Artistic rendition of Nigeria's NigComSat 1R satellite
Prospects of Direct-To-Home(DTH) local platform and the need to join digital broadcasting will be a major benefit of Nigeria's replacement satellite — NigComSat 1R — when it is launched in December, the Nigerian Communication Satellite Limited (NIGCOMSAT) has said. NIGCOMSAT, in a statement said migration of broadcast media to HD digital platform would also be addressed by the satellite. According to the statement signed by NIGCOMSAT spokesman, Mr. Sonny Akpore, many more issues relating to satellite will be explained next month when the agency hosts a three-day stakeholders conference in Lagos.
The second in the series of several roadshows to address salient issues in the soon to be launched satellite, the conference tagged "prelaunch marketing sensitisation for NigComSat 1R" will enable officials of the company to throw more light on the satellite which has since been moved to its launch site in China. Team leader for the conference, Barrister Bala Mohammed said the events are slated to run from November 21 to 23 at the Lagos Sheraton and Towers. Bala who spoke on behalf of Executive Director (marketing) Abimbola Alale said this conference is a prelaunch marketing effort where experts from within and outside Nigeria will speak on various subjects relating to satellite communications in general and NigComSat 1R in particular. Managing Director of NIGCOMSAT limited, Engr. T. Ahmed-Rufai is expected to present a keynote paper "Communications Satellite: A key player in digital broadcasting". His paper will dovetail into that of Anthony Orjinta whose paper dwells on DTH opportunities at NIGCOMSAT. Chief Regulator of the broadcast industry, and Director General, National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) Engr. Yomi Bolarinwa will speak on "Future Trends in broadcasting technology". Veteran in the broadcast media and former Director of Engineering of Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) Engr. Edward Amana will moderate this session. (Source: allAfrica.com, Zakariyya Adaramola)