Advanced Television

ND SatCom delivers new 4K-ready SNG

September 9, 2016

ND SatCom, a leading supplier of satellite-based broadcasting solutions, extends the SNG fleet of Yleisradio Oy (Yle), Finland’s national public service media company, by high-end, turnkey Satellite News Gathering (SNG) vehicle.

Yleisradio Oy (Yle), Finnish Broadcasting Company, produces, publishes and distributes audio-visual and multimedia material ranging from news and current affairs to sporting events, documentaries to premium entertainment. Earlier this year, Yle commissioned ND SatCom to provide a turnkey production SNG vehicle, using ND SatCom’s trusted SKYRAY antenna for Yle’s live content gathering across Scandinavia and Europe.

For Yle, two features of the ND SatCom RF system were essential in their decision making: (1) transmit in extreme geographical and climatic conditions, and (2) enable future 4K/UHD transmissions at very high bitrates. For instance, the Arctic Lapland Rally covered by Yle takes place in Lapland in late January where the typical conditions are strong winds and day temperatures below -30OC.

With an operational temperature range of -30OC to +55OC (survival -40OC to +60OC) and an operational wind speed of 100km/h (survival 140km/h), the SKYRAY antenna fit the bill for Yle. Its maintenance-free positioner is not only exceptionally robust, but its operation is also very intuitive thanks to its patented Auto-Pointing System (APS). This APS first extrapolates from the compass and GPS data, and then fine-tunes the uplink polarisation to ensure an optimised transmission, certified by all major satellite operators.

The result of the cooperation between the two companies is an extremely powerful and versatile solution, which will also enable Yle to transmit a 4K/UHD signal in the future.

Tapani Lerkki, Head of Contribution and Communication ccts at Yle, stated: “We had the most demanding physical requirements in mind, with the need for a rugged, hard-working solution that does the job and keeps going when the going gets tough. The choice to rely on satcoms for our outdoor contribution was a necessity because of the remote locations we operate in. With the SKYRAY MAS 1900, we can support our journalists and producers by sending the video content efficiently and safely. We have end-to-end control of the full contribution network, while maintaining high reliability, even at high data rates and in demanding conditions.”

Categories: Press Releases