Satellite service provider Intelsat has added two satellites to its fleet that will transmit the World Cup globally.
Regional VP of Intelsat in Africa Flavien Bachabi had previously said Intelsat will use up to seven satellites for World Cup transmission, but now the company says nine satellites, with a collective capacity of more than 900MHz, will be used to meet the high demand for broadcast services of the matches.
“The satellites include: Intelsat 907, located at 332.5^0E; Intelsat 11, located at 317^0E; Intelsat 12, located at 45oE; Intelsat 10 located at 68.5^0E; Intelsat 702 located at 66^0E; Intelsat 904 located at 60^0E; and the Intelsat 10-02 located at 1^0W. In addition, Intelsat relocated its Intelsat 709 and Intelsat 705 satellites to 55^0E and 330.5oE, respectively, specifically to meet the capacity demand for broadcast services of the event,” says the service provider.
It adds that it will use its terrestrial platform, IntelsatONE, to complement the distribution capabilities of its fleet.
“Intelsat relocated certain services onto other satellites to make room for the specific requirements of the World Cup,” says Bachabi.
World Cup transmission
Intelsat will provide World Cup content throughout the duration of the tournament and will provide play-out and live-shot transmission services from the event locations at Soccer City and Coca-Cola Park, in Johannesburg; Green Point Stadium, in Cape Town; and Moses Mabhida Stadium, in Durban, according to Intelsat.
Other than the satellite capacity, Intelsat will also provide services for rights-holding and non-rights-holding broadcasters. Intelsat Managed Services include platforms for encoding, multiplexing and compression in HD and SD, teleport services and fibre circuits from SA to the IntelsatONE network inter-connect in London, explains the company.
Bachabi says Intelsat is working with state-owned signal distributor Sentech to provide all the transmission capability for the event.
“We will have some broadcasters using satellite and some using cable. Cable is good for point-to-point applications and satellite is good for both point-to-point and point-to-multipoint applications.”
He adds that Intelsat is working with some broadcasters that want to use fibre, since the company does have telepoints in some countries, like Germany.
“We believe that satellite will remain a key component of the value chain,” says Bachabi.
Additional uses
“Outside the World Cup, the satellites have several functions. They help mobile operators extend their reach in their various countries, help with broadband, serve corporate functions and are used for telephony,” says Bachabi.
He explains that Intelsat has 55 satellites and 24 of these serve Africa so the World Cup's usage of these satellites won't affect their current functions.
“That's the advantage of having a large fleet. We can play around with the capacity to meet customers' needs. While the satellites are being used for the World Cup, we can move the customers' functions around.”
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