Satnews Daily
February 24th, 2011

Of Interest To SatBroadcasters™


  • [SatArabsat has launched a new capability for their viewers. The Company's new Online Electronic Program Guide (EPG) allows customers to view and search channel programs up to seven days in advance and offers comprehensive programming guide information available that reveals what’s on and when. This unique service will allow Arabsat viewers to communicate with their favorite channels and programs, letting them access content, schedule, and detailed information on the best programs from the most important Arab and foreign channels. Eng. Khalid Balkheyour, the President & CEO of Arabsat, said, “Arabsat is the only Operator in the region to provide The Online-EPG service free of charge in addition to Arabsat Promotional Channel (APC) to serve its clients and viewers around the world”

  • Hawai'is Ohana Broadcast has taken delivery of six studios worth of new Axia Audio consoles and networking gear, which will be installed in their five-station Honolulu station cluster. Ohana's KQMQ-FM, KUMU-FM, KPOI-FM, KDDB-FM and KKHA will all get new Axia Element 2.0 mixing consoles backed with PowerStation integrated console engines. Highlights of the order include six Element consoles, six PowerStation console engines, and 13 copies of the Axia IP-Audio Driver for Windows, plus several Axia audio nodes, which interface traditional analog and AES signals to the networked AoIP environment. The sale marks Axia's first installation in the Hawai'ian islands.

  • Front Porch Digital will be demo'ing a number of their products at the upcoming ABU Digital Broadcast Symposium 2011 (Kuala Lumpur, March 8th thru 11th).

    • First is the Company's SAMMA® SoloSemi-Automated Videotape-to-Digital Migration System, which makes it easy to convert even the largest videotape collections to digital files. With SAMMA Solo users can simply connect a videotape machine, set the preferred parameters in the migration software, insert a tape, and press "Go." SAMMA Solo watches over the entire operation automatically, monitoring the process and implementing specified quality standards frame by frame. It converts videotape in real time to as many as four simultaneous digital files including MXF-wrapped JPEG2000, MPEG-2, QuickTime®, H.264 (MPEG-4), Flash®, MPEG-1, AVC, Windows Media®, and Real® Media.

    • DIVArchive CSM System
      Also being highlighted is their DIVArchive® V6.3 content storage management (CSM) system. The enhanced system is capable of full integration with popular media industry editing and production tools including Avid® Interplay®, Apple® Final Cut Pro®, and Apple Final Cut® Server. The latest release of DIVArchive offers integration with Avid Interplay, making it easier for users of Avid's industry-leading media asset management (MAM) system to access content stored under DIVArchive management. New DIVArchive features include multiresolution object support, sub-clip partial restore, best-effort restore, advanced Avid asset search within the DIVArchive user interface, and full Unicode asset support.
    • The third item is the Front Porch Digital DIVAdirector® media asset management (MAM) system that enables operators, using their web browsers, to search, locate, and retrieve stored media assets directly from their desktops. Front Porch Digital will introduce V4.1, which adds a revamped and simplified browser interface; support for identification and retrieval of clips with noncontiguous timecode (important for the archivist and preservation community); partial-restore format auto detection to further simplify user interaction with the complex format/wrapper challenges handled by DIVArchive®; and management of remote proxies without the need for their replication specifically for DIVAdirector.