26
AsiaSat makes key
appointments
Satellite operator AsiaSat has promoted
Fred Ho, director of technical operations,
to vice-president, technical operations,
and Fred Vong, director of engineering,
to vice-president, engineering. In his new
role, Ho will lead the technical operations
team responsible for overseeing the
operations of AsiaSat’s satellite fleet,
earth stations, teleport and customer
network services. For Vong, he will lead
AsiaSat’s engineering team in supporting
customer activities, from network design
to implementation, developing spacecraft
programmes, managing spectrum resources
of the company, and working with other
departments to access and crystalise
opportunities from new technologies.
Globecomm provides
DTH connectivity to
the Middle East
Globecomm has been awarded a five-
year contract by the Broadcasting Board
of Governors (BBG) in support of the
Middle East Broadcasting Network
(MBN). Globecomm will provide satellite
transponder, teleport and terrestrial fibre
services for transmitting MBN’s Alhurra TV
HD and SD video and Radio Sawa audio
content to the Middle East and North Africa.
Alhurra’s and Radio Sawa’s programming
content will be delivered via satellite to more
than 58 million direct-to-home (DTH) users,
multiple regional MBN rebroadcasting TV
and radio affiliates, and BBG/MBN owned-
and-operated 24/7 FM radio stations.
Next Month @ Distribution
Set-top Boxes for
New TV Platforms
June 2018
Live remote
production goes IP
More and more content producers are realising the production value of
creating live content in IP. Shawn Liew reports.
T
he 2018 Commonwealth Games, the
fifth Commonwealth Games hosted by
Australia, was held from April 4-15 on
the Gold Coast in Queensland, Australia.
As the host nation romped home
with the most medal wins, the XXI
Commonwealth Games also provided
a significant technology footnote: NEP
Host Broadcast helped Seven Network,
the Game’s Australian rights holder, to
transport multiple live HD signals over IP
connections between various venues and
the International Broadcast Centre (IBC).
NEP’s requirements were to send 10
HD-SDI video along with up to eight au-
dio channels from multiple remote venues
back to the IBC while sending HD-SDI
video and audio channels back from the
IBC to each of the remote locations.
To achieve this, NEP chose a joint solu-
tion from Caton Technology and Digistor,
which the latter’s managing director,
Andrew Mooney, describes to APB: “Our
set-up involved the use of multiple Caton
Integrated Video Processor (IVP) devices
and their proprietary R2TP protocol to
ensure reliable real-time delivery of HD
signals from the various venues back to
the IBC via an IP link.”
One of the challenges faced, he iden-
tifies, was the need to ensure absolute
minimal latency along with a very high
PANELLISTS
Martin Coleman
Executive Director
Satellite Interference
Reduction Group
Amitabh Kumar
Director, Corporate
Zee Network
Shalu Wasu
Managing Director
Eleven Sports Network
At the 2018 Commonwealth Games held in April this year
in Australia, multiple Caton Integrated Video Processor
(IVP) devices and its proprietary R2TP protocol were used
to ensure reliable real-time delivery of HD signals from the
various venues back to the International Broadcast Centre via
an IP link.
In a live IP
production
environment,
the
requirements
can be
dynamic, and
preparation
is key, advises
Andrew
Mooney,
managing
director of
Digistor.
bitrate (60Mbps) while maintaining
adequate buffers for any packet loss,
jitter or delay on the IP link.
“Luckily, the IVPs are configur-
able and we were able to address these
requirements,” Mooney relates. “The
incoming feeds were being used for
live interviews with return video, so
latency was particularly important.”
For a live broadcast event watched
by millions around the world, any
delay in the broadcast delivery can
throw a real spanner in the works,
even as Mooney acknowledges the
current limitations of IP links — ‘store-
and-forward’ mechanisms and packet
disorder issues, which will both result
in a longer delay.
He continues: “Added to that User
Datagram Protocol’s (UDP) nature, a
‘best-effort’ service cannot guarantee
the datagram delivery is in order and
correct. To minimise the buffer delay
and ensure the smooth playback on
the receiver end, re-transmission is
also not allowed.
“With all the barriers, Caton and
Digistor worked together to bring
signals from the remote venues to the
IBC within the extremely strict delay
required.”
Also lauding the partnership is
Gerald Wong, vice-president, Asia-
Pacific and Japan, Caton Technology,
who highlighted how the companies
started their on-site work on the first
day the IBC was op