Focus: Broadcasting

[Via Satellite 01-13-2014] Modern Times Group (MTG) has launched its second African free-TV channel under the TV1 brand. The new channel is broadcast to Tanzania where it reaches up to 16 million people out of the country’s population of 48 million. TV1 follows the launch of Viasat 1 in Ghana in 2008. Viasat 1 Ghana...

[Via Satellite 01-10-2014] Ultra-HD — or 4K — undoubtedly stole the spotlight at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) with screen in excess of 85 inches, wowing society’s technological frontrunners. But while the screens themselves may be impressive, large-scale consumer acceptance of the technology is expected to be slow. Enabling the higher quality viewing experience...

[Via Satellite 01-09-2014] Zinwell Corp. is developing a new satellite digital outdoor unit (D-ODU) using MaxLinear’s MxL865 channel stacking system on chip (SoC). Zinwell is expanding its satellite product line with the new D-ODU, which is designed for multi-satellite, channel-stacking low-noise block (LNB) downconverters. The MxL865 is based on MaxLinear’s Full-Spectrum Capture (FSC) technology, and...

[Via Satellite 01-08-2014] Spacecom, the operator of the Amos satellite fleet, has been selected to provide broadcast services on Amos 5 at 17 degrees east for the Confederation of African Football’s (CAF) Orange African Nations Championship (CHAN), Africa’s annual football championship competition. South Africa is hosting the 2014 competition, which will take place Jan. 11...

[Via Satellite 01-08-2014] FreeCast has revealed plans for its new, globally-licensed video on-demand (VOD) platform, SelectTV. The new offering will target telecommunications companies and bandwidth providers that specialize in Internet bandwidth distribution but don’t offer television/cable services. SelectTV’s video-on-demand library of free, pay-per-view and subscription content will compete with both cable and satellite offerings as...

[Via Satellite 01-08-2014] Entropic announced its first fully-integrated set-top box (STB) system-on-a-chip (SoC) family, the EN7300-series, which integrates High-Efficiency Video Codec (HEVC) decoding, Multimedia over Coax Alliance (MoCA) 2.0 home networking, dual DVB-S/S2 demodulators using full-band capture satellite tuning and 3D graphics acceleration. The new product family is sampling in Q1 2014 to early access...

[Via Satellite 1-3-2014] Eutelsat KabelKiosk has selected HTTV’s httvLink, the company’s HbbTV open-middleware for connected TV set top boxes (STBs), to power its new wholesale HbbTV IPTV offering. KabelKiosk is operated by Eutelsat Germany, a subsidiary of Eutelsat. KabelKiosk will use HbbTV 1.5 compliant httvLink middleware and IP STB’s from Korean manufacturer Kaon Media for...

[Via Satellite 1-3-2014] Thomson Video Networks and MStar Semiconductor have arranged a demonstration of advanced delivery of over-the-top (OTT) content to connected TVs using the emerging High-Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) standard. The demonstration will highlight the interoperability of Thomson Video Networks’ ViBE VS7000 multi-screen encoding/transcoding platform with MStar’s 4K system-on-a-chip (SoC), which provides native HEVC...

[Via Satellite 1-2-2014] Eutelsat has officially closed its full, 100 percent acquisition of Latin American satellite operator Satélites Mexicanos (Satmex) for $831 million. Starting Jan. 1, 2014 Satmex will be consolidated in the accounts of Eutelsat Communications. Satmex operates three satellites at contiguous positions, covering 90 percent of the population within the Americas. Satmex 5...

[Via Satellite 1-2-2014] Es’hailSat has partnered with the Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) football club for the Qatar Winter Game vs. Real Madrid. The game takes place in Doha, Qatar on Jan. 3, coinciding with the effective start of operations of Es’hail 1, the company’s first satellite, located at the 26 degrees east. The satellite is expected...