GlobeCast Adapts To Changing Video Trends

GlobeCast America, the U.S. unit of Paris-based GlobeCast, is part of France Telecom but it is focused on video rather than telecommunications. In America, the company owns and operates digital teleports in Los Angeles, New York and Miami, as well as an ATM fiber network connecting domestic facilities with company teleports in Europe, Asia and Australia. It has platforms on Intelsat Americas 5, PanAmSat Galaxy 13, PanAmSat Galaxy 10R, AMC4, and NSS 806, among others.

A key to its growth has been the deployment of encryption systems on direct-to-home (DTH) platforms that have increased channel capacity by 34 percent, according to Mary Frost, senior vice president of sales and marketing at GlobeCast America. Further advances in encryption will come from software enhancements that will be rolled out to supplement the hardware improvements that already have aided in safeguarding transmissions, she added.

One of the latest developments for GlobeCast America is a partnership it formed last month with Wilton, Conn.-based PanAmSat [SPOT] and Scientific Atlanta [SA] to offer a turnkey, high-definition television (HDTV) satellite distribution platform on the Galaxy 13 North American spacecraft. The deal would allow programmers to beam HDTV signals via the Galaxy 13 satellite to cable and broadcast affiliates for such live or pre-scheduled events as sports, concerts and pay-per-views as well as for HDTV channels. GlobeCast’s role is to manage end-to-end HDTV transmissions and to connect customers from its digital media teleport in Los Angeles, using Scientific- Atlanta’s PowerVu HD encoding and digital content distribution system.

“We are becoming a worldwide content-management company, using new technology to meet the evolving needs of our customers,” Frost told Satellite News. “Customers can use the same transport network across any capacity or bandwidth.”

GlobeCast engineers are having a “grand time” finding solutions for complex, new challenges faced by the company’s customers, Frost said, and marketplace changes include the rollout of MPEG 4 and Window Media 9.

Future Focus

The company is moving quickly into non-linear content-management services for global store-and-forward applications. It will continue to expand traditional broadcast transmission technologies in IP, MPEG 4, WindowsMedia 9 and HDTV.

A growth opportunity is emerging in ethnic video channels. On the international front, the company recently signed a long-term agreement with Prime TV to deliver a 24-hour Pakistani family channel, PTV Prime, to subscribers in England, Ireland and elsewhere in Europe. GlobeCast would offer end-to-end distribution for the subscription channel that would be available on the company’s DTH platforms via Eurobird and Hot Bird. In England and Ireland, PTV Prime will reach 7.5 million people on Sky Digital.

Another segment of rising demand is in government services. “The government using everyone’s capacity everywhere,” Frost told us.

(Mary Frost, GlobeCast, 212/383-2745)

GlobeCast America At A Glance

• Founded: 1997
• Address: 7291 NW 74th Street, Miami, FL 33166
• Web site: http://www.globecast.com
• Contact: Daniel Freyer, director of marketing, 310/845-3849
• Strategic Focus: GlobeCast provides global content delivery via satellite and fiber for professional broadcasting, enterprise, retail, government and IP-based media. The company is focused on advanced transmission technology and network applications to support multiple business sectors.

Source: GlobeCast