fraction of the cost of other types of satellite TV or radio uplinks. This in itself is a revolution in the world of high quality video content transmission,” noted Van Herck.
    Van Herck hopes the MENOS project will lead to stronger growth for the company in the Middle East. In terms of its growth prospects for the year in the Middle East, Van Herck comments, “Newtec has always had strong partnership relations with ASBU and other broadcast customers in the region. We expect again a double digit worldwide growth for Newtec in 2009, bringing us above the 50 million euros ($64.19 million). Partnerships in the Middle East have now been further strengthened thanks to MENOS and we expect that close to 20 percent of our revenues will be generated in the Middle East.”

Satellite Broadband

One interesting area to look at is whether the company can make an impact in the satellite broadband markets in the region. It already works with SES Astra in Europe with Astra2Connect. So, what are the opportunities for a satellite broadband play in the Middle East? Van Herck says, “Our Sat3Play technology is an ideal solution for the Middle East; it provides the most cost-effective terminal on the market while the end user can install the terminal by himself thanks to our patented Point&Play pointing device. The main issue for successfully launching satellite broadband to consumers in the Middle East is now the lack of sufficient satellite capacity. More satellite capacity is being announced by several satellite operators but I expect to see the benefit of that only starting to happen in 2010.”

Economic Conditions

Van Herck does not expect the global worldwide recession to have too much of an impact in the Middle East. He says, “The region is suffering from difficult economic conditions; oil prices crashed, consumers face increased difficulties to obtain loans for buying cars and the real estate market is under heavy pressure. The Middle East is certainly impacted by the crisis. For our satellite communication industry however, I expect the impact to be limited; the scarcity of satellite capacity over the region in the previous years has limited our industry growth. Demand for information and communication services is still there and increasing every year. Immediate access to information has become a basic human need for people in the region. I’m cautiously optimistic and expect growth in our industry in this region for 2009.”