Focus: Broadcasting

[Via Satellite 06-03-2014] SES’ Astra 5B satellite went live on Monday, June 2 from its orbital position over Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), as well as Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). The satellite provides Direct-to-Home (DTH) and direct-to-cable services, and contribution feeds to digital terrestrial TV networks. Astra 5B, built by Airbus...

[Via Satellite 06-02-2014] Many TV channels broadcasted using Arabsat’s fleet of satellites have been the subject of intentional jamming for the week prior to, and leading up to, Thursday, May 29, 2014. The jammer transmitted unauthorized signals that disturbed several channels on many different transponders. Arabsat engineers were able to locate and identify the source...

[Via Satellite 05-30-2014] KVH Industries introduced a new TracVision RV1 stabilized antenna for providing satellite TV programming to RVs, charter buses, emergency vehicles and other vehicles to provide access to live TV on the road. The antenna system is approximately 12.5 inches long and enables reception of satellite TV while the vehicle is in motion...

[Via Satellite 05-29-2014] Freesat partnered with Curzon Home Cinema to launch the company’s Video On Demand (VOD) service through Freetime, the connected TV service. The new player will give viewers the chance to watch the latest movie releases from their homes on demand, and customers will only pay for the films they watch. There is...

[Via Satellite 05-28-2014] French broadcaster TDF will use Envivio’s ultra-HD (4K) compression technology for its live streaming of the French Open 2014 tennis championship to compatible TV sets in France. This will mark the first Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) broadcast transmission in 4K with High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) compression. TDF will also broadcast various...

[Via Satellite 05-28-2014] ] PT Digital Media Asia is set to deploy the new Viva+ Indonesian Direct-to-Home (DTH) service, which will broadcast all 64 main World Cup games using Newtec’s satellite solution. The games will broadcast over nine new World Cup channels, two of which will be in HD. The DTH platform was launched in...

[Via Satellite 05-28-2014] Eutelsat launched a demonstration channel for Europe’s first High Efficiency Video Encoding (HEVC) ultra-HD broadcasting channel with a frame rate of 50 frames per second and a 10-bit color depth. The channel was launched via Eutelsat’s Hot Bird video neighborhood, which provides Direct-to-Home (DTH) services to customers in Europe, the Middle East...

[Via Satellite 05-27-2014] SES launched a new video distribution neighborhood for the Latin American market and a new antenna seeding program for the NSS 806 satellite. The new neighborhood will provide video channel delivery to cable head-ends throughout the region, as well as the added capacity to support the increasing number of HD channels in...

[Via Satellite 05-27-2014] Sharp, a Japanese consumer electronics company, has chosen the ViXS XCode 6400 System on Chip (SoC) to power the company’s Ultra High Definition (Ultra-HD) 4K Recorder TU-UD1000 products, as well as the company’s UD20 series of Ultra-HD 4K digital TV products. The TU-UD1000 4K recorder will support a trial 4K broadcasting service...

[Via Satellite 05-23-2014] Millicom has signed a multi-year contract with Eutelsat Americas, formerly Satmex, to expand the reach of its pay-TV services across Latin America. The deal provides capacity for Direct-to-Home (DTH) broadcasts on Eutelsat 117 West A, formerly Satmex 8, and includes options for additional capacity on the upcoming Eutelsat 117 West B, formerly...