Televisa Goes HD with Intelsat

In Latin America, the name Televisa is synonymous with broadcasting excellence and technical innovation. By meeting the entertainment and information needs of the region’s communities since 1950, Televisa has become Latin America’s largest broadcaster and the world’s largest producer of Spanish-language programming.

For more than two decades, Intelsat has worked closely with Televisa to meet its complex distribution requirements.  Intelsat’s satellites serve as Televisa’s primary distribution platforms within Mexico via the Galaxy 16 satellite; throughout the Americas on the Intelsat 11 satellite; and into cable systems in more than 15 European countries via Intelsat 3R and Intelsat 905 satellites.

In the race to satiate viewer demand for HD content, Intelsat is helping Televisa lead in HD program distribution. Televisa is already providing HD counterparts to its over-the-air channels in Mexico. Intelsat's satellite video neighborhoods provide efficient, high-value distribution, and offer unequalled cable and DBS system penetration.

Contributing to Televisa's drive to meet its customers thirst for HD, Intelsat’s heritage of successfully transmitting HD content is unsurpassed.  It distributed the first digital HD transmission in 1989.  Today, Intelsat delivers approximately 130 HD channels, bringing the best news, entertainment and sports programming to millions of homes worldwide.

"Intelsat has truly earned its status as one of our trusted partners,” said Televisa Vice President Felix Araujo.  “Its distribution infrastructure combines satellite, teleport and fiber to enable world-class solutions for global video transmissions, and we already know the value of its Fuchsstadt, Germany, teleport first hand.” Fuchsstadt Teleport receives the Televisa Networks European feed from the Intelsat 11 satellite and turns it around to their contracted capacity on the Intelsat 905 satellite for distribution.

He concluded, “We expect Intelsat will continue helping us provide seamless connectivity throughout Latin America and the rest of the world for many years to come.”

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OU Corner

FIFA Confederations Cup 2009

Programmers frequently turn to Intelsat’s Special Events Team to help deliver popular live events to audiences around the globe, and the FIFA Confederations Cup South Africa 2009 was no exception. The Cup, considered a “dry run” for the 2010 World Cup, took place 14-28 June, and Intelsat helped bring the action home to avid fans in the Americas, Europe and Asia via its global network.

Going the Distance for Our Customers
At Coca-Cola Park in Johannesburg, Intelsat offered live standup positions and play-outs, in addition to studio live shots, for the international tournament. Programming was transmitted via full-time and occasional use (OU) capacity on the Intelsat 10-02 satellite, located at 1° West. For Europe, playouts and live shots were uplinked to Intelsat 12 satellite at 45° East. For Asia, playouts and live shots were uplinked to the Intelsat 904 satellite at 60° East, while in America, content was transmitted via the Intelsat 3R satellite at 43° West and then downlinked for distribution at Intelsat’s teleport in Ellenwood, Georgia. 

Intelsat satellites delivered more than 460 hours of heart-pounding, cheer-filled content to the world, culminating in Brazil winning their third Confederations Cup title.

Tour de France 2009

For the 5th consecutive year, Intelsat provided communications support for the Tour de France, which took place from Saturday, 4 July to Sunday, 26 July 2009. More than 230 hours of programming reached millions of viewers via the Intelsat network.

Cycling to a Technology Victory
Cyclists were followed by a fully-equipped satellite news gathering (SNG) broadcast truck traveling with the race. Ten to 12 hours of daily programming was captured during the 23-day race.

Intelsat used satellite capacity on its Intelsat 905 satellite, located at 24° West, to receive the programming. Content was then downlinked and turnaround services managed at Intelsat’s teleports in Fuchsstadt, Germany, and Atlanta, Georgia. From there, rights holders and content distributors carried the Intelsat transmissions, delivering live and cached highlights of the event to cable and DTH communities.

OU Calendar

Watch your inbox for Intelsat Occasional Use Special Events Rate Cards for the following events:

For more information, please contact Intelsat Special Events.

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2009 Americas Connections Conference in New York City, New York

One Platform, Global Delivery

On 15-17 July 2009, Intelsat hosted approximately 140 executives representing 91 companies from seven countries from its largest Americas customers at the Connections Americas Conference in New York City. The day and a half conference agenda featured content highlighting Intelsat’s current and long-term strategic initiatives and product plans. Intelsat also reported on progress on several corporate initiatives that address service and process improvements requested by our customers.  

On the first day of the meeting, Intelsat’s customers took part in a facilitated feedback session. The results were summarized by customer advocates, providing the basis for an "Execs Unplugged" session, with Intelsat management responding directly to customer concerns.

We heard from our customers about the challenges posed by new media on traditional business models. A virtual panel discussed the myriad activities around interference reduction, an area where customers will join with Intelsat to achieve improvements near and long term. We were pleased to hear that customers have noted improvement in our operations over the past two years, while noting that we still need to improve in some areas such as billing and provisioning.

From the standpoint of Intelsat infrastructure, Thierry Guillemin, Senior Vice President & Chief Technical Officer reported progress on the Atlanta power upgrades scheduled for completion in 2010. The complete set of comments recorded during the facilitated feedback session, combined with the results of the 2009 Customer Survey, will be used to refine Intelsat’s 2010 operating plan.

The entertainment highlight of the conference was an Intelsat hosted dinner and river cruise around Manhattan Island, providing dramatic evening views of the Statue of Liberty. We sincerely thank all participants.  Connections Conferences are scheduled for the Europe/Middle East region in October and Africa in November.

Photo: Christine Ehrenbard, Director of Broadcast Distribution at CBS with celebrity impersonators Donald Trump and Marilyn Monroe and Intelsat's Tom Johnson, Senior Manager, Customer Experience.

[photo gallery]

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Intelsat Announces 2009 Customer Experience Survey

Tell Us What You Really Think!

Once again,  this August and September Intelsat will be asking customers to grade us on every aspect of our service to you. Our Customer Experience Survey is designed to identify the elements of service that are most important to you and to measure our performance on those elements.  Similar to last year, we will be using an online survey to collect your candid feedback.

The information we gather from these surveys is analyzed by the Intelsat executive team in detail, and is one of the primary sources used to develop future action plans. We take your comments seriously:  in 2009, each staff member at Intelsat is being measured on performance on initiatives designed to address concerns voiced in the annual customer survey and Connections ‘Executives Unplugged’ sessions.

Over the past year we have been reporting on our progress on several of the initiatives established as a direct result of the survey feedback.  A great example is the I3 article in this issue, an initiative that was in response to customers’ concerns.

We understand that your time is valuable. Mindful of that, we have designed the online survey to be ‘to the point’ and it should take only approximately 10 minutes of your time. Please be on the lookout for an email introducing the survey in late August. An invitation to the actual survey itself will follow shortly thereafter.

Thank you for communicating your candid feedback by participating in Intelsat's Annual Customer Experience Survey. 

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I3: Intelsat Interference Management Initiative

Working Toward an Interference-Free Space Environment

I3: Update
The Intelsat I3 team continues to drive efforts targeted at reducing Radio Frequency Interference (RFI) - to create an interference-free space environment for our customers.

Intelsat has teamed with other satellite operators to make RFI mitigation and reduction a top priority for the satellite communications industry. Since our first report, four additional satellite operators have joined the effort, bringing the total to 12. Intelsat continues to be the catalyst for progress by taking the lead on targeted initiatives.

The Wheels of Progress Roll On
The momentum continues and progress is being made on several fronts.
Carrier ID (aka ATIS): Senior Principal Customer Solutions Engineer, Jeff Kimble, leads the effort on making carrier identification a mandatory element in any carrier stream being passed through satellites. Carrier ID would facilitate the identification of “errant” signals and their source for quicker resolution to RFI incidents.

In this effort, Jeff, working closely with Brian Henderson of the Intelsat New Product Development Group and Adam Edwards of SES, has drafted the specifications for the insertion of Carrier ID into the transmission stream as well as the method for extracting the information.

This framework will be used as a guideline that will ultimately bring the Carrier ID "standard" to fruition. Additionally, Jeff is playing a central role in drafting and collecting the letters that Satellite Operators would sign in support of the effort. The goal is to provide these letters to industry partners and determine a fixed date for implementation of Carrier ID throughout the communication satellite community.

Certification and Training: Addressing the erosion of system discipline and untrained (or at best, undertrained) field technicians and installers, Intelsat has endorsed the Global VSAT Forum’s (GVF) training and certification program.

Intelsat is a contributing member of the GVF and will help them fulfill one of their primary missions of educating users around the globe. The Intelsat team has also reviewed and endorsed training from Slingpath, which is targeted to satellite news gathering (SNG) and Occasional Use (OU) video operators. In future issues, we will be reporting on our efforts to train our customers’ technical staff and in certain cases, our customers’ installers.

A tip of the hat and thanks goes to Intelsat's Michael Buchman, Engineer, RF Operations Level 2. Mike and his team have taken the lead on this initiative by reviewing course content from several vendors.

Satellite Operator RFI Alert: Not all interference on Intelsat capacity originates from Intelsat customers. At times, third parties (such as radar) or uplinked customers on other satellite networks might cause problems on Intelsat's network. In those cases, the satellite operators have agreed to participate in an alert system. Intelsat’s Patty Constantino, Director of RF Operations, has developed a procedure and has worked with the Satellite Users Interference Reduction Group (SUIRG) and the other operators to implement the system.

To date, the proof of concept has been successfully conducted. The "go live" for the system is expected this month.

Taking It to the Streets
At the recently concluded ITW Conference held in Washington, D.C. 1-3 June, Intelsat’s own Ron Busch, Vice President of Network Operations, led a panel of industry experts in a discussion on approaches to addressing the RFI problem. Joining Ron on the stage were individuals representing:

• Satellite Operators: Stewart Sanders of SES Engineering
• Customers: Dick Tauber of CNN, also Chairman of ISOG
• Industry Groups: Ralph Booker representing GVF
• Equipment Manufacturers: Matthew Goldman of Tandberg

The panel was followed the next day by a presentation by Tom Johnson, Senior Manager, Customer Experience, in Intelsat’s Innovation Theatre. The presentation outlined the key components of the I3 program and accomplishments to date. The presentation, which was open to all Intelsat customers attending ITW, had a primary goal of educating customers, but more importantly, to raise awareness of customers’ role in combating RFI.

Since ITW, Intelsat staff members have continued to spread the I3 message and solicit customer support at seminars and training sessions in Europe. 

This past month, at Intelsat’s Americas Connections Intelsat dedicated an entire session to the I3 program and challenged customers to help make a difference in combating interference by ensuring use of trained installers and uplinkers and consider endorsing the Carrier ID program once the conceptual model is rolled out later this year.

At this year’s upcoming Connections Meetings, interference reduction efforts will be featured during a dedicated session.

On the Inside
Intelsat is working on internal initiatives to improve its ability to reduce interference events and react to them efficiently and effectively when they do arise.

Training and Certification: Intelsat has evaluated several training and certification courses for its staff. After discussing additional certification criteria, GVF has created new courses that meet the baseline requirements outlined. Intelsat has endorsed both GVF and Beaconseek/Slingpath courses. Several Intelsat staff members from the operations centers will be participating in these classes to obtain certification and to become certified trainers.

Monitoring Capabilities: Intelsat continues to close the monitoring gaps and has recently added one new antenna to its monitoring network and will be adding two more by the end of this year. This will bring the total number of monitoring antennas to 185 at 30 sites. Intelsat continues to add calibration capabilities to existing facilities to ensure precise measurements across all beams, extending the capability to 21 new beams this year. The I3 team continues to work with the company's geolocation providers to refine the tools for enhanced location identification of RFI sources.

Process and Planning Improvements: As resources are added, enhancements are being made to day-to-day operations, including refinement of the satellite loading guidelines to mitigate conflicts before they start. Customer service and communication training was delivered in all Intelsat operations centers in May 2009. The training focused on improving listening skills, as well as the importance of communicating during and after trouble situations.

Communications: As the enhancements described above are being implemented, we will communicate our plans and progress in the I3 program on a regular basis. In addition to the Spectrum Newsletter, the I3 team also is communicating at customer (Connections) and industry events (SATELLITE, NAB, ITW, SatCom Africa, etc.) to spread the word and gain industry support. Customers also have access to an I3 section on MyIntelsat, Intelsat's customer extranet, which contains the latest I3 developments, information on how they can report RFI, and educational whitepapers on RFI reduction.

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Intelsat Events

Join Intelsat Around the World: August-October 2009

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Event Epilogue

Back-to-Back in Asia-Pac

Intelsat recently participated in two prominent back-to-back events for the Asia-Pacific region.

The first was CASBAA, the Cable & Satellite Broadcasting Association of Asia, a one-day event uniting leading visionaries and influencers from satellite, cable TV, broadband, technology and advertising across Asia's 14 markets and 200 million pay-TV subscribers. Intelsat was a proud supporting sponsor of the event and David Ball, Intelsat’s Regional Vice President, Asia Pacific, is Chairman of the CASBAA Satellite Industry Committee. David, with Jay Yass, Intelsat’s Vice President of Network Services, were featured speakers during CASBAA held, Monday, 15 June.

Immediately following CASBAA was CommunicAsia, the premier telecommunications trade show for Southeast Asia, held in Singapore from 16-19 June 2009. Intelsat customers, as well as the hundreds of other conference attendees, were greeted with an eye-catching booth in the satellite pavilion featuring live feeds from our customers including ABS-CBN, NHK, and BBC World. The booth also featured a live HD feed from Discovery HD that wowed audiences all week.

In conjunction with the events, Intelsat hosted its annual Customer Breakfast for more than 80 customers at the famous Raffles Hotel on Wednesday morning. Steve Spengler, Steve Good, David Ball, Jay Yass and Tim Jackson presented Intelsat's Asia-Pacific fleet strategy, new product and network updates, the Intelsat Interference Management Initiative (I3), and more. Later that afternoon, Intelsat hosted a cocktail reception in the booth, giving Intelsat senior executives the opportunity to mingle with customers.

Intelsat’s main theme at the show was “One Platform, Global Delivery,” highlighting our work of delivering leading news, entertainment, and sports programming to our customers around the world. Additionally, we celebrated “20 Years of HD,” recognizing our first international HD feed carried in 1989 from the United States to Japan.

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Technical Training Seminar

Intelsat’s European Sales Team welcomed 30 of its customers to Cannes, France, for its annual Technical Training Seminar. Located at the Thales Alenia Space manufacturing facility, the two-day event, held 15-16 June, kicked off with an introduction from Jean-Philippe Gillet, Regional Vice President, Europe Middle East, followed by a series of presentations containing new technical material from the regions' Customer Solutions Engineering team.

Of specific interest to attending customers were Intelsat’s latest fleet developments, Intelsat’s GlobalConnex services, LST-5 advanced link budget analysis focusing on Carrier Cancellation technology and inclined orbit satellites, initiatives to combat interference, and MyIntelsat.

Day two kicked off with a welcome and introduction from host Guy Perez, Vice President Telecommunication Satellite Programs, Thales Alenia Space, followed by a tour of Thales' satellite production facilities. The tour included a viewing of the completed Telenor Thor 6 satellite, on which Intelsat owns 10 transponders, enhancing capacity available for customers from 1° West. The Thor 6 is expected to launch in the fourth quarter 2009.

Intelsat customers then viewed the solar array and mechanisms production line, satellite testing facilities where the thermal vacuum, acoustic and vibration tests are performed, as well as LEOP Satellite Control Center.

In addition to technical training and tours, Intelsat staff and customers made the opportunity for highly valuable discussions and networking and expressed anticipation for collaboration throughout the coming year and to meeting again at next year's event.

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Announcements

Join the Discussion: Connect with Intelsat on the Intelsat BLOG, Twitter and Facebook

Intelsat will be blogging live from SET and IBC. The Intelsat Blog will be continuously accessible from MyIntelsat, our customer extranet, and via the Intelsat public website during major industry and Intelsat events.

"Follow" us on Twitter and "fan" us on Facebook.

If you're a busy, on-the-go professional, following Intelsat on Twitter may be just what you're looking for. Tweets, which are microblogs of no more than 140 characters, are a time-saving, quick glance at "what we're doing."

Facebook features posts of what's happening at Intelsat - with opportunities to comment - as well as photo galleries and discussions. Choose your medium and stay-in-touch with Intelsat!

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In the Next Intelsat INSIDER

The next edition of Intelsat INSIDER is scheduled for delivery on Tuesday, 6 October 2009.

• Intelsat 14 Update
• A Focus on Intelsat's Teleports
• Intelsat at IBC

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