Intelsat will be the official capacity sponsor for this weekend’s environment-oriented Live Earth concert series. The musical events to be fed from various parts of the world will be Intelsat’s most ambitious undertaking involving HD content, it said, since the month-long 2006 World Cup soccer matches in Germany.
The satellite company is dubbing the July 7-8 Live Earth festivities “the largest high definition music event in history.” The all-day, all-night activities hope to reach as many as two billion viewers worldwide in an effort to draw attention to global warming (HD Notebook, June 21, 2007).
Intelsat will use its satellite and terrestrial facilities to distribute the 24 consecutive hours of concerts from seven sites (New York; London; Tokyo; Johannesburg, South Africa; Shanghai, China; Sydney, Australia; and Hamburg, Germany) in both SD and HD formats (the concert scheduled for Rio De Janeiro Brazil has reportedly been cancelled over security concerns). Overall, the concerts will feature as many as 150 musical acts, according to the Pembroke, Bermuda-based satellite firm.
The production and feed process will tap various satellites, fiber and teleport facilities in Intelsat’s global network, with post-production facilities based in London. Intelsat will employ its GlobalConnex network to service three of its teleports, which will distribute the HD/SD content to major “video neighborhoods” for television and Internet allocations.
