Europe And SNG: What Broadcasters Need And What SNG Providers Are Offering

Like their North American counterparts, European satellite news gathering (SNG) crews are furiously busy these days. Whether it is covering breaking news such as the recent Iraq War, political events across the evolving European Union (EU), or just sports and entertainment anywhere, these news deliverers are working around the clock, in some instances, to send pictures and sound to their networks in real time.

This begs a critical question: what do European broadcasters need from SNG equipment and service providers in 2003? And what are equipment makers and service providers doing to satisfy these needs? In this special report–featuring an Executive Roundtable and Euro SNG Trends Wrap–Via Satellite will answer these questions.

What Euro Broadcasters Want From SNG: A Via Satellite Executive Roundtable

We open with a roundtable discussion between four executives from several of Europe’s major broadcast networks, all of whom are directly involved with acquiring and managing SNG services for their networks whether for news, sports or entertainment.

Adrian Corcoran is operations director for BBC Technology’s Managed Services division. Jackie Faulkner is head of operations for BSkyB/Sky News in the United Kingdom. John Turner is CNBC Europe’s director of operations. Kurt Galens is SNG project manager for the Belgian TV network VTM.

Via Satellite: What SNG trucks do you own and operate directly, or lease from third-party sources?

Corcoran: The BBC’s SNG news vehicles are typically ‘single thread systems.’ This means they have no redundancy in their RF systems. Their vehicles mostly have a fiber system to connect to a distant live position and terrestrial microwave equipment to provide an alternative path to base.

All of the BBC’s current vehicle fleet is digital. Some early vehicles are 8 Mbs ETSI (European Telecommunications Standards Institute) but the majority were either built as or converted to MPEG. Their typical SNG usage is based on 9 MHz channels with MPEG transport stream video and an independent 64 kbs carrier for talkback. Some of the news vehicles are capable of transmitting two independent vision carriers at once. This allows multiple simultaneous feeds from major news events.

Faulkner: Sky News uses Swe-Dish dishes mounted on Mercedes Sprinter vans. They are all 1.5-meter dishes that are both C- and Ku-band capable. Satellite Information Services (SIS) is our main supplier. We have a five year contract for them to supply us with eight SNG trucks based around England and Brussels all manned by SIS Staff. As well, all trucks other than Brussels have an engineer and a cameraman onboard.

We also have one multi-camera truck based in London and manned by Sky staff. This truck is 4/5 camera capable and has racked cameras. In addition, we have one flyaway that can be mounted on a vehicle for flexibility and we are awaiting delivery of another flyaway and a fast response vehicle mounted flyaway–this is all with the SIS contract.

Turner: CNBC uses SNG to enhance its coverage of business news. We have nine fixed cameras in various locations across Europe, but having an SNG unit based in Frankfurt allows us to cover business events as and when they occur. London is well served with cameras in most banks but Europe needs this extra coverage.

Galens: We run our SNG vans on a daily basis. Our SNG technicians are on standby to file material for our news bulletins, of which we have three each day. The vans are one man-operated. The technician drives the van to the site, makes the edit, does the live cabling and handles the transmissions of edited items and lives.

Our SNG vans are also capable of doing a double uplink. We can either send two independent signals for two lives or doing live/tape. For live sporting events, we use the double equipment in redundancy mode.

Via Satellite: What kind of SNG deployment is most important to your European network?

Corcoran: By the sheer number of deployments, the vast majority of the work that we support for BBC’s SNG work is news, although the other categories such as sports and entertainment are also covered. In addition, BBC Outside Broadcasts (OB) provides commercial uplink services for broadcasters and others, with BBC Technology providing downlink facilities at its two teleports in West and North London.

Faulkner: The most important aspect of SNG for Sky News has been the acquisition of digital satellite links. Having these in place enabled us to broadcast live on the streets of Baghdad as it fell. Our SIS-built SNG system included dual antennae to give a diversity link to the OB, and to send up quality 4:2:2 footage.

Turner: Our main interest is business news, but this also includes the business aspects of motor shows and air shows. The policies coming out of the EU in Brussels that relate to business are also of great interest to CNBC.

Galens: It is a mix of all of the above, with a majority of news/sports events.

Via Satellite: What new SNG equipment and services have had the most impact on your work in recent months?

Faulkner: Videophones are perfect to cover areas that we cannot access with a flyaway. The quality is improving and the more the cameraman works with them, the more they seem to achieve better quality. For Iraq, videophones were perfect.

Turner: We have, this year, moved to the one-person crew arrangement that is provided by BT with their SatNet product. BT manages, maintains and provides everything except the destination of the vehicle.

The SatNet unit is an excellent product, quick, easily managed and allows us to make and change bookings online without dozens of phone calls.

Galens: We recently bought four SNG vans based on a Swe-Dish transmission system. This has substantially increased our ability to do SNG.

Via Satellite: What do you expect SNG equipment makers and service suppliers to do for you?

Turner: We look to the SNG provider to give us a complete package. We need a vehicle that can move from one location to another quickly, has short rig times and includes a camera person.

Galens: Flexibility is the key issue, from both equipment makers and service suppliers.

Faulkner: We would like to see smaller/faster response vehicles that we feel are up to the job. We can live without a redundant transmission system, but what is included has to be robust and reliable.

European SNG Trends Wrap

Now knowing what some European broadcasters want from SNG manufacturers and service suppliers, how are those solutions being fulfilled from the equipment side of the equation? A closer examination of the overall SNG trends and developments from the manufacturers and service providers is showing a move toward smaller, more portable equipment; easier use and installation; and machinery that is providing more content delivery venues through less bandwidth.

Size Matters

Wherever you look in the Euro SNG market, size matters. Whatever their needs, broadcasters want the smallest, most portable SNG rigs available, and suppliers such as Globecast are doing their best to deliver. The broadcast services division of France Telecom, Globecast has a fleet of 45 SNG vehicles deployed worldwide, with 35 of them in Europe. "Our vans are regionally headquartered in Paris, Rome, Madrid and the United Kingdom," says Rich Wilde, Globecast’s technical advisor.

Beyond SNG vans, Globecast is also finding a growing business leasing SNG flyaways. "Our news customers usually want the smallest possible SNG packages, and they want them to be fully redundant," Wilde says. "To meet their needs, we’ve got redundant flyaways that weigh in at 600-700 kg. It’s packed in traveling cases. You can just throw it in a van and go. Meanwhile, our lightest flyaway was one of the first to enter Kabul. It came in strapped on the back of a Northern Alliance tank and was live within hours of the Taliban’s departure."

As for the future? "We expect to see portables get smaller and smaller, and operational bandwidth getting narrower, with more broadcasters moving in MPEG-4 for real time video streaming," says Wilde.

Swe-Dish Satellite Systems is one of several SNG equipment manufacturers that is riding the small equipment wave. For instance, the company’s IPT Suitcase is literally a satellite earth station in a box. Measuring just 66 x 47 x 29 centimeters and weighing less than 40 kg, the IPT Suitcase carries a foldable 0.90-meter satellite antenna and transceiver for two-way streaming IP video at speeds up to 2 Mbs. Better yet, the IPT Suitcase comes with a built-in GPS locator: just plug the IPT Suitcase into a laptop, and the earth station’s software is designed to automatically detect and lock onto the appropriate satellite in less than five minutes. Not surprising, the IPT Suitcase "saw extensive usage in the Iraqi conflict," says Hampus Delin, Swe-Dish’s director of marketing.

New at Swe-Dish are two more 0.90-meter flyaways: the FA90K IP and the DA90K driveaway. "The FA90K IP is our new 0.90-meter flyaway system that is fully prepared to handle IP traffic," Delin says. "It comes in three cases that, in total, weigh in at 130 kg. Yet the FA90K IP can be set up by just one person in under ten minutes, and deliver multiple transmissions and two-way communications via IP simultaneously."

Meanwhile, the DA90K is a "0.90 cm drive-away system, and one of our most recent additions," says Delin. It features a fold-down antenna housed in an easily-mounted roof pod for SUVs and vans. "Together with the IPT Suitcase and the FA90K IP, the DA90K fits our vision of smaller, lighter and easier-to-use SNG equipment," he says.

The U.K.-based Sat-Comm is also answering Euro broadcasters’ call for ever-smaller flyaways. "Today, everything is about size and compactness," notes Tim Williams, Sat-Comm’s managing director. "This is why our Chameleon product uses only two cases for a complete flyaway, or three if you require full redundancy." The Chameleon can be used with antennas ranging in size from 0.9-meter to 2.4-meter in Ku-, C- or DBS bands and comes complete with audio, video and spectrum monitoring. It also provides 4:2:2 and 4:2:0 video encoding options as standard features. "Within all of the Chameleon configurations, we use Tandberg encoders with integral modulator, L-band upconverter and IRD housed in just two rack units," Williams adds.

Speaking of Tandberg Television, the company grabbed the spotlight at NAB 2003 with its new compact Digital SNG (DSNG) system. Developed with Raytheon and Vocality International, Tandberg Television’s E5740 Voyager MPEG-2 DSNG encoder is the heart of the product. Combined with a Raytheon 1.2-meter fold-up antenna and MVSAT (Mobile VSAT) terminal plus a Vocality V100 versatile multiplexer, this new DSNG product is designed to transmit two-way video, audio and data at speeds beyond 4 Mbs from any remote location. Yet the whole system only requires a few carrying cases to transport, which is why NBC News has deployed several of these DSNG flyaways in the Middle East. In fact, this new DSNG can be assembled in less than 30 minutes and can be carried by just one person, according to Tandberg.

"Recent advances in compression and modulation converged at exactly the right time to make this product a reality," says Tandberg Television CEO Eric Cooney. "We see a bright future for this system, with applications ranging from worldwide broadcasters to government organizations."

Gigasat is another SNG manufacturer who has been pushing the space envelope. Specifically, this U.K.-based company has developed the "MVT" quick-connect SNG flyaway. The MVT only has two pieces: an outdoor RF head and an indoor control unit, which interconnect using a single coax cable. The weatherproofed MVT RF head contains a 180 watt integrated transmitter that docks directly to Gigasat’s FA series of flyaway antennas (0.9-meter to 3.7-meter). When combined with a FA 1.2-meter antenna, the MVT system packs into three carrying cases.

Still, even with his company’s own space-saving efforts taken into account, Gigasat sales director Chris Lay is skeptical about Euro broadcasters’ obsession with size. "Popular opinion says SNG equipment must continue to get smaller and I would not necessarily disagree," Lay explains. "Advances in video compression techniques certainly promise that possibility, but there is an enormous amount of hype about IP over satellite and MPEG-4 compression. Scratch the surface and it quickly becomes apparent it’s all rather experimental.

"Real world broadcasters and news gatherers are looking on with interest and waiting for proper standards to be set," he adds. "In the meantime, [we find that] they are specifying MPEG-2 for their SNG requirements. MPEG-2 itself has advanced somewhat over the past few years particularly with regard to low delay (<100 ms) and low bit rate operation (<1 Mbs). [These are] both features which can be specified on Gigasat MPEG-2 encoders, making them more attractive for newsgathering with compact flyaway terminals."

Ease Of Use

Beyond size, Euro broadcasters want SNG equipment that sets up fast and works without a lot of fuss. Fortunately, "Equipment is becoming a lot friendlier to use," says Globecast’s Wilde. "Thanks to feature such as auto-positioning, you no longer need to send out an RF engineer on many jobs; an operator will do. This frees up your RF engineers to handle more complex assignments."

Another "ease of use" SNG product is BT SatNet. Offered by BT Broadcast Solutions, BT SatNet handles everything involved with SNG, save the actual newsgathering.

"BT SatNet is a fully automated SNG solution," says Paul Claydon, BT’s head of new product development. "In the field, BT SatNet is a software/mobile satellite terminal solution that autopoints your antenna directly at the right satellite. BT SatNet also automates satellite capacity and scheduling. What this means is that your bandwidth and upload time is pre-programmed into the SNG unit. At the right time, the SNG antenna will lock onto the satellite, and send up the video automatically."

"The BT SatNet mobile terminal is small," he adds. "The 1-meter dish pod fits on a roofmount, while the electronics goes into the trunk."

Cost-Effective Bandwidth Use

After size and ease of use, Euro broadcasters want SNG solutions that are cost-effective. Hence the thinking behind Scopus Network Technologies’ new DVB-S2 compliant IRD. Currently in development with Akelia Wireless Ltd., this new Scopus IRD will give Euro broadcasters the ability to better use their satellite bandwidth.

"The new DVB-S2 IRD will set a new standard for cost-effective channel encoding and FEC," says Ovadia Cohen, Scopus’ vice president of marketing. "Using MPEG-4 compression, we are now able to provide a reasonably decent picture for SNG using 750 kb to 1 Mb of bandwidth. This is quite incredible when you recall that only a few years ago, we needed 8 Mb to provide a good video feed."

In the meantime, Scopus digital encoders can be found at SNG providers such as Globecast. Recently, Globecast began deploying Scopus Codico E1100 encoders in its SNG vehicles. Besides handling encoding at 50 Mbs, the E1100 also supports the new EBU DSNG scrambling standard. This ensures secure transmission for Globecast SNG crews, wherever they are.

Euro SNG Vibrant And Technically Demanding

Clearly, European broadcasters have big expectations when it comes to SNG equipment and services. In addition, it is also obvious SNG manufacturers and service providers are doing their utmost to meet these expectations. The bottom line: European SNG is a vibrant, but technically demanding, sector of the global satellite industry. In other words, it is no place for the slow, the backward or the faint-hearted.

James Careless is senior contributing editor to Via Satellite.