Avanti, Sematron, BIPS and Reuters Successfully Broadcast Live HD Coverage of Pistorius Trial

The State vs. Oscar Pistorius. Palace of Justice, Church Square, pretoria. Photo: Wikipedia

[Via Satellite 10-03-2014] A partnership between Avanti Communications, hardware supplier Sematron and Broadcast IP Systems (BIPS), allowed global news agency, Thomson Reuters to successfully broadcast live HD coverage of the entire Oscar Pistorius court trial. Since March, Reuters and its commercial partners have beamed coverage of the high-profile trial in HD to millions of viewers across the world.

Avanti’s Ka-band satellite technology provided the high throughput and coverage for delivering high-quality contribution for Reuters’ IP broadcast. The operator’s Ka-band technology is bi-directional and combines with 3G to give a multi-path solution while broadcasting on-the-move.

“Provision of seamless broadcast coverage for the duration of the Pistorius trial further demonstrates the flexibility of IP over Ka-band,” said Matthew O’Connor, chief operating officer of Avanti Communications.

Sematron’s TP100 terminal and modem, powered directly from camera batteries, removed the need for a heavyweight generator. Additionally, the modem has built-in Wi-Fi for even more flexibility for Satellite News Gathering (SNG) customers. It operates on Avanti’s satellite fleet to cover high-profile live events in Europe, the Middle East, Russia and Africa.