The Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SRG SSR) has selected Astrium Services’ ND SatCom product range to upgrade its fleet of Satellite News Gathering vehicles (SNGs). The five SNGs will start running in the summer of 2012. IP connectivity to the broadcasting studio will be established using Astrium’s SKYWAN technology. SKYWAN is a MF-TDMA VSAT solution for contribution and distribution of video or data content, live or on demand. The solution offers various choices for transmitting video or streaming data in combination with telephony and production intercommunication. The network may consist of multiple sites supporting several transmissions in parallel. Transmissions can be effected ad hoc using fully automatic bandwidth allocation or can be scheduled in advance. All SNGs will be equipped with the SKYWAN IDU 1070 Satellite Router (pictured) as well as the SKYRAY Compact 1500 antenna system. The SKYRAY antenna pointing is Eutelsat characterised, and is therefore capable of pointing automatically without line-up procedure. The SKYWAN router enables the creation of mobile SNG star and meshed topology networks. The system also comprises master and backup SKYWAN indoor stations in Zurich and Lugano, providing geographical redundancy and thereby reducing the risk of signal failure. www.astrium.eads.net
