Jakarta, Indonesia and Sint-Niklass, Belgium – New Indonesian prepaid Direct-To-Home (DTH) satellite service VIVA+ announced on May 27 that it will deploy Newtec equipment to deliver all of its content, initially consisting of two HD and 35 SD channels.
The DTH platform, which launched in April 2014 to coincide with the World Cup, is featuring nine premium value “Ultimate World Cup Channels” dedicated to broadcasting the upcoming World Cup taking place in Brazil between June 12 and July 13.
Newtec has been the technology partner to VIVA+ parent company PT Digital Media Asia since the new DTH service was just a concept in the planning stage in 2010. Newtec’s modulation equipment for three transponders have already been installed and are operational with plans to add more as more subscribers join. In April the company announced that it expects 300,000 new subscribers in the first half of 2014 and potentially up to a million over a longer period.
“It has been great to be a technology partner for this project since the very beginning, and use our expertise to help guide its technological development. We are continuously expanding on our solutions to improve DTH services and have implemented our latest technologies to maximise customer experience and profitability for VIVA+,” said Mario Querner VP Asia of Newtec.
Newtec’s Automated Equalink technology allows DTH operators to either save money on space capacity, lower programming cost or simply increase service availability. Up to 10% increase in throughput can be realised without changing any system parameters or set-top boxes, making it possible to upgrade some SD programmes to HD or add content. Newtec’s equipment also includes Clean Channel Technology which is a combination of improved roll-offs for DVB-S2 and advanced filtering technologies to allow optimal bandwidth utilisation. The combination brings even further efficiency gains.
“Newtec has been an essential strategic partner in the development of our new exciting DTH service which is already reaching every corner of Indonesia. The technology is operational and working exceptionally well with the project delivered in time. Newtec is ensuring that we are squeezing every bit of capacity possible from our leased satellite space segment in order to give our customers the best value and experience especially for the upcoming World Cup,” said David Khim, Chief Technology Officer and Chief Operating Officer of VIVA+.
As well as the World Cup the DTH package will also include a wide range of Indonesian and international television channels, from entertainment, news and sports, to children’s and religious programmes.
Media Rights and Equipment
VIVA+ was the first media group in Indonesia to acquire full media rights for the FIFA World Cup 2014 and other FIFA events through cable and satellite transmission. All channels will be broadcast utilising multiple Ku-band transponders on AsiaSat 5 at 100.5 degrees East.
Newtec’s M6100 Broadcast Satellite Modulators are central to the project as well as a combination of Newtec’s redundancy switches and demodulators. This infrastructure is software upgradeable to the new DVB-S2X standard.
