Digital SNG: Technology Gains Make Journalists Even More Mobile

How Big A Niche?

How big can this market be for the manufacturers? In a 2008 first quarter investor presentation, Norsat International Inc. identified a $150 million market growth opportunity for portable terminals and set a goal to grow its market share, which stands between 4 percent and 8 percent, with expanded SNG and other portable terminal sales. Norsat targets what the company calls the ultra-portable SNG segment — flyaways that transport in small helicopters, planes and cars — with its GlobeTrekker SNG family of products. Fitting in three 50-pound, 60-inch wheelable cases meeting new airline checked baggage rules, the product employs automated pointing, encoder/receiver configuration, auto power from an AC source or 12-volt DC car battery and easy operation features for DVB-S MPEG-2 rates to 4 Mbps.

Graham Avis, vice president and general manager, mobile satellite terminals, Hughes Network Systems, says of the BGAN terminal market. "That’s hard to predict for the DNG segment alone given the potential for spontaneous reporters. We might be pleasantly surprised and get orders for tens of thousands of units annually. The growth story is really in the service business generated by using this equipment," he says. From a service provider perspective, Avis sees opportunities "With the cost of entry into satellite news gathering declining, additional users are developing from within the affiliates of the major networks and from the independent networks as well on a global basis."

But will the projected growth of this market be curtailed by the state of the overall economy in which news organizations seem to be looking for ways to cut back? Avis does not seem worried. "The new [digital newsgathering] systems can save new organizations money by reducing the capital and operational expenditures of field work. Combined with the ability to scoop the competition, this technology will continue to be very compelling," he says. Arnie Christianson, operations manager for CNN’s satellites and transmissions, has a similar view of the impact of broad economic trends. "The use of IP-based devices is much cheaper than maintaining fiber or satellite networks. As belts tighten, news companies will look for less expensive techniques to do their job. This highly mobile gear fits the bill," he says.

Looking Ahead

While the advancements in the past few years have been impressive, users already are looking for the next-generation systems that will be even more capable and more cost-effective. What technology is next in the pipeline? "Today’s portable satellite gear delivers video streams in the 256 to 384kbps range, with demand for.5 to 1Mbps clearly evident," says Avis. "Some customers are already bonding terminals together to achieve that, so it’s clearly within today’s technology capabilities."

According to Christianson, "Handheld devices can already do video, GPS, and photography and the handheld device will become the ‘multi-tool’ of the next 10 years. I think we will see desktop computers being replaced by laptop computers or laptop tablets, and we will see field use of laptops disappear and be replaced by handheld devices," he says.

StreamBox Chairman and CEO Bob Hildeman says broadcast news customers will want a flexible technology that enables them to stream over a variety of low-data rate networks such as Wi-Max, Evolution-Data Optimized and Wi-Fi as well as satellite networks like BGAN and VSAT and also be able to switch seamlessly to the least-cost network option available. With that in mind, key technical challenges that IP video solutions must better address include "reliability and error free video delivery without hiccups and jitter. Especially over problematic network connections, advanced networking features such as forward error correction help manage, control and mitigate packet loss," he says.

With regard to BGAN-type services, "the next hurdle will be to deliver HD quality video from a portable unit in real-time, which requires about a 10- to 20-fold increase in bandwidth performance over today’s products," says Avis. "This level of performance will take a significant business investment and require considerable frequency spectrum to support — factors that put portable HD [digital newsgathering] capability at least several years into the future."

But for now "one of the major points about this compact, mobile technology is in most cases these advancements have meant a huge reduction in newsgathering cost," says Barnett. "Conventional uplink providers have lowered costs in most cases or offered more Internet-via-satellite connectivity on their systems. This isn’t to say that conventional satellite systems are in danger. There will always be a need for dedicated, high-quality live transmission capabilities, but for breaking news, costs and portability have definitely changed the game."

That is good news for newsgathering, where the ability to move and respond fast and acquire news almost instantly from anywhere it happens is the name of the game.