Eutelsat Unveils New Tooway Hardware, Ultra HD Push

Eutelsat has unveiled new hardware to support its Tooway service, including a 77-centimeter dish and a Ku-band LNB, the European FSS operator announced.
   Eutelsat said that when its new Tooway products are trained towards one of up to six of its TV satellites over Europe, consumers in white and grey areas would have access to the same triple play experience as those with access to high-speed terrestrial networks.
   “The consumer satellite market is poised to undergo a transformation into a fully interactive environment as users get the message that they can benefit from TV, broadband and telephony via a single dish," Eutelsat said in a company statement. "The satellite triple-play market is gaining traction in Europe, with Greek pay-TV service provider Forthnet Group and Serbia Broadband being the first operators to bundle Tooway with their pay-TV portfolio to offer triple-play with a single subscription. Eutelsat will show just how easy this is on its stand throughout the IBC show.”
   Eutelsat also pushed Ultra HD at the IBC 2012 show much in the same way it drove its support of NHK at IBC 2008 for the first satellite transmission of the Super Hi-Vision image resolution. “The market for Ultra HD transmission has gained speed since 2008 and our satellites have demonstrated an ability on multiple occasions to transport a number of channels per transponder in the Quad HDTV/4k TV format, which is expected to be the most likely common Ultra HD format,” Eutelsat said. “Two Eutelsat satellites are also used on a regular basis to transmit 2k and 4k feature films to over 700 cinema screens across Europe.”