Sematron help the BBC watch Television

The British Broadcasting Corporation, (BBC), has proved a powerful force throughout the 20th century and into the new millennium - providing entertainment, education and information, and captivating millions of viewers and listeners at home and abroad. But did you know that from its facilities at Caversham near Reading in Berkshire UK, the BBC also monitors virtually all TV stations transmitted worldwide.

In 2005 one of the satellites which it used to cover parts of the Middle East had been moved and as a result the BBC was no longer able to monitor four Iranian TV channels. Having a Satellite Ground Station facility based in Jerusalem and being able to receive all four Iranian channels, JCS were selected to find a solution

JCS required a partner and asked Sematron to participate in a competitive tender for the project. The key criteria for the assignment, as specified by the BBC, were picture quality, cost and overall feasibility.

Sematron put together a comprehensive proposal to comply with all of these priorities and presented this to JCS. Following an extensive review and against very stiff competition Sematron was selected to take on the contract and the mission went ahead.

As Project Managers, Sematron's first task was to research the market and establish the most appropriate selection of equipment. The video compression equipment was manufactured by their Partner Minerva Networks, who are a world leader in this field, and Sematron UK Ltd integrated this with the routers and a 2Mbps, E1 transport system to carry the pictures back to the UK.

In addition, to their role as Project Manager and equipment supplier, Sematron also consulted with the BBC on the most efficient type of transmission system and in doing so were able to reduce both the capital cost and monthly revenue charges by decreasing the required bandwidth from the originally perceived 8Mbps (E2) pipe down to the 2Mbps (E1) system eventually used. Finally, Sematron's support team assisted JCS to get the system up and running effectively.

The BBC is a publicly funded broadcaster, financed through the licence fee payer. By granting this programme to Sematron and taking their advise to run the video through a 2Mbps line from the JCS's earth station, the BBC have saved a considerable amount of money for themselves and the ever suffering taxpayer, which could have been spent building their own Earth Station in the Middle East to relay the service back to the UK, or using an existing downlink and running the video through an expensive 8Mbps, (E2) line

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