BT AND IRIS ZOOM IN ON OLYMPICS

The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) is to use an end-to-end digital transmission solution provided by BT Broadcast Services to deliver live coverage from the Sydney Olympics to television viewers across Europe. The EBU is taking three leases for space capacity on Intelsat’s IOR satellite from Broadcast Services as part of an end-to-end digital transmission solution covering 28 different sports playing in 37 venues.

The multi-destination service consists of a single hop from Telstra’s Perth earth station into most major European cities including Frankfurt, London, Moscow, Paris, as well as Scandinavia. The leases are on the Intelsat 804 at 62 degrees East and the Intelsat 704 at 66 degrees East satellites, all at a bandwidth of 72M/htz which will allow the EBU to carry multiple channels. The opening ceremony will be held in Sydney on September 15 and the games will generate 3,200 hours of live television coverage. Broadcast Services has an alliance agreement with Telstra to deliver integrated broadcast solutions which enhances Telstra’s domestic and global broadcast facilities for the Sydney Olympics.

• Another company benefiting from EBU is Iris Gateway Satellite Services, the joint venture between Merlin Communications and the Cyprus Telecommunications Authority (CYTA), which has won a contract from EBU to provide satellite connectivity during the Sydney Olympics.