BGAN from Stratos Enables French Radio Station to Stream Live Mobile Show from Paris Techno Parade

BETHESDA, MD, Sept. 29, 2011 /PRNewswire/ - Stratos Global, the leading global provider of advanced mobile and fixed-site remote communications solutions, today announced it provided the Inmarsat BGAN broadband satellite service that enabled Hotmix Radio to stream its live, mobile show from the Paris Techno Parade on Sept. 17th.

This year's 13th annual Paris Techno Parade featured 150 musicians on 15 floats equipped with loudspeakers playing techno music. More than 100,000 participants lined the three-mile parade route to dance to the music and view the floats.

Hotmix Radio (www.hotmixradio.fr) is a Paris-based Internet radio portal that offers members a wide range of music and video content, artist biographies, nightclub information and chat rooms.

Stratos teamed with its Paris-based Channel Partner Geolink Satellite Services to provide Hotmix Radio with the BGAN-based radio solution that included Geolink's new ClipWay Radio encoding/compression application. ClipWay Radio combines essential functions and services, including live broadcasting and audio-files transmission, in a single software solution.

"BGAN from Stratos enabled us to reliably broadcast more than two hours of live Techno Parade coverage from our vehicle float in the parade," said Hotmix Radio General Manager Olivier Riou. "The service proved invaluable in this type of environment, where terrestrial and cellular communications were not feasible."

Gerbrand Schalkwijk, Stratos Vice President, Global Enterprise Sales said, "BGAN has already proven to be a highly effective broadcasting tool for major media organizations reporting from disasters and special events in the world's most remote locations. The mobile BGAN service now is recognized as a dependable, cost-effective platform to enable radio stations to bring the live energy of important music festivals to their listeners."

Geolink Managing Director Christophe Pacilly said, "Anticipating the phase-out of ISDN, we used the valuable input of major French radio stations to develop ClipWay Radio, which transmits over IP. Our goal with ClipWay Radio is to guarantee the quality and clarity of the broadcast sessions. With this year's Techno Parade, our challenge was to provide the same guaranteed broadcast quality as ISDN - in a moving studio. We are happy to report that the ClipWay Radio/BGAN solution successfully met that challenge."

For more than five years, BGAN from Stratos has enabled many of the world's largest media organizations to transmit audio and video content from any remote location. Broadcasters such as the BBC effectively use BGAN services with minimal training. The premium BGAN X-Stream service allows a guaranteed minimum symmetrical video streaming rate of 384 kbps, with up to 450 kbps expected under optimal conditions.

For any news or entertainment event, broadcasters can make full use of Stratos' value-added services known as The Stratos Advantage, which enable customers to monitor airtime, restrict unauthorized usage and manage costs. Broadcasters also achieve guaranteed, end-to-end bandwidth for their time-critical data with a Stratos GuaranteedAccess solution custom designed by Stratos engineers.

Stratos GuaranteedAccess extends guaranteed bandwidth from the BGAN terminal through to the terrestrial infrastructure to broadcast centers. Stratos GuaranteedAccess is enabled by StratosNexus, a Stratos-managed Global Core network for traditional and IP-based services. StratosNexus is a redundant and highly resilient network, designed and optimized to carry time-sensitive satellite traffic.

About BGAN from Stratos
Stratos is one of the world's largest distributors of Inmarsat's BGAN (Broadband Global Area Network) service, a mobile satellite offering that uses portable, lightweight terminals to provide video (guaranteed up to 384 kbps streaming), high-speed data (up to 492 kbps) and voice connectivity anywhere in the world. Since its introduction in late 2005, BGAN from Stratos has been widely adopted by media organizations, military agencies, first responders and professionals in many other industries worldwide. Stratos now boasts more than 17,000 BGAN activations in 185 countries.

About The Stratos Advantage
Stratos customers fully utilize The Stratos Advantage, a suite of value-added services that help elevate BGAN from Stratos far above baseline offerings. These value-added services, including Stratos Dashboard, provide users with cost control, firewall management, full traffic information, pre-paid facilities, high security options, easy VPN access, messaging services and a full range of IP options. More information on BGAN from Stratos is available at www.thepowerofbgan.com.

About Geolink Satellite Services
Geolink Satellite Services, a CETel group company, is a leading global satellite service provider based in Paris. The Company provides a broad range of services, including Geolink Access, iDirect, VSAT solutions, teleport services, Iridium, Inmarsat technologies and the ClipWay media solutions. Geolink serves a broad range of customers, including NGOs, governmental institutions, oil & gas, mining, media and shipping companies. The Geolink network extends to nearly 3,500 remote sites in more than 50 countries across Africa, Europe and the Middle East. For more information, please visit www.geolink.com.

About Stratos
Stratos is the world's trusted leader for vital communications. Stratos offers the most powerful and extensive portfolio of remote communications solutions including mobile and fixed satellite and microwave services. More than 20,000 customers use Stratos products and industry-leading value-added services to optimize communications performance. Stratos serves U.S. and international government, military, first responder, NGO, oil and gas, industrial, maritime, aeronautical, enterprise, and media users on seven continents and across the world's oceans. Stratos is a wholly owned subsidiary of Inmarsat plc. For more information, visit www.stratosglobal.com.

SOURCE Stratos Global Corporation