[SatNews] SIS LIVE has announced their new agreement with Sky Sports News for the provision of satellite capacity for the latter's newsgathering operations.
Sky Sports News, the leading 24-hour sports news channel in the UK, has a long relationship with SIS LIVE, having used its SNG services and satellite capacity for many years. This four year contract delivers 73MHz of capacity on the Eutelsat E16A satellite for the Sky Sports and Sky Sports News fleet of satellite newsgathering (SNG) vehicles, which are also supplied and operated by SIS LIVE. The fleet is located throughout the United Kingdom and delivers fast-response coverage of breaking sports news from any location. Sky Sports will make use of this satellite bandwidth for its live coverage of weekend football matches, which are also transmitted by SIS LIVE SNG vehicles. SIS LIVE’s scale and wide-ranging capabilities offer customers a true one stop shop experience, unrivalled by any other supplier in the UK.
This is the latest in a series of new contracts with major customers which allow SIS LIVE to remain at the forefront of the provision of SNG services to the UK market place. SIS LIVE now provides satellite newsgathering capacity for every single news and sports news broadcaster in the UK. SIS LIVE is able to provide full resilience for the Sky downlink system, using its two broadcast teleport/MCR systems which offer round the clock coverage. The teleports, located in Milton Keynes and MediaCityUK in Salford, are connected to the SIS LIVE national fibre network which has direct reach into strategic locations around the UK, including Sky’s facility in Osterley.
SIS LIVE has previously supported Sky Sports News in a number of groundbreaking projects, including its record-breaking 92Live program, which saw live broadcasts take place from each of the 92 football and Premier League grounds in the UK in just 12 hours. Sky Sports has also sought SIS LIVE’s expertise in the development of its Ultra HD (4K) capability, which has seen SIS LIVE uplink vehicles broadcast Ultra HD coverage of Premier League football over satellite.
Sky Sports News info may be accessed at http://www1.skysports.com/watch/sky-sports-news
The SIS LIVE infosite is located at http://www.sislive.tv/
Additionally, SIS LIVE has completed and delivered the first vehicle as part of its seven year Ka-band satellite newsgathering (SNG) contract with ITV and ITN—this highly-specified uplink truck will form part of a fleet of 18 HD vehicles, all due to be delivered in 2014.
SIS LIVE's first of 18 Ka-band SNG trucks.
The new fleet, entirely designed and integrated by SIS LIVE’s in house project team, is based on Mercedes Sprinter and Vito vans with 1.2m and 1.0m SIS LIVE uplinks. The antennas are the lightest, most flexible vehicle mounted satellite systems in the world. The reduced weight, compared to competing antennas, allows for a higher spec system to be installed in a smaller 3.5T vehicle, thus avoiding the 56mph speed restriction of the 5T vehicles and allowing the swiftest response to breaking news stories. On board equipment includes HD, SDI, fibre and wireless camera inputs as well as highly specified vision and audio mixers. Each (ITN) truck is dual path capable with redundant transmit chains and features a generator with battery-powered UPS backup. An enhanced dual modem system ensures the most efficient and reliable use of bandwidth for IP over satellite.
ITV and ITN will be the first to benefit from SIS LIVE’s extended provision of IP services which sees the launch of a new iDirect hub at MediaCityUK to work alongside its existing Milton Keynes iDirect services. This new infrastructure provides greater resilience and additional new functionality.
SIS LIVE’s in-house software development experts are working on the upgrade of its proprietary uBook system to enable the dynamic allocation of bandwidth between DVB and IP carriers, ensuring that the satellite capacity usage is maximized at all times. This effectively transforms ITN and ITV’s new SNG fleet into “news bureaus on wheels”, delivering “source to studio” file based content alongside breaking live news. SIS LIVE’s uBook is a fully integrated and secure booking system that works seamlessly with any satellite capacity, enabling broadcasters to effortlessly provide live coverage on-demand with uPod uplinks.
David Meynell, Managing Director, SIS LIVE said “Working in conjunction with ITV and ITN, SIS LIVE has once again revolutionised the design of SNG trucks. By developing, delivering and operating our own technology we have been able to create a seamless solution which includes market-leading satellite antennae; an integrated online booking system; downlink services; and satellite and fibre distribution services. The deployment of this new truck signifies the delivery of the first major SNG fleet operating in Ka Band, enabling us to continue to deliver the excellence that has enabled ITV and ITN’s award-winning news coverage.”
Malcolm Smith, Head of Newsgathering Operations at ITN, said “This is the third generation of SNG vehicles that we have leased from SIS LIVE and each generation has been marked by an advance in operational capability through the latest technology. This new truck is the first hybrid combining HD video over satellite with IP connectivity. This combines the essential reason for SNG vehicles which is the provision of reliable live inserts to programmes from anywhere in the UK, while the IP facilitates our move to an integrated file based newsgathering workflow using the latest solid state memory ENG cameras.”
