Washington DC – Arqiva’s Satellite Media Solutions division is partnering SAT-GE, a subsidiary of General Electric to provide a satellite-based HD video platform into Asia Pacific. Collaboration and co-ordination work has commenced for the new platform that will enable broadcasters to distribute HD and SD channels to Asia-Pacific broadcasters and cable headends. From Arqiva’s Digital Media Center and teleport facilities in Los Angeles, the new HD platform will be uplinked onto GE 23 at 172 degrees East to provide a satellite footprint for coverage from the US into Asia Pacific territories including Singapore, Hong Kong, China, Japan, Thailand, South Korea, Indonesia, the Philippines, Australia and New Zealand. MPEG-4 encoding will range from 12 to 8 megabits per second for HD, and 4 megabits per second for SD. The Multi Channel Per Carrier (MCPC) signal is transmitted using High Order DVB-S2 8PSK modulation to maximize bandwidth efficiency and performance, as well as to optimize satellite space segment capacity on the 36 MHz C-band transponder. Arqiva will also offer value-added services including backhaul, standards conversion, local connections and remote cable headend antenna placement. Simon Thrush, SVP for Arqiva in the US added, “The available capacity on GE 23 makes it a particularly attractive proposition for broadcasters with an eye on future expansion, while its extensive footprint provides access to key growth markets including China.”