Focus: Broadcasting

[10-02-07 – Satellite Today]  BSkyB plans to offer broadband, telephone and digital terrestrial television (DTT) services in a single package as the satellite operator looks to tap into the strong DTT market in the United Kingdom, BSkyB announced Oct. 1. The offering, dubbed Picnic, will provide customers a range of TV, broadband and telephony services....

[10-02-07 – Satellite Today]  Shin Satellite will launch a high-definition TV service in Thailand, the company announced Sept. 28. Shin subsidiary Shin Broadband Internet will launch the HD Cinema offering, which will be delivered via Shin Satellite’s Thaicom 4 (IPStar) satellite in the form of push video on demand into the customer’s set-top box. Shin...

[09-26-07 – Satellite Today] Links Broadcast is expanding its satellite newsgathering fleet with the deployment of a high-definition vehicle, the company announced Sept. 26. The trucks carry a fully redundant configuration with 8PSK, DVB-S2 and HD vision/sound monitoring and switching. “The business has gone from strength to strength, and we feel now is the right...

[09-26-07 – Satellite Today] The Egyptian Radio & Television Union (ERTU) has purchased three Ross Synergy 2 standard-definition (SD) production switchers to upgrade three mobile trucks, Ross Video announced Sept. 26. ERTU previously has purchased four Synergy 3 SD switchers, which can be used for virtually any live production environment and can be upgraded to...

[09-26-07 – Satellite Today]  News channel France 24 has begun broadcasting throughout Africa via the NSS-7 satellite, SES New Skies announced Sept. 25. France 24, owned by TF1 and France Televisions, is a free, unencrypted international news channel offering a French perspective on world events. French and English channels are delivered via the GlobeCast platform...

[09-21-07 – Satellite Today]  Mobile Satellite Ventures LP (MSV) has been awarded two Canadian patents and two Australian patents that enable user devices to switch from satellite to terrestrial component in order to avoid dropping calls, the company announced Sept. 20. The patents also cover spectrum reuse techniques that maximize system capacity and reduce costs....

Belgian satellite solutions provider Newtec is revamping its management structure to better deal with the needs of customers and may also look to make more commercially minded acquisitions, the company’s CEO said. "We are now in the phase of major change, major growth,”Serge Van Herck, Newtec’s CEO told     Satellite News. "We are looking to bring...

[09-20-07 – Satellite Today]  Arqiva, the U.K.-based satellite solutions company, received a contract to help launch the BBC’s free-to-air digital TV platform, dubbed Freesat, by March, Arqiva announced Sept. 18. Under the contract, Arqiva will provide the BBC with an end-to-end distribution solution for the platform management data, which will have fully-redundant back up across...

The satellite set-top box market is a very competitive arena dominated by players such as Thomson, Pace Micro Technology and Philips. But these players received a surprise in August when regulators approved BSkyB’s acquisition of Amstrad, a set-top box vendor based in the United Kingdom. This acquisition means that BSkyB will play a closer role...

[09-17-07 – Satellite Today]  Intorel has launched a new version of its monitoring and control solution, the company announced Sept. 17. Visionic version 3.55 features a more flexible graphical user interface, a pop-up properties menu, a direct online connection from designers to Intorel’s support site and a function dubbed a cabling wizard to allow designers...