Quantis promotes its HD contribution service through Ka band

The new satellite Ka Band offers important advantages over the Ku Band, such as lower prices per Mbps and savings on equipment thanks to the small self-pointing antennas.

The Spanish satellite operator Quantitative Global has reinforced its broadcast offering with new solutions for contribution and distribution of high definition content, as an alternative to terrestrial transmission systems for DSNG.

Quantis uses the new satellite Ka Band that offers important advantages over the Ku Band, such as lower prices per Mbps, providing savings in service of up to 50%, and also in equipment, thanks to the small-sized, low-power fully automated self-pointing antennas, which can be installed in any type of vehicle and handled comfortably, allowing field teams to focus on the news, the event or the competition.

As a Virtual Satellite Operator Quantis offers services with dedicated flow, the ability to prioritize traffic (QoS) and delivery of content directly to the Client's control center through the neutral interconnection points where it has a presence, without the need to use the Internet. The new offer allows television stations to offer HD information coverage of all types of events using a very simple infrastructure that does not require ad hoc mobile units with a bandwidth of up to 10Mb in upload and 20Mb in download, which can be contracted mega by mega for quarters of an hour.

Joan Mir, Media & Broadcast Sales Director de Quantis, asegura que “frente a los sistemas terrestres, las nuevas soluciones aportan a las Televisiones inmediatez, flexibilidad, capacidad de repuesta y el mejor coste operativo directo, asegurando la máxima calidad de servicio, gracias a los caudales dedicados y a la entrega del tráfico directamente en casa del Cliente. Al gestionar la contribución por redes privadas virtuales incorporando el segmento espacial, permitimos largas conexiones para cubrir eventos en directo por streaming de alta definición con una alta calidad resultante”.

The emergence of the Ka band

Currently, most TVs are working in High Definition over IP, which allows the new technology to fit into Ka Band, providing its advantages in economy and flexibility, both for the multicast distribution of television and radio over IP at low cost and high quality, and for the contribution of content.

DSNG solutions are the great beneficiaries of new satellite technology compared to terrestrial solutions that are unstable and unpredictable, some, and others obsolete, such as COFDM that is still used by some Local TVs.

The main advantage of DSNG (Digital Satellite News Gathering) in Ka Band is that the mobile units are very light (the self-pointing antennas can be used from passenger vehicles installed on a roof rack) and can even be operated by a single person (thanks to the fact that bandwidth management is automated incorporating very advanced algorithms for adaptation to weather conditions). In addition, the service provided is very stable as it relies on dedicated flows, the required bandwidth is contracted 8, 9 or 10 Mbps upload are the usual ones for HD, and QoS is even added, since Quantis has POP (Points of Presence) with the main satellite operators allowing traffic to be collected and delivered directly without going through the Internet.

Mir maintains that “the higher the Bandwidth, as required by HDTV and UHDTV, and the longer the duration of an event, the greater the supremacy of the Satellite over wireless terrestrial networks without the possibility of offering dedicated Bandwidth or QoS, which can compromise the continuity of the Streaming required by the audiovisual content.

To respond to the new market dynamics, Quantis has increased the satellite upload capacity, has reinforced the areas of Sales, NOC, Technical Support and After-Sales Service, and has been accredited as Official Distributor and Technical Service in Iberia of some manufacturers of self-pointing systems for DSNG such as DAWSON, characterized by their reliability and ease of use.

Morocco in the spotlight

Quantis has bought Hispasat the entire capacity of its 30W-6 satellite in Ka band over Morocco. This country, where today the deployment of terrestrial and cellular networks is less than in other countries.

El contrato sobre la banda Ka del satélite Hispasat 30W-6 sobre Marruecos se extenderá desde el lanzamiento del satélite en junio de 2016 hasta el final de su vida útil, estimada en 15 años. La operación se ha estimado en unos 125 millones de euros.

El nuevo Hispasat 30W-6 ofrecerá importantes cargas de banda Ka sobre Marruecos, España y Portugal y otros países europeos.