Advanced Television

Satellite

Newtec for Thaicom DTH

Newtec announced today that Thaicom PLC, a leading Asian satellite operator, has installed Newtec technology (M6100 Broadcast Satellite Modulators) on the platform of Thaicom-6, enabling its satellite to provide TV Broadcasting services in both C-band and Ku-band to serve customers with the best value and viewing experience. More than 30 Newtec M6100 Broadcast Satellite Modulators […]

June 19, 2014

SES: ‘Consumers are jumping into 4K’

Satellite operator SES’s new CEO, Karim Michel Sabbagh, in a major speech at the CASBAA Satellite Industry Forum in Singapore, said that despite pay-TV DTH being challenged in some markets by IP-based and OTT supply of programming, there remained many reasons to be optimistic (about satellite). “The consumer is jumping into 4K,” he said. “Simulcasting […]

June 17, 2014By Chris Forrester

Google to launch satellites on Virgin Galactic?

Sky News is reporting that Google is in talks to take a stake in Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic space rocket venture. Recently it emerged that Google is developing plans to launch between 180 and 360 of its own Low Earth Orbiting satellites to reach those parts of the planet under-served by broadband. A stake […]

June 13, 2014By Chris Forrester

Astra Connect in 9,000 French schools

SES Broadband Services (SBBS) and its subsidiary Astra Connect has won a major French contract to hook up almost 9000 to a broadband service via the French ‘Connected Schools’ project. The scheme calls for broadband delivery, by Ka-band satellite, to those schools around the country which do not have adequate access to fibre or broadband […]

June 11, 2014By Chris Forrester

Inmarsat rolls out EU in-flight broadband

Inmarsat, the mobile satellite services operator, has announced its decision to deploy an integrated telecommunications network to deliver aviation passenger connectivity services on a EU-wide basis.  To achieve this ambition, Inmarsat confirms its order for a new S-band satellite, to be called Europasat, and expects to complement this satellite with a fully integrated air-to-ground network […]

June 6, 2014

Eutelsat’s Ka-Sat makes broadband progress

Eutelsat launched its massive Ka-Sat craft back in December 2010, and it is fair to say that the broadband and data satellite took some time to make any real progress. Now, the 6-tonne satellite is making steady – and more valuable – progress. The highly complicated craft focuses its 82 spot-beams onto tightly targeted regions […]

May 19, 2014By Chris Forrester

Another Russian rocket disaster

Parts of a Russian satellite appear to have crashed into the Australian bush in Queensland) late on May 15th following its lift-off from the Baikonur cosmodrome. The giant Proton rocket itself failed after nine minutes and crashed into an uninhabited part of the countryside downrange from the Kazakhstan launch site. But it would seem the […]

May 16, 2014By Chris Forrester

Confusion over ‘banned’ satellite launches

On April 28th we reported that certain commercial satellite launches were under threat of being cancelled because of the growing crisis with Russia in regard to the political situation in the Ukraine. In that story we specifically mentioned the upcoming launches of SES’s Astra 2G craft, plus a pair of satellites for London-based Inmarsat as […]

April 29, 2014

Inmarsat brings Hollywood to the high seas

The latest Hollywood blockbusters will soon be available to commercial shipping companies across the world, delivered directly to vessels at sea via Inmarsat’s global satellite network. Inmarsat and NT Digital Partners, are planning to launch Fleet Media during the summer of 2014. The globally-exclusive, five-year agreement covering the digital distribution of the latest Hollywood releases, […]

April 10, 2014By Colin Mann

SES: “Multiple 4K channels over Europe by 2016”

Satellite operator SES, unveiling its latest viewership numbers in London March 18, also said that it anticipated Ultra-HDTV satellite transmissions would make their debut appearances over Europe by the autumn of 2016. Nick Stubbs, SES’s VP/GM for Western Europe, told journalists and clients that he expected there to be “multiple operators broadcasting 4K/Ultra-HDTV services by […]

March 18, 2014By Chris Forrester