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Newtec with Iraqi satellite broadcaster Alsumaria
Such is the case for Newtec with Iraqi satellite broadcaster Alsumaria — that company has reached the third stage of its investment in Newtec’s modulation equipment with DualFlow™ and FlexACM® technologies, as part of its migration towards tapeless news production. Since 2004, Alsumaria has established itself as one of the most dynamic and popular broadcasters in Iraq. The latest stage of its infrastructure project involves the installation of DualFlow and FlexACM in its fleet of DSNG units for increased productivity, faster delivery of news content and reduced costs. Alsumaria’s fleet can now deliver live transmission of MPEG-4 over IP, with the dual capability of switching to ASI when required, thanks to DualFlow. Staff can also achieve file transfers and downloads between the DSNG units and the production centre, increasing speed of response to unfolding events. DualFlow technology further increases the productivity of DSNG crews by enabling VoIP connection with the studio, together with e-mail and broadband Internet. Alsumaria’s implementation of Newtec’s FlexACM in its DSNG fleet gives the broadcaster an extended reach in the satellite footprint, with five occasional use slots achieved in only 4MHz. The modems with FlexACM functionality allow high speed file transfers between the DSNG and the studio/playout/editing site. The Newtec EL810 Mobile PEP-Box® Terminal was added to achieve file transfers adding compression and real broadband experience.
Alsumaria’s homepage…DualFlow modems give Alsumaria TV the ability to deliver MPEG-4 live streaming and to store and forward video files. The Newtec solution provides comprehensive control of the quality of service and higher dedicated throughput than traditional VSAT (shared MF-TDMA) systems, together with lower delay, higher availability and better throughput. DualFlow allows broadcasters to transport IP over satellite in the most efficient way, either separately or in combination with traditional ASI live streams on the same carrier. DualFlow supports both IP and ASI interfaces, allowing broadcasters to make the transition to IP connectivity at any time. When used on a modem, DualFlow fully enables two-way IP interactivity over satellite, making it possible to introduce new services into the broadcast workflows, such as real-time interviews, VoIP coordination channels, file upload and download, and remote access to tapeless production infrastructures. By turning DSNG vans into remote offices, DualFlow increases the productivity of the remote teams.
ViaSat gives war effort a boost
Airplanes passing silently over enemy territory in Iraq and Afghanistan record and transmit videos in real time back to intelligence experts in the United States with the help of Carlsbad satellite communications company ViaSat.
Because those videos help inform military decisions, picture quality is extremely important, said Larry Taylor, the head of Government Satellite Communications Systems at the company.
To boost the resolution and speed of these videos, ViaSat recently doubled the data rate its equipment can transmit, from 512 to 1024 kilobytes. This upgrade was made at the request of the Department of Defense, one of the company’s biggest customers, Taylor said.
The company also recently improved military planes’ ability to send data back to the ground.
“Traditionally when we think of Internet access, we think about a simple mouse-click to load a complex Web page, which is a lot of data going out to a remote facility, but very little coming back,” Taylor said. “But with the Department of Defense, they are actually creating the data as videos or other intelligence information collected on an airplane, and that information has to be relayed to analysis centers on the ground.”
Giving an airplane a wireless connection is like hitting a moving target, because the plane’s antennas are never in the same place. ViaSat accomplishes this task with a network of 13 hubs on the ground connected to 13 satellites, which create a “worldwide footprint” of wireless connection, Taylor said.
Boosting the planes’ data speed will allow them to send videos with higher resolution and more frames per second, both of which are important for military intelligence activities, Taylor said. Greater resolution means the video’s screen can be enlarged without creating a pixilated, or blurry, image, and increasing a video’s frames makes it smoother.
Although ViaSat originally only supplied its satellite connection technology to commercial vehicles, including business jets and trains, the Department of Defense asked the company to adapt its technology to military airplanes.
ViaSat’s satellite antenna and software are installed in more than 100 military aircraft and more than 100 business aircraft, Taylor said. The company is also expanding its reach into boats, and plans to have software in more than 750 maritime craft soon.
The average cost to equip military planes with the antenna and software to transmit videos is about $350,000, and ViaSat also has government contracts to work on upgrading the planes, he said. The company brings in about $50 million a year between its commercial and military customers, but Taylor said that number is expected to grow.
The company’s data rate from the air to the ground is also expected to grow to 2 megabytes “and beyond,” he said. It plans to transition to higher frequency bands and launch a new satellite next year.
Iridium NEXT: Boosting Data Speeds, Improving DoD Space Awareness
Most of us remember Iridium as the Motorola-backed, multi-billion dollar commercial satellite phone flop. The expensive, bulky phones, the $2 per minute airtime charge, and the inability to use the phone inside buildings doomed the project, which came online when the cell phone market was taking off.
Despite all these problems, the US military found the phones useful in remote areas with no cell phone coverage and few buildings, such as Iraq and Afghanistan. So DoD backed an effort for the constellation to be acquired by investors at a fraction of the original investment, and DoD became the revived satellite company’s largest customer.
In 2007, Iridium Satellite undertook an effort to develop a second-generation satellite constellation called Iridium NEXT. Expected to be ready in 2014, Iridium NEXT will offer higher data speeds, flexible bandwidth allocation, and IP-based routing. Iridium recently awarded a contract to Hughes Network Systems, a supplier of Iridium handsets and terminals, to develop the access network controller for the Iridium NEXT ground control network.
Beginning in 2014, Iridium plans to replace the current 66 low-earth-orbit satellite constellation with new satellites that will provide enhanced capabilities, higher speeds and greater bandwidth. Lockheed Martin and Thales Alenia Space are competing to become the prime contractor for the Iridium NEXT project.
Iridium NEXT’s improvements will include data rates up to 1 Mbps, Ka-band service, private network gateways, and broadcast and netted services. “Phase II of Netted Iridium Program Underway” has more on Iridium netted services for the US Marine Corps.
In addition to providing voice and data communications, the NEXT constellation will be able to host payloads that will allow partners to add capabilities to the satellites and retrieve payload-generated data from control centers located on the earth.