The SABC is South Africa’s public broadcaster and operates in 11 official languages over 18 radio stations and five television channels. and the organization has selected ND SatCom's SKYWAN 7000 modem technology for their SATCOM-On-The-Move (SOTM) technology for their Satellite News Gathering (SNG) vehicles.
These vehicles will have the ability to transmit video (SD or HD), voice and data, all while on the move. The vehicle no longer needs to park, unfold the dish on the roof, point, go through the “align-the-dish” procedure with the satellite provider and then commence with transmission. “Point the Camera” and transmit is all that is required, no matter if the vehicle is driving down a busy “highway” or is standing still at an event. “Simultaneously,” while this video is transmitted, the user has telephone contact with MCR via SABC own PABX telephone network, making the vehicle independent of a possibly overloading the GSM network—SNG users also have access to the Internet or Intranet and email at the same time.
To monitor the vehicles and limit wasteful use of satellite capacity, the entire fleet will be controlled from the headquarters in Auckland Park, Johannesburg, where the Management System—Media Fleet Manager (MFM), an ND SatCom developed system—informs the manager where each vehicle is located, if that vehicle is travelling or at standstill, with transmissions scheduled up to the “second” automatically, minimizing the time and effort required for operation. The key for the smart technology in the vehicles is the ND SatCom SKYWAN modem that's integrated with the SOTM antenna which allows the MFM to dynamically grant transmission capacity to camera teams when and where needed.
The ND SatCom SKYWAN 7000 modem technology ensures uninterruptible transmissions. The SNG vehicles will be built in South Africa by NIC—New Installation Company (Pty) Ltd.—to assist in the future support of the vehicles.