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Sat-Na Monday April 15, 1997
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from: owner-sat-na@tags1.dn.net
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Date: Tue, 15 Apr 1997 11:19:26 -0400
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From owner-sat-na@tags1.dn.net Tue Apr 15 11: 21:33 1997
Sat-na
April, 14
1997
This week in Sat-na
ARIANESPACE Flight 95 Scheduled for April 16
PanAmSat Tops Record
PanAmSat-Hughes Communications Galaxy Merger
General Instrument at the NAB
Harris Receives $21 Million Letter of Intent
DiviCom Partners with Tandberg
TVN To Store and Deliver Programming
Turner Classic Movies adds commentary
Taiwan Broadcaster Targets Overseas Asian Audiences
GE Spacenet expands its global commns
CNN contracts NTL for trans-Atlantic digital link
France Telecom Combines Broadcast Services
Maxat Launches Bloomberg TV
Lotte Data Communications
Scientific-Atlanta Delivers First IRIDIUM terminals
Vyvx Advertising Distribution Services Upgrade
Groupe AB and Radio Nostalgie
Upcoming Launches
In Brief
ARIANESPACE Flight 95 Scheduled for April 16
All checks on the ARIANESPACE spacecraft-launcher
adapter have been satisfactorily completed in Kourou, and
the launch preparation campaign has resumed.
Lift-off of the ARIANE 44LP, the version of the
European launcher equipped with 2 liquid and 2 solid strap-
on boosters, is now scheduled for Wednesday, April 16,
between:
10:59 p.m. and 11:41 p.m. GMT,
7:59 p.m. and 8:41 p.m. Kourou time,
12:59 a.m. and 1:41 a.m. Paris time,
5:59 a.m. and 6:41 a.m. Bangkok time,
7:59 a.m. and 8:41 a.m. Tokyo time,
6:59 p.m. and 7:41 p.m. Washington time (EDT).
ARIANESPACE Flight 95 will put into orbit the
Thaicom 3 telecommunications satellite for Thailand, and the
BSAT-1a direct broadcast satellite for Japan.
PanAmSat Tops Record
PanAmSat has beamed nearly 20,000 hours of special
events and news coverage over its global satellite system
during the first three months of 1997. Total special
events and part-time transmission traffic for the quarter
was the highest in PanAmSat's history.
Among the events transmitted during the quarter over
PanAmSat's global satellite system:
" Continuing coverage of the Peruvian hostage crisis.
Since the hostage situation began in mid-December 1996,
PanAmSat has provided almost 13,000 hours of service over
its PAS-1 and PAS-3 Atlantic Ocean Region satellites for
more than 30 broadcasters, including ABC, CBS, CNN, Fuji,
NHK, Nippon TV, TBS and TV Asahi.
" Live, ongoing coverage of the Cricket Tour of the West
Indies over PAS-3 for nearly 30 Caribbean Broadcasting Union
member stations
Live coverage in March of Formula One races from
Sydney, Australia, uplinking to the PAS-2 Pacific Ocean
Region satellite and from Sao Paulo, Brazil, over PAS-3 to
Germany for RTL and DSF.
" Live transmissions of the Academy Awards broadcast from
Los Angeles to Europe, Asia and Latin America for ABC, BBC
and CBS. The awards ceremony on March 24 was broadcast to
Latin America over PAS-3, to Europe over PAS-1 and to Asia
over PAS-2.
" Live satellite news reports of the Albanian political
crisis over PAS-1 for Antenna TV of Greece.
" Live coverage of the Senior Slam Golf Tournament at Los
Cabos, Mexico, in late February for Turner Broadcasting
System.
PanAmSat-Hughes Communications Galaxy Merger
The proposed merger of PanAmSat and the Galaxy
satellite services business of Hughes Communications, Inc.
has moved another step closer to completion when the FCC
formally approved the transfer of orbital slot licenses this
week from both PanAmSat and Galaxy to the new, combined
PanAmSat Corporation.
The FCC action is the second affirmative decision by a
U.S. federal agency reviewing the merger. In December 1996
the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) permitted a 30-
day review period to pass without taking action to halt the
merger or imposing an additional review period. PanAmSat
and Galaxy had previously filed with the DOJ and the Federal
Trade Commission under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust
Improvements Act. At that time, the DOJ claimed
jurisdiction over the antitrust review.
The final federal clearance necessary for the merger to
conclude is expected shortly from the United States
Securities and Exchange Commission. The final step will be
approval by PanAmSat shareholders.
General Instrument at the NAB
General Instrument demonstrated the company's video
compression technology, introduced six new satellite and
terrestrial receivers, demonstrated a new broadcast receiver
design, displayed DTH solutions world-wide, and highlighted
three new subtitle vendors during the annual convention of
the National Association of Broadcasters in Las Vegas.
Under the name "Digital Density", GI
demonstrated it's 16-to-1 digital video compression
technology by setting up 16 TV monitors to receive 16
separate compressed feeds, equivalent to the capacity of a
single 24 MHz satellite transponder. Three of the 16
digital feeds featured multilingual subtitles prepared by
Cavena Image Products AB; Screen Subtitling Systems, Ltd.,
and SOFTNI Corp. The subtitles display was processed in
real time by GI's commercial satellite receivers.
Another demonstration of 10:1 broadcast
quality compression with the Magnitude MPEG-2/ DVB System,
featured real time compression of 10 video channels in a 27
MHz transponder, including one channel of digital local
insertion. For this demonstration nine video channels were
compressed at variable rates using the StatMuxPlus software
package.
Also demonstrated in the DVB arena were a family of new
satellite receivers. These are Magnitude consumer receivers
for DTH applications and commercial models for cable head-
end delivery, broadcast distribution, distance learning and
private network applications. Both units are MPEG-2/DVB
compliant and offer high speed data options.
Another demonstration featured private network
downlinks from Nebraska Educational TV Network, Fordstar
Dealer Communications Network and Georgia Public Television,
showing such private network applications as distance
learning and business television.
Harris Receives $21 Million Letter of Intent
Harris Corporation has received a U.S. $21 million
letter of intent from TV Azteca in Mexico for television
transmitters, antennas, and other broadcast equipment that
will further expand the network's reach throughout Mexico.
During the next year, Harris may deliver 1 UHF and 44
VHF television transmitters, antennas and accessories for 30
TV Azteca sites, and four Satellite News Gathering (SNG)
vehicles for remote news and special events coverage. Also
included in the contract is television transmitter equipment
for TV Azteca's first international site in El Salvador.
DiviCom Partners with Tandberg
DiviCom Inc. has entered into a co-development and
distribution agreement with Tandberg Television ASA, a
European manufacturer of MPEG-2 DVB-based transmission
systems.
The two companies have already made several joint
system sales including Telenor, the Norwegian national
telecommunications provider and the largest satellite
provider in Scandinavia; and Telia, the largest
telecommunications provider in the Nordic and Baltic
regions.
As part of the distribution agreement, Tandberg will
design and sell MPEG-2 systems comprising a combination of
its own receiving, processing and control products, and
DiviCom's encoders and multiplexers. In addition, DiviCom
will incorporate Tandberg products into its system
solutions.
TVN To Store and Deliver Programming
TVN has installed an EMC Media Server at its
Network Operations Centre in Burbank, California. EMC's
SNMS servers are able to receive, store, retrieve and
transport a variety of TV signal formats over satellite
broadcast systems, as well as standard terrestrial
telecommunications networks. TVN's digital service for
cable, "Digital Cable Television," is a turnkey end-to-end
system, enabling virtually any cable operator to provide a
full range of digital programming services, competitive with
those offered by direct broadcast satellite, with only
modest expenditures for transcoding equipment required at
the cable head-end.
TVN uses the SNMS server to deliver digitally
compressed multi-channel PPV programming, which it provides
to cable operators along with a full suite of interactive
digital applications, and complementary transactional
support services for the operator, including ANI ordering,
billing, collection, customer service, payment processing,
studio license fee administration, and sophisticated
management and marketing reports.
TVN offers subscribers a tier of digital services,
including initially 40 PPV channels of near-video-on-demand
movies (one playing continuously on each channel), an
interactive on-screen electronic program guide, numerous
channels of CD-quality music, and a variety of information,
data and text services. Included with each sign-up for the
tier of digital service will be a digital/analogue set-top
converter box, and a universal remote control which the
subscriber will use to navigate the on-screen program guide
and instantly order PPV movies
Turner Classic Movies adds commentary
Turner Classic Movies will offer a new way for people
to watch movies on television, with the addition of select
Audio Commentary Track motion pictures from the Criterion
collection beginning this fall. ACT is similar to the
commentary available on some laser discs in which actors,
directors, historians and/or other film participants add
insight, share stories and provide new information on the
film via the second audio program.
TCM will premiere such presentations as SPARTACUS
(1960), with voice-over by Kirk Douglas; SOME LIKE IT HOT
(1959) with voice-over by Jack Lemmon; and BAD DAY AT BLACK
ROCK (1955), with voice-over by director John Sturges
(others TBD). In an eight-movie film licensing agreement
with Janus Films also announced, TCM will acquire the ACT
version of such classic international titles as Ingmar
Bergman's THE SEVENTH SEAL (1957) and AUTUMN SONATA (1978);
and Francois Truffaut's JULES AND JIM (1961).
Taiwan Broadcaster Targets Overseas Asian Audiences
Space TV Systems released further information regarding
their launch. As reported, Space will launch eight satellite-
based Asian language channels to the Eastern Asia, North
America and Australian regions next month.
Space TV will use two transponders on Intelsat 702 -
one with a China beam, the other to Australia - and one
transponder on Intelsat 511 and SBS5 for US and Canadian
services.
Acer will provide 150,000 MPEG-2/DVB satellite
receivers, while France Telecom will supply the conditional
access.
GE Spacenet expands its global commns
GE Spacenet has agreed to purchase AT&T Tridom. Terms
were not disclosed. AT&T Tridom (Marietta, Ga.) has been
providing VSAT satellite communications networks to major
companies world-wide for more than a decade.
GE Spacenet officials said the acquisition of AT&T
Tridom's 56 hub facilities supporting more than 20,000 sites
will significantly enhance its capabilities to provide
global communications services using VSAT technology.
CNN contracts NTL for trans-Atlantic digital link
NTL has announced a multi-million pound sterling, five-
year deal with Turner Broadcasting Systems Inc. (TBS) to
provide contribution feeds from CNN's European Production
Centre in London to the network's headquarters in Atlanta,
Georgia.
CNN will replace its existing analogue link on Intelsat
601 with multiple digital feeds using MPEG-2 technology.
The new service will commence in May, enabling the
London Production Centre to send news items to Atlanta for
fast compilation and insertion into CNN's domestic and
international programmes for redistribution around the
world.
NTL currently uplinks TBS's European news and
entertainment services on a common digital multiplex to
Astra 1E as part of an eight-year deal announced last
September, as well as providing other distribution services
on the Astra 1C satellite.
France Telecom Combines Broadcast Services
France Telecom has combined its subsidiaries Keystone
Communications Corp. (USA) and Maxat Ltd. (UK) to form
GlobeCast.
Headquarted in Paris, the new GlobeCast division is
headed by Michel Combes, CEO. GlobeCast is now composed of
three well-established business units operating in the
world's most important media centres, each addressing its
own domestic/regional and intercontinental markets:
" GlobCast North America formerly Keystone - (Stephen
McNeeley, CEO) overseeing North America and parts of the
Asia Pacific region.
" GlobeCast Northern Europe formerly Maxat - (Sarah
Williams, CEO) managing services in the UK, the Netherlands.
Germany. Scandinavia and other important media markets such
as Israel.
" GlobeCast Paris formerly France Telecom Broadcast
Services World-wide Transmissions dept. (Alain Baget, VP
Sales & Marketing) managing services in France.
Maxat Launches Bloomberg TV
Maxat (GlobeCast) has launched Bloomberg Information
Television in France, Italy, and Germany using Scientific-
Atlanta's PowerVu MPEG-2/DVB digital video compression
system.
The split-screen, multimedia format of Bloomberg
Information TV incorporates live broadcasts, radio programs,
text information, and scrolling market reports.
Every weekday morning the Bloomberg bureau in France
uplinks raw program footage to the Maxat digital multimedia
centre in London. The programming is relayed to the
Bloomberg office where it is edited, formatted, and returned
to Maxat for digital conversion and transmission via the
PowerVu digital video compression system to businesses,
banks, and cable headends over Eutelsat II F3. This process
is completed in less than two hours, going on the air at
6:30 a.m. in France.
Lotte Data Communications
General Instrument said that Lotte Data Communications
Company of Seoul, Korea will purchase 200,000 Magnitude DVB
consumer satellite receiver kits for the first Direct-To-
Home (DTH) use in Korea.
The contract for the just-introduced Magnitude SR-3350
was signed by General Instrument's Magnitude Compression
Systems, Inc. subsidiary (MCS) and the Lotte Group of Lotte
Data Communications Company. Financial details of the
transaction were not disclosed.
The receivers will be used for Korea's first DTH
service, which is presently scheduled to be launched this
fall on KoreaSat 1 and 2. A customised Korean language
interactive program guide will be developed by MCS for the
receiver. Uplink sites are presently being finalised, and
MCS' Magnitude DVB compliant Encoder is being used in the
DTH service pilot project.
The SR-3350 uses MPEG-2/DVB digital technology and QPSK
satellite demodulation. Forward Error Correction and MPEG-2
decompression circuitry are housed within an ergonomic
chassis. Other features include high-speed data and
Interactive Pay Per View (IPPV) functions, MPEG-2 and DVB
compliance, a continuously variable wideband or full-range
tuner, NTSC or PAL video formats, single video and stereo
audio outputs, low and high speed data, enhanced security
with smart card reader and downloadable software. The 3350
model also comes equipped with additional capabilities such
as the Interactive Program Guide (IPG) with a multi-function
remote and a return-path modem for IPPV services.
Scientific-Atlanta Delivers First IRIDIUM terminals
Scientific-Atlanta engineers have delivered three earth
terminals that comprise the first satellite communications
gateway for the IRIDIUM global communications system. The
gateway, installed in Tempe, Arizona, will undergo further
integration and test activities before completion in June.
Scientific-Atlanta's Communications and Tracking
Systems Division is under contract to build 57 earth
terminals. Forty-three earth terminals will be used in
communications gateways; 14 earth terminals will be used in
the system control segment that regulates the orbit of the
IRIDIUM satellites. System control segment earth terminals
have been installed at ground sites in Iceland, Canada, and
Hawaii, as well as at a testing site in Chandler, Arizona.
The communications gateway terminals comprise a 3-meter
(10-foot) dish inside a 5-meter (17-foot) radome and provide
the communications link via Ka-band (19.4-19.6 GHz for
downlinks, 29.1-29.3 GHz for uplinks) between the IRIDIUM
constellation of low earth orbit communications satellites
and public-switched telephone networks. This network
function makes communications possible between IRIDIUM
telephones and other telephones around the world.
The company also has a contract to provide maintenance
and support to the ground stations. Gateways will be owned
and operated by Iridium, LLC. investors. Additional
installations are scheduled for Europe and South America
later this year.
Vyvx Advertising Distribution Services Upgrade
Vyvx Advertising Distribution Services will have
converted its satellite network to the digital format by
April 21. Nearly 600 broadcast stations and cable systems
across the nation which currently receive commercials from
Vyvx are in the process of upgrading to the new digital
receiver decoder.
The digital conversion package includes a General
Instrument DSR4500 digital satellite receiver, Vyvx Station
Interface Unit and associated cables and documentation.
Since the new units are "plug and play" compatible with
stations' existing satellite, audio, video, printer and VTR
interfaces, the conversion to digital will be immediate and
direct.
The package has been shipped to each television station
on the network previously serviced by Cycle Sat, Inc., which
was acquired by Vyvx, Inc. in November 1996. The digital
service will use GE-1, transponder 20.
Vyvx also announced beta network test plans for a new
compressed dedicated fibre video transmission.
This service, using MPEG II compression technology from
Nortel, will be carried over Vyvx's 11,000-mile coast-to-
coast fibre-optic network, enabling multiple video signals
to exist within the same DS-3 transmission path.
The MPEG II compressed dedicated video service will
occupy a bandwidth of 6.312 M/bs or DS-2, which can be
naturally multiplexed into a DS-3 or 45 M/bs stream. This
allows for cost-effective and simple drop, add, and pass
capabilities of MPEG II video signals within the DS-3
stream.
The service initially will be available in specific
test markets where demand is highest. The seven cities
involved in the test include New York, Chicago, Denver, Los
Angeles, Nashville, San Diego and Washington. Vyvx will
test the technology and service infrastructure for 60 days,
beginning April 30.
The purpose of the beta analysis is to test the
capability of the MPEG II equipment to be remotely
monitored, alarmed, switched and restored, if needed. The
success of the test will be measured by the acceptable
quality of video received by customers and the ability of
the service to be fully controlled and restored by Vyvx.
And in the analogue word, Vyvx will launch a full-
analogue, occasional-use video satellite service on April
17, with high power, simultaneous Ku-band coverage of North
America, South America and Europe.
The hub of the new service is Vyvx International's new,
fully-meshed transponder on the INTELSAT K. Making use of a
special "broadcast mode" configuration in the satellite,
this transponder receives from either of the INTELSAT K
uplink beams and projects to all of the downlink beams
simultaneously. Despite covering North and South America
and Europe, the downlink beams maintain the normal power of
INTELSAT K transponders.
Because all satellite beams remain switched on at all
times, operations for intercontinental broadcasting become
as simple as a local feed. Whether a broadcaster is
transmitting from a mobile or fixed earth station, the
uplinker can see a return signal from the satellite_even
when the uplink is in Europe and the destination downlink is
in South America, or the uplink is in the USA and the
downlink in Europe.
Groupe AB and Radio Nostalgie
Groupe AB has signed an agreement with Radio
Nostalgie, one of the top five FM radio stations in France,
to launch a thematic music television channel under the
Nostalgie brand name.
The Nostalgie Channel, which is 100% owned by Groupe
AB, will be broadcast on AB Sat's digital TV service and
will replace the Melody channel in AB Sat's basic
programming package. Under the agreement, Groupe AB will
pay Radio Nostalgie for use of the Nostalgie brand name on a
per subscriber basis. In addition, the sale of advertising
space on the new channel will be subcontracted to Radio
Nostalgie.
Under a separate agreement, Groupe AB has agreed to
provide the Nostalgie Channel to Canalsatellite Numerique,
Canal Plus' digital satellite service, which will also
broadcast the channel in its basic package of digital TV
service.
Upcoming Launches
Check our web site for current listings of 1997
launches.
Click on "Launch Info".
Next Atlas Launch Next Ariane Launch
GOES-K April 24 , 1997 Thaicom --April 16 6.59 -
1:56am - 3:19 am ET 7.41 pm ET
In Brief
ORION 2 is expected to be launched in June 1999. The
satellite will provide international satellite
communications, such as high speed Internet access, private
data network services and video communications services.
Tele-Communications, Inc., has been advised by the U.S.
Internal Revenue Service that the IRS will not rule on
TCI's three separate requests for rulings that the proposed
spin-offs by TCI to its shareholders would be tax free to
the respective TCI shareholders. In the absence of
favourable tax rulings, TCI will not effect the spin-offs.
Microspace Communications has acquired a third
transponder on Galaxy IV. This new capacity will be used to
support Microspace's growing data and audio satellite
broadcast business.
Sat-na is sponsored by TELE-satelit International
http://www.tele-satellit.com
and produced by Satellite Journal International
http://members.aol.com/satjournal
(c) Sat-na 1997
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