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Satellite a key delivery platform in Asia-Pacific

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S P E C I A L2 0 1 5SATELLITE

By the time you are reading this, 4K Ultra HD (UHD) would have landed firmly on Asian shores, as Japanese direct-to-home (DTH) operator Sky

PerfecTV is scheduled to launch two 4K UHD channels on March 1 this year.

Sky PerfecTV’s launch followed on the heels of the Next Generation Television and Broadcasting Promotion Forum (NexTV-F), which began 4K UHD broadcasting in Japan via satellite in June last year. Called “Channel 4K”, the service is heralded by the Japanese government.

Satellite remains key content delivery platform

in Asia-Pacific

One of the first major events to be broadcast on Chan-nel 4K was last year’s FIFA World Cup in Brazil, where selected matches were broadcast via international feeds from Brazil.

Taking into account its cost-effectiveness, and sheer delivery footprint, it is perhaps not surprising that satellite has been touted by many as one of the leading platforms for the delivery of 4K UHD content to the home.

What might be surprising to many, is the region where 4K UHD is expected to gain most traction — Asia!

With new 4K UHD channels launched over satellite in Japan in March this year, some in the industry believe that satellite will be the leading

platform for 4K UHD services to be launched in Asia-Pacific. While the 4K UHD debate rages on, many TV services delivered to one of the biggest and most diverse regions in the world continue to depend on

satellite, as Shawn Liew finds out.

According to a September 2014 survey by Intelsat, Asia-Pacific is expected to lead in 4K Ultra HD adoption, with satellite the primary platform for its delivery to the home.

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Asia-Pacific to lead in UHDTV adoption?In addition to 4K UHD broadcasting, it has been well documented that Japan is pushing ahead with plans to broadcast the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio in 8K, on its way to providing 8K broadcasting services by the time the Olympic Games arrives in Tokyo in 2020.

4K UHD has clearly arrived in Japan. However, should Japan be seen as the exception rather than the rule, or an indication that 4K UHD is indeed preparing to land on more Asian shores?

4K UHD is progressing on a faster trajectory than first projected, particularly within the Asia-Pacific region, declared Peter Ostapiuk, vice-president, Media Product Management, Intelsat. “As is common for cutting-edge consumer trends, all eyes are on Asia [for 4K UHD],” he said.

And it would appear Intelsat’s optimism for 4K UHD in Asia-Pacific is backed up by some of the leading global media executives. In Intelsat’s September 2014 survey 4K UHDTV: Adoption and Business Models, 63% of the survey respondents believe that 4K UHDTV will be mainstream in five to seven years, while 85% expect 4K UHDTV programming to become the de facto norm for media viewing in 10 years’ time.

Crucially, in terms of region adoption, Asia-Pacific and North America are expected to lead the pack, with 47% of respondents expecting 4K UHDTV to gain momen-tum in Asia, followed by North America (34%).

Asia should be at the forefront of 4K UHDTV sets sales in the initial development phase of the format, argued Dimitri Buchs, consultant at Euroconsult.

This, Buchs explained, can be mainly linked to the fact that most TV households in mature markets are already equipped with HD screens and therefore will “wait a few years” before buying a new TV screen.

He added: “Asia, led by China, is currently the leading region in terms of UHDTV households, with the region expected to maintain its leading position in coming years ... If prices of UHD screens continue to drop, it is possible that many countries outside of China, where HD penetra-tion remain lows, will move directly from SD program-ming to 4K UHD without passing through the HD phase.

“This could notably be the case of Thailand and India.”And should these predictions come to fruition, satel-

lite is strongly positioned to play a key enabling role from a ubiquity, cost and network flexibility standpoint, said Intelsat’s Ostapiuk.

He added: “Satellite will play a particularly important role in the delivery of 4K UHDTV content via push-VoD (video-on-demand) for DTH. This method is secure, highly reliable, of high quality and can extend to the most remote regions of the world.”

Other satellite service providers appear to be equally bullish about the prospects of 4K UHD over satellite in Asia. At CommunicAsia2014 in Singapore, Measat, work-ing with satellite equipment and technologies provider Newtec, demonstrated a satellite transmission of 4K UHD video distributed using the new DVB-S2X standard.

Published in February 2014, DVB-S2X standard is expected to achieve efficiency gains of up to 51% for professional applications and up to 20% for DTH — in comparison with its predecessor, DVB-S2. Alongside other emerging technologies such as HEVC (High Effi-ciency Video Coding)/H.265, DVB-S2X is expected to be key in addressing the bandwidth issues — or the lack of bandwidth, to be exact — that are likely to arise from the delivery of 4K UHD content.

Technologically, the satellite industry is already well positioned for UHDTV, according to Jarod Lopez, vice-president, Broadcast Sales, Measat Satellite Systems.

Lopez believes that economic factors and consumer demand will likely have a greater influence on how fast UHDTV takes off in Asia-Pacific. He advised: “As with HDTV, the media industry will have to decide on the best business model for UHDTV. A number of content owners have already begun producing UHDTV content which should accelerate the take-up of UHDTV content in the region.”

Ken Loke, CEO of Eutelsat Asia, agreed that content production is a critical success factor for 4K UHD. He cited Netflix’s production of 4K UHD content as a moti-vating factor for other content producers to follow suit.

Although at an early stage from a commercial per-spective, the UHD ecosystem is “rapidly taking shape,” declared Loke, who reiterated Eutelsat’s commitment to advancing 4K UHD.

Also at CommunicAsia2014, Eutelsat set up a 4K UHD demonstration using the Eutelsat 70B satellite, high-lighting the newest phase of the company’s 4K UHDTV development to Asia’s broadcast community.

Loke said: “Satellites will be the primary platforms for UHD delivery, leveraging their cost-efficiency for delivering high throughput to millions of users, with low bandwidth costs. Up to two UHD channels in MPEG-4 using HEVC compression can be carried on a standard 36MHz transponder.”

Satellite still a key content delivery platform in Asia-PacificAs already discussed, content could hold the key to the widespread adoption of 4K UHD. Going back to the Intelsat survey, a majority (82%) of respondents cited the availability of mass 4K UHDTV content as critical to the acceleration of widespread adoption.

Away from 4K Ultra HD,

satellite remains a key content

delivery platform in Asia-Pacific, including the

delivery of DTH (direct-to-home) services.

The artist’s impression of

the Measat-3b satellite shown here will form

part of the Measat-3 satellite

constellation, designed to

create the strongest DTH orbital slot in

Asia-Pacific.

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An Supplement

Furthermore, 71% of respondents also viewed get-ting a return on investment as their top concern, followed by transmission and content production costs (67%). While these factors remain relevant, the jury remains out on the time frame where broadcasters and operators are ready to adopt and offer 4K UHD services.

However, even when considering 4K UHD over satel-lite as a future service, the role of satellite in delivering essential services to a region as diverse and consisting of the sheer landmass as Asia-Pacific cannot be under-stated. In particular, DTH remains arguably the most effi-cient and cost-effective platform to deliver TV services to otherwise under-served audiences in Asia-Pacific.

Measat’s launch of the Measat-3b satellite last Sep-tember continues the company’s efforts to create, as part of the Measat-3 satellite constellation, what it calls the strongest DTH orbital slot in Asia-Pacific. The launch of Measat-3c and Measat-3d, in 2016 and 2019 respectively, will add to the DTH capacity of Measat’s DTH hot slot, and allow it to better serve almost 20 million viewers across India, Malaysia and Indonesia.

Given the geography of these countries — a popula-tion spread over a wide area — and patchy terrestrial communication infrastructure, satellites will continue to provide the most effective distribution platform for the delivery of TV services, said Measat’s Lopez.

For Eutelsat, the company is entering into a new phase of expansion in Asia-Pacific with a “bold new satellite programme”, according to Eutelsat’s Loke. To be launched in 2017, the Eutelsat 172B is a triple mis-sion satellite designed to sustain demand for capacity for data, fixed and mobile broadband services, as well as video, Loke revealed.

Loke also foresees an exponential growth in the number of TV homes in Asia-Pacific, driven primarily by the increase in digital and HD channels as the region continues its digital switchover.

And as demand for satellite services in the region

continues to surge, teleport operators such as Singtel Satellite continue to provide a vital link in the satellite service chain. The growing demand for content has in-creased tremendously in Asia in recent years, and will continue to do so in 2015, was the opinion of Lim Kian Soon, Head, Singtel Satellite.

This, added Lim, will see an increase in the take-up of uplink and downlink services, with Singtel Satellite’s ST-2 and ST-3 teleports ready to meet demands for these services in Asia, the Middle East and Africa.

Another endeavour Singtel Satellite is currently engaged in, revealed Lim, is in building a cloud-based storage solution that will allow the media industry to effectively outsource their content management.

“In an increasingly connected world, cloud technology will offer broadcasters the opportunity to reshape their business and optimise user experience,” Lim concluded.

The industry is moving towards a multi-service era, and operators are constantly looking for future-proof solutions to address the increasing OPEX and CAPEX challenges, while remaining agile to enable new satel-

lite services in an ever-changing world, assessed satellite equipment and tech-nologies provider Newtec.

According to a recent industry survey conducted by Newtec, 82% of broadcast-ers and broadcast service providers plan to launch additional services in the near future, which include broadband and cloud services, alongside more tradi-tional offerings such as DTH.

While continuing to work with satel-lite service providers such as Measat to advance 4K UHD, Newtec offers solu-tions such as the Newtec Dialog, which is designed to offer the flexibility, scal-ability and efficiency to allow operators to increase their operation efficiency and easily adapt their infrastructure to busi-ness or market changes.

The missing linkFrom traditional offerings such as DTH, the digital transition ongoing in Asia-Pacific, and video and other broadband-

based services, satellite remains a key deli very platform in Asia-Pacific.

As the demand for satellite services increase, the scarcity of bandwidth will in turn become more acute. While the introduction of standards such as HEVC/H.265 and DVB-S2X will serve to alleviate bandwidth scarcity, particularly for 4K UHD, there is reason to wonder if this is merely a short-term fix, if a more pressing issue is not adequately addressed.

At the International Telecommunication Union’s (ITU) World Radiocommunications Conference (WRC-15) to be held in Geneva this November, satellite C-band spec-trum, together with terrestrial broadcast spectrum, will be considered for mobile services.

C-band frequencies remain vital to the operation of satellite services, particularly in tropical and sub tropical regions such as Asia-Pacific, where other spectrum

A multi-service era beckons: an industry survey

conducted by Newtec indicated

that 82% of broadcasters and broadcast service providers plan to launch additional

services in the near future,

which include broadband and

cloud services, alongside more

traditional offerings such as

DTH.

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An Supplement

bands are bedevilled by “rain fade”, stressed John Mederios, chief policy officer at CASBAA.

It would be a “disaster”, warned Mederios, if the ITU proceeds to allocate C-band spectrum to the IMT indus-

try. He explained: “Adequate spectrum for the satellite communications industry is essential to Asian consum-ers’ ability to receive the thousands of TV streams that make up the Asian pay-TV industry.”

The question also remains: Is the claim by mobile operators — that in order to deliver the capacity to meet the growth in demand for data services, more spectrum needs to be available for mobile networks — legitimate?

According to a study released last year by Germany’s LS telcom, less than two-thirds of the spectrum that should have been made available for IMT services is licensed, while only less than half of that which could be made available is licenced out.

Take the forecast of future demand by the mobile industry with a shaker of salt, was the blunt assessment of Robert Bell, executive director of the World Teleport Association (WTA).

“Those [demands] are not real-world conditions,” said Bell. “I would say that, unless misguided regulatory decisions interfere with its ability to deliver services, satellite is the technology of choice for higher-resolution video.”

And for that matter, for any services delivered over satellite, with satellite C-band spectrum remaining the lifeblood of broadcast distribution in Asia-Pacific — it is up to Asia-Pacific governments to ensure that this remains so.

Satellite C-band spectrum remains the lifeblood of broadcast distribution in Asia-Pacific; at WRC-15 later this year in Geneva, satellite C-band spectrum, together with terrestrial broadcast spectrum, will be considered for mobile services.

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broadcast

coNsUMEr & ENtErPrIsE Vsat

oUr MarkEts & aPPlIcatIoNs

MobIlIty, offshorE & MarItIME

goVErNMENt& dEfENsE

cEllUlar backhaUl & trUNkINg

www.newtec.eu

2015_APB_MARKETS_187x136mm.indd 1 2/2/15 5:01 PM

6 PB


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Satellite extends its footprint across APAC

At last year’s ITU Plenipotentiary Conference in Busan, South Korea, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) announced new steps to address harm-

ful interference with satellite transmissions, a move ITU member states were quick to endorse.

The APB Satellite Special speaks with Martin Coleman, executive director of the Satellite Interference Reduction Group (IRG), on the significance of the ITU declaration.

Can you comment on the ITU’s call to address harmful inter ference with satellite trans missions, and what more can stakeholders do to combat satellite interference this year?Martin Coleman: IRG is extremely pleased with ITU’s call to address harmful interfer-ence. The ITU has concentrated its efforts on the worst-case [scenario]; in other words, the deliberate form of interfer-ence and its effect on targeted satellite transmissions.

During the past three years, broadcast-ers, satellite operators and organisations such as IRG took up this special case, resulting in a tremendous amount of co-ordinated effort — especially on the part of the international broadcaster community — with extremely positive reactions. Hav-ing the ITU support this effort is a welcome step forward and will significantly improve its impact. However, there is more to be done on all interference fronts.

Firstly, I would like to see more regu-latory agencies, both national and inter-national, adopt similar positions to put pressure on those causing interference. Perpetrators need to know that there will be consequences to their actions. We need to get tough.

Secondly, there has been a great deal of technology advancements, from stronger modulation schemes to suppression. In addition, the tool box to fix problems is expanding, and there is more in the pipeline. Innovation, clever use of technology available, unified pro-cedures and standards will enable us to ensure the entire industry is benefiting from those advancements.

Why is it critical for the industry to continue to address the issue of satellite interference, and what are the consequences of inaction, particularly in the AsiaPacific region?Coleman: Although we have achieved some important milestones over recent months and years, satellite interfer-ence continues to be a global problem, and one that needs to be continuously addressed. For the satellite operator, it

Combating satellite interference tops IRG agenda for this year

may impact quality of service for the affected customer, is costly to resolve, and can mean a loss of revenue. For the user, it can cause service degradation or disruption and, again, revenue loss — something the entire industry is, of course, keen to avoid.

The Asia-Pacific region is growing fast and that in turn is creating the right environment for this important region to focus early on the subject of interference. Although slow to pick up through IRG members and local organisa-tions, we have been helping to bring together Asia-Pacific satellite ope rators to look at the practical way forward for these operators to take advantage of the work done, and the initiatives available to them.

As an example, there is a certain amount of reticence to adopt Carrier ID, but mostly due to misunderstanding of what data will be stored, and where and how it will be shared. By working together and ensuring we get our message across clearly, this type of issue will be rapidly resolved. It is important to note that only the name of the satellite operator and the unique code will be viewable in a database accessible by all satellite operators. It is then up to the operator to work with its own customer directly.

IRG will continue to grow this group of industry players throughout this year and has already initiated planning with local organisations to continue this education and information programme throughout the Asia-Pacific region.

What other efforts or initiatives will IRG be undertaking this year?Coleman: Throughout this year, we will have a number of key focus areas:

n Carrier ID continues to be the key initiative — edu-cating users and how to enable it is paramount. We have processes to refine to ensure best practices between satel-lite operators.

n Continue working with providers and regulators to improve geolocation processes and the standardisation of reporting.

n Dealing with VSAT, burst mode/TDMA Systems, and how to ensure the latest findings can be implemented in all new systems, and continue to assist in the development of tools to help us resolve those systems already in service.

n Promotion of training, best practices and documen-tation through our End User Initiative (EUI) Committee. In particular, our work with industry training programmes to ensure that broadcasters and users alike get their staff certified for satellite operations, especially in the area of satellite newsgathering.

n Finally, “Big Data”. We will start to look at the inter-ference data we can share with the industry, organisations and universities that could be used to help progress technol-ogy. IRG believes this core data can be used to help measure the effectiveness of our initiatives and show interference trends. This will help us manage our priorities and innova-tive technologies and allow us to focus on those issues that are most affecting satellite communications.

❝The Asia-Pacific region is growing

fast and that in turn is creating the right environment for this important

region to focus early on the subject of

interference.❞— Martin Coleman,

Executive Director, IRG

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by peter ostapiuk

4K Ultra High-Definition Television (UHDTV) is gaining momentum in Asia and around the globe. 4K

UHDTV sets are becoming more readily available, their prices are continuing to fall, and more content is being filmed in 4K UHD and being made available. At first blush, 4K UHDTV may be on a faster tra-jectory than first projected, particularly within the Asia-Pacific region.

That being said, content is still king and the importance of delivering true high-quality 4K UHD content — linear and non-linear, and regardless of the device — is becoming increasingly im-portant for the commercialisation of 4K UHDTV. A majority (82%) of the leading global media executives who participated in Intelsat’s September 2014 survey, 4K UHDTV: Adoption and Business Models, cited the availability of mass 4K UHD content as critical to the acceleration of widespread adoption. A majority (71%) also viewed getting a return on the in-vestment as their top concern, followed by transmission and content production costs (67% respectively).

Today, more programmers are cap-turing content in 4K UHD and the deliv-ery of linear 4K UHD continues to be tested. Intelsat and its eco-system partners first transmitted a true 4K UHD signal over satel-lite in North America in June 2013, and re-cently, in December last year, Intelsat, Time Warner Cable Sports and i ts ecosystem partners successfully conducted a live 4K UHDTV end-to-end test of a major National Basketball Association (NBA) sporting event in the US. This is a major milestone as nearly half (42%) of leading global media executives who participated in the Intelsat survey pointed to 4K UHD sports content as a driving force for adoption.

The closed test also proves that 4K UHDTV equipment available in the mar-ketplace is ready to transmit a major live sports event from the venue to the home.

While the majority of Intelsat’s survey

respondents agreed on the type of content expected to first gain momentum for 4K UHDTV, technical and non-technical me-dia executives were split around the busi-ness model where 4K UHDTV will take hold — with technical professionals call-ing video-on-demand (VoD)/over-the-top (OTT) the first models for adoption, while non-technical executives, those closest

to the customer, call-ing for direct-to-home (DTH) platforms.

This is largely due to the inherent con-flict that comes with a n y n ew o f fe r i n g . Commercial execu-tives want to move to offering linear services in 4K UHDTV, but tech-nical exe cutives are concerned that they will only be able to launch VoD as they remain unsure that multiple-system operators will be ready to receive the

content; however, despite the timing con-cerns, these same leaders are consider-ing moving forward with 4K UHDTV due to the need to differentiate their offerings and to attract and retain subscribers.

As 4K UHDTV continues to evolve, satellite is strongly positioned to play a key enabling role from a ubiquity, cost and network flexibility standpoint. Satellite will play a particularly important role in

According to a September 2014 survey by Intelsat, the Asia-Pacific region is expected to lead the way when it comes to 4K UHDTV adoption, with satellite strongly positioned to play a key enabling role from a ubiquity, cost and network flexibility standpoint.

the delivery of 4K UHD content via push-VoD for DTH. This method is secure, highly reliable, of high quality and can extend to the most remote regions of the world. Additionally, if media providers need flexibility across multiple distribu-tion networks, Intelsat, with its global hybrid satellite network, is uniquely positioned to deliver wide and spot beam coverage that will help its media custom-ers introduce 4K UHDTV, regardless of the distribution platform.

In the coming months, media exe-cutives will be evaluating these various distribution platforms and building eco-nomic models based on the distribution paths they believe are best suited to drive rapid adoption and a return on their in-vestment for 4K UHDTV. As industry lead-ers roll out their plans to bring 4K UHDTV to the mass market, the technology is in place to support widespread adoption and the focus will continue to be on the economics — content development and 4K UDHTV sales need to keep up the pace to ensure commercial success.

That being said, when it comes to 4K UHDTV adoption, Intelsat’s survey respondents predicted that the Asia-Pacific region is ex-pected to pave the way. As is com-mon for cutting-edge consumer trends, all eyes are on Asia.

4K on the fast track – Asia is paving the way for UHDTV

Content is still king and the importance of delivering true

high-quality 4K UHD content — linear

and non-linear, and regardless of the

device — is becoming increasingly

important for the commercialisation of

4K UHDTV.

Peter Ostapiuk is vice-president, Media Product Management, Intelsat.

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The Inmarsat-5 F2 was launched in February this year, and is the latest satellite in Inmarsat’s Global Xpress (GX) constellation. With more satel-lites expected to be added in the near future, how will the GX constellation serve the needs of Inmarsat’s cus-tomers when completed?Martin Turner: GX is fundamental to Inmarsat’s strategy because it meets

Inmarsat heralds new era in satellite broadband communications

the needs of customers for more band-width but with the same ease-of-use and reliability they are accustomed to enjoying with other Inmarsat services. US government customers have been using the first satellite since the mid-dle of last year and we have already seen Sky News (UK) broadcast the first TV live, on-air transmission over GX from Athens, Greece, in January.

The seamless nature of GX, along with its unparalleled level of port-ability when compared to equivalent bandwidth solutions, makes it a unique proposition in satellite broadcasting and so it is no surprise that there is so much interest in it.

Inmarsat has also hailed the GX constellation as heralding a new era in satellite broadband communica-tions. Do you see a growing trend in broadcasters and operators deploy-ing satellite broadband services, particularly in Asia-Pacific?Turner: The use of satellite broadband is a key trend in the industry and it is definitely growing. Before I left the BBC in 2012, we were already pushing the use of this technology because of its flexibility and value for money.

At its simplest, it allows customers to do more for less money, more sim-ply, and it is ideally suited to markets in which companies are innovating and creating new ways of interacting with their audiences. The Asia-Pacific media sector is not only fast growing but it is extraordinarily innovative, and we are really excited by the potential of GX to support this trend.

Earlier this year, Inmarsat also

❝The use of satellite broadband is a key trend in the industry and it is definitely growing. Before I left the BBC in 2012, we were already pushing the use of this technology because of its flexibility and value for money.❞

— Martin Turner, Director of Media, Inmarsat

announced its new open technology strategy. Can you provide an update on the development of this strategy, and how it relates in particular to Inmarsat’s customers in the broad-cast and media industries?Turner: The idea of opening up Inmarsat’s network to developers is to drive innovation and change the way satellite communications are used on land, at sea and in the air. This will sound familiar to Inmarsat customers in the broadcast and media industries because we already have excellent relationships with providers of cutting-edge solutions for transmitting live video over our networks.

The open technology strategy takes this idea further and envisages a network in which Inmarsat enables many different types of devices to be connected wherever and whenever required. For media users, we have already seen some fascinating exam-ples of the sort of solution that this partnership can deliver; for example, a drone developed by Parrot which is opti mised to send live video over a BGAN terminal. Seeing the connec-tions being made between developers

at our recent conference was very exciting and a clear indication that the strategy is already bearing fruit.

How would you evaluate the pros-pects of 4K Ultra UD, and can you elaborate some of the initiatives and efforts undertaken by Inmarsat to develop this technology?Turner: The drive for better video qual-ity has been constant in the broadcast industry but the pace of adoption has differed markedly. For example, many broadcasters still have not completed the change to HD and while there have been many developments in 4K Ultra HD distribution, there is little likelihood of this becoming a de facto standard for news contribution in the near future.

That said, the drive for higher qual-ity is being supported by the develop-ment of new encoding standards such as H.265/HEVC, which approximately doubles the video quality that can be achieved at a given throughput. We are already working with solutions providers to take advantage of these technologies to enable users to get the very best video quality from Inmarsat’s networks.

What are the other growth areas which Inmarsat see particular po-tential in Asia-Pacific, and how is Inmarsat equipped to meet demand for services in these areas?Turner: There is huge potential in the aviation and maritime sectors, with GX ideally positioned to deliver the extra throughput that these markets demand. But Inmarsat’s great advan-tage is a seamless set of solutions that allows us to meet customers’ needs wherever they occur.

The development of the “Internet of Things” (IoT) depends on ubiquitous connectivity and this is one of the fun-damental reasons for launching our Open Technology strategy. Real-time monitoring of agriculture, transpor-tation and energy installations are just a few examples in this area. And Inmarsat is already looking to the future with work beginning on the development of the next generation of satellites: the I6 constellation.

Lastly, what do you think are some of

❝One of the biggest challenges is to win the competition for the audience’s time. This is a competition that grows fiercer by the day as new products and services add to the clamour for attention. This means that media companies must create innovative ways to engage with their audience.❞

Earlier this year, Inmarsat announced its new open technology strategy, which envisages a network in which Inmarsat enables many different types of devices to be connected wherever and whenever required. For media users, Inmarsat has already seen some fascinating examples of the sort of solution that this partnership can deliver; for example, a drone developed by Parrot which is optimised to send live video over a BGAN terminal.

February 2015 saw the successful launch of the Inmarsat-5 F2 satellite, which when once operational, will deliver Global Xpress (GX) services to the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean region, and

will complement Inmarsat-5 F1 coverage in the Indian Ocean region.The Inmarsat-5 F1 satellite was launched in December 2013 and

entered into commercial service in July 2014, powering regional GX services for Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia. Together with Inmarsat-5 F2 and a third satellite scheduled for launch later this year, Inmarsat-5 F1 forms the Inmarsat GX constellation, which is designed to deliver seamless, globally available, high-speed broadband connectivity on land, at sea and in the air.

The Satellite Special sits down with Martin Turner, director of media at Inmarsat, to understand why the GX constellation will help to herald a new era in satellite broadband communications.

the most immediate challenges facing the broadcast and media industries?Turner: One of the biggest challenges is to win the competition for the audi-ence’s time. This is a competition that grows fiercer by the day as new products and services add to the clamour for attention. This means that media companies must create innovative ways to engage with their audience — indeed “audience” may be the wrong term because it implies passive consumption instead of active engagement.

For technology suppliers, it is es-sential to understand this competitive landscape and ensure that solutions are designed to enable this process of innovation. Inmarsat’s experience has

The Inmarsat-5 F2 satellite was successfully launched in February this year and forms part of the Inmarsat Global Xpress (GX) constellation, which is designed to help herald a new era in satellite broadband communications, according to Inmarsat.

been that the best way to do this is by establishing partnerships, by work-ing with suppliers, distributors and end-users to create truly cutting-edge solutions. It is only by working in this way that we can create solutions that truly deliver.

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Established in 1985, the World Teleport Association (WTA) is said to be the only trade association that focuses on the business of satellite communications

from the ground up. The APB Satellite Special sits down with Robert Bell,

executive director of the WTA, who shares his views on how the teleport industry can continue to retain its relevance, as well as some of the key issues and challenges facing the satellite service industry this year.

The World Teleport Association publishes an annual list of the top teleport operators around the world. As markets becoming increasingly niched, how can teleport operators continue to re-invent themselves to be relevant and what are some of the main challenges facing the industry?Bell: That kind of reinvention is something the teleport industry has been doing for decades. The industry itself is

focused on serving niches: the secret to success in the business is to find a niche and then deliver as broad and focused a service offering to it as you can.

In essence, successful teleports be-come outsourcers that take on key parts of the customer’s systems. The challenges they face are about ensuring that they have the right people, the right technol-ogies and the right approach to customer service. We see this in companies such as Globecast and Encompass Digital Media, which provide so much contribution and distribution for media and entertainment companies. But it is equally true of Sing-tel, with its huge business in maritime communications.

Last year, the ITU announced new steps to address harmful interference with satellite transmissions. In your opinion, is the ITU call timely and how is the is-sue of satellite interference particularly relevant to the Asia-Pacific region?Bell: Interference is an issue with more than one facet. The most common is un-intentional interference resulting from simple mistakes. Most of it is intermittent, lasting a few minutes. Some is longer-lasting, however, and typically results

from poor equipment or poorly trained (and poorly paid) installers of VSAT networks, which generate most of the RF interference affecting satellite. With the rise of LEO (low Earth orbit) and MEO (medium Earth orbit) communications constellations, the potential for interference is continuing to rise. That makes the ITU declaration in favour of expanded monitoring and tracking a very welcome contribution.

Another important category of interference is the threat of C-band and extended C-band being opened up to the

Spectrum key to delivery of current & future satellite services

mobile industry. This will be decided at the World Radio-communications Conference (WRC-15) this November. Here, the threat to the Asia-Pacific region is particularly dire because C-band is critical to TV and radio distribution, Internet access and, ironically, mobile backhaul. The re-gion’s governments should stand united against any change to current regulations limiting C-band and extended C-band to satellite applications.

Various reports published last year have identified satel-lite as the leading platform for the delivery of 4K Ultra UD content to the home. Would you agree with this assess-ment, and how will the emergence of technologies such as DVB-S2X and HEVC feature in the equation?Bell: If consumers adopt 4K and eventually 8K, it will put big strains on terrestrial distribution systems, which are inherently synchronous. Satellite has the unique property of excelling at broadcasting from one to many points. But it has been, until recently, very bandwidth-constrained compared with terrestrial networks. As our new white paper, Profiting from High-Throughput Services, makes clear, that barrier is starting to fall.

It is falling because of a combination of technologies on the ground such as ACM, DVB-S2X, MF-TDMA and HEVC, as well as changing satellite architectures such as Intelsat EpicNG. As the 4K opportunity matures, satellite is very well positioned to lead in its distribution.

Even with the emergence of enabling technologies, 4K Ultra HD will require more bandwidth than is currently required to deliver HD services to the home. Can you elab-orate on how critical WRC-15 will be, with spectrum to be considered for mobile services, as you have pointed out?Bell: Recent studies from Futron and other respected research firms have identified a large gap between how much spectrum mobile carriers say they will need and their actual usage. To take just one example, WiMAX carriers confidently predicted that they would build a subscriber base of 15 million by 2007. The actual number was about one million. Currently, 22% of already-licensed spectrum remains unused by mobile operators.

When the ITU tried to project future mobile spectrum demand through 2020, it estimated that 1340-1960MHz would be required. The model used to develop that fore-cast, however, assumed a typical traffic density that is 200 times the volume generated by the 2014 World Cup Final across a population density equal to the densest square kilometre of Tokyo.

Those are not real-world conditions. To make a long story short, forecast of future demand by the mobile indus-try need to be taken with a shaker of salt. And the ability of the satellite industry to increase the effective throughput of its transponders is improving at an accelerating rate. I would say that, unless misguided regulatory decisions interfere with its ability to deliver services, satellite is the technology of choice for higher-resolution video.

❝The [Asia-Pacific] region’s governments should stand united against any change to current regulations limiting C-band and extended C-band to satellite applications.❞

— Robert Bell, Executive Director,

World Teleport Association

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Annually, the World Teleport Associat ion (WTA) publishes its Top Opera tor Rankings, a recognition

of the top teleport/satellite fleet operators in the world. The APB Satellite Special asks Lim Kian Soon, Head, Singtel Satellite, on the reasons that have seen the company once again ranked among the top 10 teleport/satellite fleet operators in the world by WTA, as well as how Singtel Satellite is preparing to meet growing demand for satellite services in the AsiaPacific region.

In the World Teleport Association Top Operator Rankings for 2014, Singtel Satellite was again placed among the world’s top 10 teleport/satellite fleet operators. Why do you think Singtel Satellite has consistently been recognised by WTA? Lim Kian Soon: Our commitment has always been to deliver the best quality, best customer experience and business outcomes to our customers and partners. We constantly gather feedback from customers on their needs. Hence, ST2 was launched in 2011 and subsequently ST3 in 2014 to enable them to reach out to Asia, the Middle East and Africa regions to serve their audiences. In order to deliver onestop endtoend best customer experience, we have been constantly improving our infrastructure by upgrading our teleport equipment and terrestrial connectivity, as well as investing in new ones.

To set up a new teleport on your own takes time and capital. Thus, we make it easier for enterprises to accelerate their reach by offering ready infrastructure and comprehensive capabilities through our teleport hosting services. Enterprises can be assured of better access to a wide coverage as our teleports point to more than 30 satellites and is supported by an extensive terrestrial network of more than 200 points of presence (POPs) in over 160 global cities.

Enterprises can have peace of mind knowing that our facilities are fortified with the latest technologies and secured by armed guards to protect against security breaches. We also provide roundtheclock technical support with ISO9001certified Network Operations Centre (NOC), which is managed by qualified engineers.

Which specific areas of the teleport services offered by Singtel Satellite would you expect to be in most demand in 2015, and how is that a reflection of

Singtel gears up to meet demand for satellite services in AsiaPacific

developments across the broadcast and media industries?Lim: The growing demand of content has increased tremendously in Asia in recent years. This will likely increase the takeup of uplink and downlink services, particularly with popular hotbirds pointing to Asia.

The first thing that comes to the mind of new startups is cost. We have the latest “plug and play” playout services that enable them to manage and deliver their content at minimal cost.

In an increasingly connected world, cloud technology will offer broadcasters the opportunity to reshape their business and opti mise user experience. There is likely to be an increase in the number of broadcasters adopting cloud technology. We are currently exploring a cloudbased media storage solution at a price point that will make sense for the media industry to outsource its content management.

For customers looking at 4K, how is Singtel Satellite equip ped to help them deliver 4K content to viewers in the AsiaPacific region?Lim: Where satellite is concerned, optimising the bandwidth will be key in the delivery of 4K content and we expect development of new compression technologies to emerge. There is certainly no doubt that 4K is driving strong interest and excitement in the industry. Our infrastructure will always be ready to support customers looking to adopt 4K.

❝The growing demand of content has increased tremendously in Asia in recent years … This will likely increase the take-up of uplink and downlink services.❞— Lim Kian Soon, Head, Singtel Satellite

Late last year, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) announced new steps to combat satellite interference. What is Singtel Satellite’s views on this development, and is satellite interference a particular concern in the AsiaPacific region?Lim: We welcome the new step taken by ITU at the recent Plenipotentiary Conference in Busan, South Korea, to address the concern of satellite interference. The creation of a database on interference known as “geolocation” is essential as it enables satellite operators to know the source of interference and take action accordingly. Satellite interference is a global concern. As the demand for satellite bandwidth is growing in the AsiaPacific region, it has resulted in the crowding of ope rational satellites, especially in the commercial C and Kubands.

This crowding will inevitably lead to higher probability of satellite interference, which is a concern to all satellite operators.

Singtel Satellite’s teleports serve customers in Asia, the Middle East and Africa.

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Coming off the back of a hugely suc-cessful 2014, Newtec is celebrating its 30th birthday this year. The

APB Satellite Special speaks with Mario Querner, Newtec’s VP of Asia, on how the company intends to lead the satellite industry into a new multi-service era.

2014 was a year of achieve-ments for Newtec, including the launch of Newtec Dialog, designed with the “multi-service” era in mind. How do you see this multi-service era developing in 2015, and what can Newtec Dialog offer broadcasters and operators?Mario Querner: It is key to understand that our industry needs future-proof solutions to address the increasing OPEX and CAPEX challenges while remaining agile to en-able new satellite services in an ever-changing world.

To go into detail, service providers and broadcasters, for example, face numerous challenges in the developing multi-service era, including more complex workflows, the introduction of new services, increased user expectations for always-on connectivity and pressure on efficiency in both the space and ground segments. The importance of embracing the multi-service trend was emphasised by our recent comprehensive industry survey, aimed at ad-dressing the key challenges for broadcasters.

In total, there were 270 respondents with the findings showing that 82% of broad-

casters and broadcast service providers plan to launch additional services in the near future. If these services are launched on dedicated and inflexible networks, then CAPEX and OPEX will grow in tandem with the addition of new services. A single platform that is shared between multiple services, a “multi-service network”, will help to reduce costs while increasing network flexibility.

Newtec Dialog, launched last year, contains all the traits broadcasters and service providers need in order to thrive in today’s market — flexibility, scalability

Newtec leads satellite industry into multi-service era

and efficiency. Customers can increase their operational efficiency and easily adapt their infrastructure to business or market changes. Meanwhile, our patented return technology, Mx-DMA, incorporates the best features of MF-TDMA and SCPC technologies, solving the difficult choice of selecting one or the other and offering optimal performance for operators.

At CommunicAsia2014, Newtec demon-strated a 4K UHDTV transmission utilis-ing the DVB-S2X standard. How would you rate the prospects of 4K in the Asia-Pacific region, and how would emerging standards such as DVB-S2X help deliver 4K to the home?Querner: According to a recent survey published by Intelsat, 4K UHDTV is ex-pected to be mainstream within 10 years. In fact, 47% of the respondents believe 4K UHDTV will first take hold in Asia-Pacific. The main driver of UHDTV adoption cited by media companies was the ability to pro-vide the competitive differentiation neces-sary to attract new subscribers to their linear broadcast and cable TV channels.

The new DVB-S2X standard, im-plemented on Newtec’s product range or available as a software upgrade to existing products, brings multiple new capabilities on top of DVB-S2. These include lower Roll-Offs (RO), increased granularity in MODCOD choices, higher efficient modulation optimised for use in linear and non-linear operations, and a standard mechanism to bond carriers together, creating one big transmission pipe for multiple 4K programmes over existing transponders.

Newtec’s Automated Equalink tech-nology, part of Newtec Dialog, also saves money on space capacity, lowers programming cost or simply increases service availability. The new standard is instrumental for the satellite industry in keeping pace with demands for new features and increased efficiency. In Indo-nesia, Newtec has partnered with DTH operator K-Vision to deliver an extra 1.5db gain across 63 SD and three HD channels broadcast in both Ku- and C-band.

Do you see satellite as the primary plat-form for the delivery of 4K UHD content to the home, and what factors do you think are critical for 4K UHD to take off?Querner: Thanks to technology innova-tions, such as the improved DVB-S2 standard, satellite services are now more

❝It is key to understand that

our industry needs future-

proof solutions to address the

increasing OPEX and CAPEX challenges

while remaining agile to enable

new satellite services in an

ever-changing world.❞

— Mario Querner, VP of Asia, Newtec

efficient and cost-effective than ever before. Bandwidth-hungry HD and soon UHDTV can be transmitted at maximum throughput through Newtec technology.

In the delivery of K-Vision’s World Cup coverage, for example, Newtec’s M6100 Broadcast Satellite Modula-tors were used for the transmissions, which took place across two different transponders, one being in C-band over Indosat Palapa and the second in Ku-band using Measat capacity. These tech-nologies will be critical as sports broad-casters gradually start upgrading from HD to UHD, offering the right features for squeezing the maximum throughput out of the available bandwidth.

As in the case of HD, socio-eco-nomics, demographics and technology infrastructure will determine the adop-tion timeline of UHDTV. Satellite will positively impact the adoption of this new technology, with a critical mass of content, sufficient household penetration and available 4K UHDTV-enabled set-top boxes stated as important factors in ac-celerating the roll-out of 4K UHDTV in the Intelsat survey.

Besides 4K UHD, what do you think are some of the other growth areas for sat-ellite service providers in Asia-Pacific?Querner: Away from 4K UHD, the advent and growth in direct-to-home (DTH) ser-vices has been significant in its pursuit of ever more exciting and diversifying content for its customer base. Both the increase in the number of TV channels and their quality create the need to dis-tribute more content over satellite.

In the fast-growing area of DTH, Newtec technologies can again help service providers achieve the most effi-cient and cost-effective results. Newtec’s Equalink technology allows DTH opera-tors to either save money on space ca-pacity, lower programming cost or simply increase the service offering. Typically, a 10% increase in throughput can be established without changing the other system parameters (or set-top boxes), making it possible to upgrade some SD programmes to HD or to add content.

Similarly, our Clean Channel Tech-nology (CCT) allows for reduced roll-offs as small as 5%. Through advanced filtering technology, the carrier spacing can be reduced to up to 1.05 times their symbol rates, resulting in an immediate bandwidth gain of up to 14%.

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While continuing to place emphasis on its direct-to-home (DTH) con-stellation in Asia-Pacific, Measat

is also ready to help its customers deliver 4K Ultra HD content to homes in the region. Jarod Lopez, vice-president, Broadcast Sales, Measat Satellite Systems, reveals more to the APB Satellite Special.

Last September saw the launch of the Measat-3b satellite, which Measat says will help to create the strongest direct-to-home (DTH) orbital slot in Asia-Pacific. Can you provide us with an update of Measat-3b and how the planned launch of the Measat-3c and Measat-3d satellites will move Measat another step closer to creating this DTH orbital slot?Jarod Lopez: Measat-3b was launched on 12 September 2014. The satellite success-fully completed in-orbit testing and has now been brought into commercial service.

Measat-3b is designed to be co-located with Measat-3 and Measat-3a at Measat’s 91.5°E orbital location. Equipped with a 48 Ku-band transponder payload, the satellite supports video and data services across Malaysia, India, Indonesia and Australia.

The satellite has added additional capacity to Measat’s core DTH hot slot and increased the amount of transponder redundancy at this location. With the Measat-3 satellite constellation providing the core TV distribution platform for almost 20 million viewers across India, Malaysia and Indonesia, and with satellites providing a single point of failure, being able to pro-vide capacity across three spacecraft is a significant advantage for our DTH partners.

The planned launch of Measat-3c and Measat-3d in 2016 and 2019 respectively continues the development of the 91.5°E orbital location with additional capacity for existing customers. This would allow the DTH platforms to continue the transition of content from SD to HD to UHD as well as support additional services such as broadband data.

Why do you think DTH remains one of the most effective platforms to deliver con-tent to audiences in Asia-Pacific?Lopez: Satellites have a number of advan-tages compared to other forms of commu-nication technologies. In particular: n A satellite footprint can be designed to cover a country or region as required. Its coverage would include remote or chal-lenging terrain, which would consume too

much time or effort to reach with other forms of distribution technology. n Satellite is cost-effective in that the cost of service is irrespective of the number of DTH subscribers or distance from broad-cast stations to homes within the footprint. n Satellites are extremely reliable and designed with multiple redundancies to ensure high service availability, which is critical when addressing a large customer base.

For the markets in which Measat cur-rently supports DTH platforms (Malaysia, India and Indonesia), satellites continue to provide the most effective distribution platform for the delivery of TV services. Given the geography of these countries, a population spread over wide areas, and patchy terrestrial communication infra-structure, this is unlikely to change in the foreseeable future.

2014 also saw Measat participate in a number of 4K UHDTV demonstrations across Asia-Pacific. When does Measat expect to carry its first 4K UHD channel in this region, and which technology trends or developments do you see as being key to 4K UHD taking off in Asia-Pacific?Lopez: Technologically, the industry is al-ready well positioned for UHDTV. Content production, delivery, management, storage and consumption concerns have been ad-dressed with the rapid development of UHD standards, cameras, production equipment and TVs. Economic factors and consumer demand will likely have greater influence on how fast UHDTV takes off in Asia-Pacific.

Measat’s UHDTV demonstrations were undertaken to demonstrate that the Measat fleet is ready to distribute UHD content. We are already in discussion with a number of customers and are hopeful to be carrying the region’s first UHD regional feed towards end-2015 or early 2016.

With 4K seemingly on the horizon, and with the region still in the midst of the

transition to digital, as well as the evolv-ing changes in content consumption, what challenges do you think are being faced by the media and broadcast industries in Asia-Pacific?Lopez:: From the perspective of a satellite operator, the media and broadcast indus-tries face a number of challenges.

Firstly, and crucially, the International Mobile Telecommunications (IMT) com-munity is requesting C-band spectrum currently used by satellite operators to distribute video content to be reallocated for telecom services. This will be addressed in the World Radio Conference 2015 (WRC-15). If the IMT community is successful in their plans, it will have a severe impact on not only the satellite industry, but also our custom-ers in the media and broadcast industries.

A second challenge concerns the pay-TV business model, as consumers are increasingly demanding and wanting to view what they want, when they want it and where they want it. Given this, the current pay-TV landscape needs to ad-dress the growth of alternative delivery platforms with OTT (over-the-top) continu-ing to threaten to pull viewers away from traditional broadcast pay-TV.

A third challenge concerns the de-velopment of UHDTV. As with HDTV, the media industry will have to decide on the best business model for UHDTV. A number of content owners have already begun producing UHD content, which should accelerate the take-up of UHD content in the region.

❝As with HDTV, the media industry will have to decide on the best business model for UHDTV. A number of content owners have already begun producing UHD content, which should accelerate the take up of UHD content in the [Asia-Pacific] region.❞

— Jarod Lopez, Vice-President, Broadcast Sales, Measat Satellite Systems

Measat meets content delivery needs in Asia-Pacific – and more

The Measat-3 satellite constellation provides the core TV distribution platform for almost 20 million viewers across India, Malaysia and Indonesia, while Measat is ready to help its customers launch 4K UHD channels in Asia-Pacific.

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by john medeiros

Adequate spectrum for the satellite communications industry is essential to Asian consumers’ ability to receive the thousands of television streams that

make up the Asian pay-TV industry. In recent years, CASBAA, its Satellite Industry Commit-

tee and its Wireless Action Group have been active, with other international satellite industry associations, in urging national and international regulatory bodies not to make frequency assignments that will result in fatal interference with TV broadcasts.

C-band frequencies (3.4-4.2GHz) are vital to operations of satellite services, particularly in tropical and sub tropical regions, where other spectrum bands are bedevilled by “rain fade”.

Societies in the Asia-Pacific rely on C-band communications to support business communi-cations, telemedicine, distance education, disas-ter recovery — and, of course, getting broadcast content to the region’s 500 million pay-TV homes.

But other groups have their eye on the C-band frequencies. Several national administrations have already assigned portions of that band for wireless broadband systems — with disastrous results. The most recent addition to this list is the Philippines, where authorities have allowed a telco to start up an LTE mobile system in the 3.5GHz band — resulting in cable operators and cable customers in numerous cities around the country being unable to receive TV channels all the way up to 4GHz! Cable operators are scram-bling to move and re-equip their receiving anten-nas, which is likely to mitigate the problem — but the lower “extended” C-band will be lost.

Now the ITU is considering making the C-band available all around the world for use by 4-G (IMT) telephone sys-tems. Where 4-G systems are licensed in these frequencies, the corresponding satellite reception will be lost — the laws of physics make co-existence impossible. This would be a disaster for broadcasting and other industries in tropical countries. It is a case of tropical developing countries being asked to sacrifice for the benefit of telecom industries in already highly-developed temperate lands.

During the CASBAA Satellite Industry Forum in Singa-pore in June last year, the association welcomed issuance of the first authoritative study of the extent to which satellite C-band services provide socio-economic benefits to tropical countries in the Asia-Pacific region. The study found that “C-band is extensively used for communication networks, often of critical importance to these countries’ economy, society or security”.

Paris-based technology consultancy Euroconsult examined the situation on the ground in three markets representative of the diverse economies of southern Asia and the Pacific, and found that — in addition to the hundreds

C-band frequencies vital to satellite services in Asia-Pacific

of millions of consumers who rely on C-band television streams — the banking and finance, energy production, and government sectors were particularly dependent on satellite networks using C-band spectrum, which is prized for its reliability and scope of coverage.

The markets selected for the study were India (a huge, continental rapidly industrialising nation), Indonesia (a very populous archipelagic nation) and Papua New Guinea (the largest of the Pacific Island nations).

All three countries use C-band networks as the lynchpin of their disaster emergency communications, in particular as part of extremely time-sensitive systems being deployed to warn coastal populations of impending tsunamis.

India has made C-band communications a key part of its security operations, with more than 7,000 C-band an-tennas deployed by security forces to defend the country and keep the peace.

In Papua New Guinea, the reliability of C-band com-munications is essential to providing essential real-time monitoring of wells and pipelines to guarantee safe and reliable liquefied natural gas production.

Indonesia’s financial industry uses C-band commu-nications to service the country’s far-flung regions and improve rural connectivity. Some 75,000 ATMs use C-band to dispense a daily volume of more than US$400 million, and one Indonesian bank recently announced plans to pro-cure its own satellite “to reach people in all corners of the country in support of the financial inclusion programme”. The Indonesian government is also using C-band to deliver essential e-services around the country, including provid-ing the entire population with biometric identity cards.

Finally, huge numbers of Asians depend on C-band for their information and entertainment. In the countries stud-ied as well as others in tropical Asia, as many as 30 million individual consumer households are estimated to watch TV through their own C-band dishes. Several hundred million other consumers subscribe to cable or Ku-band satellite TV services, whose content is delivered by C-band.

The Euroconsult report notes that C-band communica-tions benefit from two physical characteristics that make it so central to Asia’s environment: resistance to “rain fade” and availability of wide beams. As a result, billions of dollars have been invested in 60 C-band satellites over Asia, provid-ing almost half (47%) of the total satellite capacity used in the region. Euroconsult estimates the annual value of the C-band capacity market in Asia at US$800 million annually.

CASBAA believes Asian govern-ments need to sit up and take notice of the huge contribution by satellite C-band communications to their pop-ulations and their economies before making key decisions on spectrum priorities.

Asian governments

need to sit up and take notice

of the huge contribution by satellite C-band

communications ... before

making key decisions on

spectrum priorities.

John Medeiros is chief policy officer at CASBAA.

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Ken Loke, CEO of Eutelsat Asia, pro-vides an insight into the company’s direction and plans for Asia-Pacific,

as well as the prospects for 4K Ultra HD globally, including in Asia.

How has Eutelsat’s position in Asia-Pacific evolved over the past two years?Ken Loke: Historically focused on Europe, Eutelsat has progressively grown into a global company with a fleet of 35 satel-lites now reaching into Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Asia and the Americas. One of the most significant steps we have taken to expand our footprint was in 2012 when we bought the GE-23 satellite, now Eutelsat 172A, from General Electric. Located at the 172°E position, this prime gateway offers exceptional coverage of the Asia-Pacific region. This opportunity has enabled us to scale up our presence in this rapidly evolving market. Eutelsat 172A coincided with the launch in the same year of a new satellite called Eutelsat 70B, which reaches across South-east Asia and Australia and connects Asia to Europe and Africa.

In addition to strengthening our in-frastructure in space, we also opened an office in Singapore to better serve our local customers. On the ground, new partnerships with local players, such as ST Teleport, one of Asia’s leading full-service satellite, fibre and IP communications solutions providers, have also been sealed to increase our ability to serve customers in the region.

We are now entering into a new phase of expansion in the Asia-Pacific with a bold new satellite programme. Called Eutelsat 172B, this new triple-mission satellite will support sustained demand for capacity for data, fixed and mobile broadband services as well as video. It will also host the Pacific Ocean’s first high throughput payload, which Panasonic Avionics Corporation has already selected as its key growth platform for trans-Pacific and Asian in-flight broadband and live TV services provided to commercial airlines. To be launched in 2017, this highly effi-cient asset in the sky will place our 172°E position front and centre of the rapidly expanding market for mobile services in the Pacific Ocean.

Where do you think are the future areas of growth in Asia-Pacific?Loke: Our ambitions for the region primari-ly focus on television, reflecting our leading activity and our industry-leading expertise. In Europe, the Middle East and Africa, our

satellites broadcast more than 5,800 TV channels to over 274 million homes.

In South-east Asia, many fast-growing countries such as Myanmar, Vietnam, the Philippines and Indonesia see the world of television booming. The Asia-Pacific region has currently more than 840 million TV homes and is expected to increase by 110 million, reaching close to the billion mark in 2018. This figure will continue to expand with the steady increase of digital and HD channels. The latter trend is set to accel-erate in these markets, as the penetration of HD screens increases and expectations grow for high-quality signals.

Another important market is digital terrestrial TV (DTT), where Eutelsat has particularly strong experience. In a number of markets in Europe and Africa, digital channels are delivered via Eutelsat to DTT transmitters for terrestrial re-broadcast-ing and are also available free-to-air for homes beyond reach of DTT transmitters. An example of this experience can be found with the French platform Fransat, which has become the point of reference for France’s transition into a fully digital broadcasting environment in 2011. In the broadcasting market, Ultra HD (UHD) is also an emerging trend.

Can you give us an update on Eutelsat’s work on developing UHDTV globally, and specifically in Asia-Pacific?Loke: UHD’s leap forward in terms of viewer experience is comparable to the transition from black and white to colour, analogue to digital and digital to HD. Eutelsat is one of the pioneers of this next state-of-the-art video experience. We launched Europe’s first demonstra-tion UHD channel in 2013. In Asia-Pacific, we set up a UHD demonstration last year using the Eutelsat 70B satellite during CommunicAsia2014, which demonstrated the newest phase of 4K TV development to Asia’s broadcast community.

Although at an early stage from a com-mercial perspective, the UHD ecosystem is rapidly taking shape. 4K cameras are available in consumer, semi-professional and professional models. 4K production equipment is increasingly available and 4K UHDTV sets are now produced by almost all major consumer electronics manu-facturers, as seen in January during the Consumer Electronics Show 2015 in Las Vegas. Content production, a critical suc-cess factor, is also on the rise, driven by players such as Netflix, who are shooting flagship series like House of Cards in 4K.

Satellites will be the primary platforms

Eutelsat has progressively grown into a global company with a fleet of 35 satellites now reaching into Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Asia and the Americas.

for UHD delivery, leveraging their cost-efficiency for delivering high throughput to millions of users, with low-bandwidth costs. Up to two UHD channels in MPEG-4 using HEVC compression can be carried on a standard 36MHz transponder.

Eutelsat’s expectation is that pay-TV platforms will be the first to propose UHDTV channels to their subscribers. Following the same path as HD, 4K is expected to emerge in 2015 in countries characterised by high purchasing power with a competitive video market, like the US, Japan, Korea or Western Europe. In the Asia-Pacific, Japan is the country of the “inventors” of UHD. The direct-to-home (DTH) satellite TV operator Sky Perfect JSAT Corporation has announced it will launch two 4K UHD channels on March 1 this year. The dedicated 4K channels will feature J-League football matches, along with other sporting events, films and live concerts. We will watch its launch with great interest and are ready to support broadcasters who want to take this next big step forward in broadcasting.

❝Satellites will be the primary platforms for UHD delivery, leveraging their cost-efficiency for delivering high throughput to millions of users, with low bandwidth costs.❞

— Ken Loke, CEO, Eutelsat Asia

Eutelsat scaling up in Asia-Pacific

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Many satellite operators would have by now fully tested their 4K capabilities or have fully func-tional online services up and running. With more

and more bandwidth-hungry content in the offing, opera-tors have been busy replacing their fleets with the newer generation of satellites to handle this new demand.

When new technology and equipment are installed, operators are bound to face a daunt-ing task of training their staff on the new features and functionality of the system. Very often, the only way to acquire the knowledge or skillset is through the training provided by their respective manufacturers, and these trainers have to be flown in from half way around the globe just to conduct the few days of training before the system goes fully operational and online.

When the training is completed, staff who have missed the training or new staff who have just joined the company can only refer to the printed manual or learn from those who have attended the training. The question is: how do we overcome this?

This thought flashed across my mind when I was do-ing some research on an upgrading exercise for my pas-sion in photography which I indulge in over the weekends.

Having discovered a limitation on the reach and reso-lution of my present camera system, I decided to go on

Offering alternative training methodsthe upgrade path — a new body, with higher resolution and a new ultra telephoto lenses with a longer reach to capture my subject.

What I found during my search was nothing new or special, but which has been lying dormant on the World Wide Web via YouTube. On YouTube, there are numerous instructional videos for various products, offering high quality not only in terms of content, but also in acoustics and visuals.

In the video clip that I found, it featured the many settings options available for the focusing points or multi-point focusing of the camera model that I was looking at, and meticulously explained how and when each option should be applied. For just one of the many features that this camera has to offer, making such instructional videos available readily is a good move on the part of the manufacturer to educate and also ensure that the users know the proper functions on each of the features. Of course, making an instructional video is much more complicated than coming out with a printed instructional manual.

Instructional videos, which also serve as a sound marketing tool, are readily available today. Setting up instructional videos for users reflects that the manu-facturer goes beyond simply selling black boxes or solutions — it indicates a deeper desire to aid clients in

their business growth through training of their staff on how to manage the system that was installed.

As new technologies continue to emerge, and systems are put in place to cater to these technologies, instructional videos that are today readily available on the Internet will

serve as a complementary option to an irreplaceable component — training.

The best systems can be put into place but without the requisite knowledge on how to operate them, their im-plementation will be a moot place. Luckily for operators today, whether through training courses offered by the likes of DigiWorkz, or the complementary options avail-able on the Internet, the possibilities are endless.

By Ho Siew Mun

Training is essential to

allow staff to understand

new technologies

and equipment — whether

through workshops or instructional

videos readily available on the Internet

today.

Ho Siew Mun is the business development manager of DigiWorkz. Established in January 2002, DigiWorkz Asia-Pac Regional Broad-cast Training Center conducts engineering and production courses for practitioners in the broadcast industry. For more information on DigiWorkz courses, visit www.digiworkz.org.

All rights reserved. MICA (P) 017/08/2014 PPS 985/06/2013(022995) Printed by Fabulous Printers Pte Ltd.

This report is published by: Editec International Pte Ltd— publisher of Asia-Pacific Broadcasting61 Tai Seng Avenue #05-01 Crescendas Print Media HubSingapore 534167Tel: +65 6282 8456 Fax: +65 6282 8039Website: www.apb-news.com

EDITORIALDeputy EditorShawn LiewReporterKamarul Arifin A H

PRODUCTIONProduction EditorZuraini RidzwanSub-EditorSamantha Ann Francis

Multimedia DesignerRaymund JaudianAd/Office AdministratorIrene LokAccounts ExecutiveTan Hui Min

MARKETINGManager - Sales & MarketingSean Chen

Manager - Sales & MarketingLynn CheeBusiness Development Manager-DigiWorkz / Manager-CirculationHo Siew Mun

PUBLISHINGAssociate PublisherKristy TanPublisher/Editorial DirectorAndrew Yeo

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