Denmark's TV2 Transforms its Satellite Newsgathering Capabilities With Eutelsat's NewsSpotter Service

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Sep 07, 2012, 06:16 ET

AMSTERDAM, September 7, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --

Danish broadcaster TV2 is diversifying its satellite newsgathering capabilities with Eutelsat's innovative NewsSpotter service. The service was successfully used by TV2 for live reporting of recent key events in France and the UK, and the Danish broadcaster now plans to continue to integrate it into its outside broadcasting infrastructure. TV2 currently operates two NewsSpotter Fly-Away systems with a third to be shortly delivered.

TV2 was in Paris to cover both rounds of the French presidential elections using a 3-camera production team and the NewsSpotter service to transmit live images from a rooftop. "The NewsSpotter service, with its IP satellite connection and booking system, made a huge difference to what location we could broadcast from and the speed of connection back to studios in Denmark," explained Morten Brandstrup, Head of News Technology for TV2 Denmark. "We would normally need a fibre connection which can be difficult to find, expensive to run and limits locations. NewsSpotter increased our options, enabling us to focus on getting the best pictures to tell the story, rather than being tied to a location connected to fibre."

The TV2 news team also rented a small car in Paris and mounted the NewsSpotter antenna onto the vehicle, parking it alongside regular satellite communication trucks. "It wasn't long before engineers came out to see what we were doing. They couldn't believe that it could be so simple to broadcast. NewsSpotter is like having cable ADSL in your pocket."

TV2 set up three live broadcast locations in London to cover the four days of Diamond Jubilee celebrations. NewsSpotter was used at two locations. Equipment was easily transported across London in a regular black taxi and despite heavy cloud cover there were no problems with the quality of the images transmitted with the 6Mbps connection.

Compact enough to be carried in a back-pack for Fly-Away use and small enough to be fitted onto a small car for rooftop mounting, NewsSpotter can instantly connect mobile news crews to studios for transmission of live recordings, images and data.

Providing native IP connectivity, NewsSpotter is integrated for the workflows of modern newsgathering operations and is available across the footprint of Eutelsat's KA-SAT's satellite that covers Europe, North Africa and large parts of the Middle East. The service is designed to transmit High Definition and/or Standard Definition live video at transmission speeds of up to 20Mbps.

Offering a fast link from scene to screen, the NewsSpotter satellite dish and terminal can be set up in two minutes, including deployment, auto pointing, and connection. Bandwidth can be reserved online by news crews, using a self-booking application or pre-booked for planned use and guaranteed reservations. Users simply log-on to the operating portal and enter their user terminal number, location, time slots and bit rate required on return and forward links.

"NewsSpotter is going to change the way news is gathered and broadcast across Europe," said Morten Brandstrup. "It is the right technology for the right time in the broadcasting industry because it is small, mobile, very cost effective to operate and easy to use. Our news production crews are really happy using it."

Moving forward, TV2 is making a firm commitment to use NewsSpotter for future events or whenever a mobile studio is required in complement to other broadband technologies such as 4G and ADSL. Morten Brandstrup concludes, "The key thing to recognise about NewsSpotter is the quality of transmission is as high as having a fibre connection - yet you get the mobility - and because it's fully IP-based, NewsSpotter integrates directly into digital end-to-end workflows which speed up the news capture and production process."

NewsSpotter user terminals have been developed by multiple manufacturers in three versions: Fly-Away, Vehicular Compact and Vehicular Rugged. Flyaway terminals require manual pointing and come in the form of backpack or flight case configuration, weighing in the range of 5 to 10 kg, with dish sizes in the range of 60 to 75cm. The Vehicle Compact terminal has motorised and autopoint capability and is available with dish sizes from 75 to 90cm. Rugged Vehicle mounted terminals are available with dish sizes from 75 to 120 cm.

About Eutelsat Communications

Eutelsat Communications (Euronext Paris: ETL, ISIN code: FR0010221234) is the holding company of Eutelsat S.A. With capacity commercialised on 28 satellites that provide coverage across Europe, as well as the Middle East, Africa and significant parts of Asia and the Americas, Eutelsat is one of the world's three leading satellite operators. As of 30 June 2012 Eutelsat's satellites were broadcasting more than 4,250 television channels to over 200 million cable and satellite homes in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The Group's satellites also serve a wide range of fixed and mobile telecommunications services, TV contribution markets, corporate networks, and broadband markets for Internet Service Providers and for transport, maritime and in-flight markets. Eutelsat's broadband subsidiary, Skylogic, markets and operates high speed Internet services through teleports in France and Italy that serve consumers, enterprises, local communities, government agencies and aid organisations in Europe, Africa, Asia and the Americas. Headquartered in Paris, Eutelsat and its subsidiaries employ just over 750 commercial, technical and operational professionals. This culturally diverse staff comprises employees from 30 countries.