NBC News will use digital satellite technology from Tandberg TV and Raytheon Co. to broadcast real-time remote TV news coverage in the Middle East to network and cable. Developed with the help of NBC, the system is a 2U digital flyaway with two-way audio, video, data and communications from a remote transmission site to NBC Studios via its MSNBC Secaucus teleport.
Using a Tandberg TV E5740 DSNG encoder, miniaturized antenna technology from
Raytheon and V100 multiplexer from Vocality International, the mobile transmission
system provides the remote real-time broadcast with integration to uplink terminals for
dish alignment. Raytheon's MVSAT is a broadband communications unit, using a fold-up 1.2-meter antenna and a telecom center, that handles voice, video and data simultaneously at speeds up to 3.8 Mbps.
Similar DSNG application using low symbol rate modulation have used satellite phones, which eliminates real-time transfer of data at low bit rates and compromises image quality. The satellite system "...enables high-quality pictures to be transmitted from wherever the news is breaking, however isolated and arduous the conditions," said Stacy Brady, VP-NBC News, Field Operations. Brady noted that NBC's system integrates all the major fieldgathering requirements, instead of having to use a 2U SNG encoder with a separate monitor, telephone connection and
uplink.
