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.
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