Nilesat is launch its new regional digital platform, known as The Nilesat Smart Digital Broadcasting System, on air in April.
This platform will provide for the compression and multiplexing of 360 TV services and 120 radio services over 24 digital transport streams, with the ability to expand up to 480 TV services and 30 transport streams.
Nilesat currently broadcasts over 730 TV channels, and over 140 digital radio channels uplinked from Cairo, Dubai, Amman, Doha, Riyadh and Beirut. Over 75% of the TV channels are free to air, and the Nilesat audience in the MENA region has shown steady growth, from 11 million households in 2003 to more than 60 million households in 2013. According to the most recent surveys in 2013, Nilesat has the largest audience share, with about 95% of the households in the MENA region.
Media Era Technologies (Mera-Tech) acted as the integrator and consultancy partner to assist Nilesat in building the platform. Cisco Media Production Solutions supplied the D9036 encoder and DCM platform, providing all the important features, including acquisition, encoding and transcoding, video processing.
Bridge Technologies has been chosen to provide the digital media measuring and analysis technology for the Nilesat Smart Digital Video Broadcasting System; and Newtec delivered more than thirty M6100 Broadcast Satellite Modulators, including full automatic redundancy, tailored to Nilesat’s specifications.
