54 TVBEurope News & Analysis
Satellite technology is rising to new challenges
Cobham SATCOM’s Explorer 710 — described as the next revolution in satellite newsgathering — was featured on the Inmarsat stand
www.tvbeurope.com October 2013
As always at IBC, there was no shortage of visions of how broadcast might look in the coming years — but, as Ian McMurraydiscovered, the satellite industry stands ready to enable whatever the future may bring
THERE IS an extent to which IBC 2013 didn’t see the emergence of a key technology theme in the same way as the past three IBCs have done with 3D, Ultra HD and multi-screen. If anything, IBC 2013 saw general acceptance that 3D needed autostereoscopy to become a reality before it could succeed — and, equally, a consensus that Ultra HD (and its successors) were now an integral part of the future of broadcasting, and that multi- screen was no longer ‘nice to have’ but rather ‘must have’. Which was music to the ears
of the satellite industry, who see increasing quantities of bits that need to be delivered to more devices in more places than ever before.
Core infrastructure “Higher resolution screens, technologies supporting greater consumer control, multi-screen viewing, the continuing transition to a fully digital environment were some of the
overriding trends on everyone’s agenda at IBC,” said Jean- François Leprince-Ringuet, chief commercial officer of Eutelsat. “Satellite is playing a role in all these fields and is developing new technologies and partnerships to expand its position as a core infrastructure.” Ultra HD was the focus of
attention at IBC for Eutelsat. In January this year, the company launched a dedicated Ultra HD satellite channel designed to benefit players in the broadcasting chain looking to acquire expertise in 4K. The channel operates in progressive mode at 50fps, encoded in MPEG-4 and transmitted at 40Mbps in four Quad HD streams. At IBC, Eutelsat took the next step with the launch of an Ultra HD channel with HEVC encoding that will be multiplexed with the existing Quad HD signal in the same Eutelsat 10A transponder. A third channel has been launched with Samsung broadcast 4K content to retail outlets
automation applications. The ‘smart LNB’ is expected to become commercially available in 2014.
“Eutelsat is a core capacity
Thomas Van den Driessche, Newtec: “We’re one of the first manufacturers to include Carrier ID support”
displaying Samsung’s new range of Ultra HD sets. Eutelsat also showed for the first time the ‘smart LNB’ that was announced in the summer. The ‘smart LNB’ is described as a new-generation electronic feed connected to a satellite antenna equipped with a transmitter for interactive applications such as
Philippe Rouxel, GlobeCast: “If there’s one word that sums up the technology of the broadcast market today, it’s ‘diversity’”
HbbTV, pay-per-view, social networking, personal subscription management and audience measurement. According to Eutelsat, it meets increasing consumer expectation to manage and interact with content and prepares the ground for machine-to-machine and home
provider to broadcasters and pay-TV platforms and the new satellites we are launching will provide improved footprints, increased capacity and greater flexibility,” noted Leprince- Ringuet. “Broadcasters and carriers are also looking for broader expertise and this trend is driving the expansion of our platform competence.” He went on to describe how
Eutelsat’s KabelKiosk platform enables local and regional cable and IP network operators to optimise their fibre infrastructure by bolting video services onto a portfolio of telephony and internet services. It now comprises comprehensive linear TV and nonlinear services in addition to solutions for secure distribution of content to connected devices including iOS and Android smartphones and tablets. Meanwhile, the
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