NDS Americas and USA Broadcasting Partner in DTV Initiative 07/12/1999 Business Wire (Copyright (c) 1999, Business Wire)
NEWPORT BEACH, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 12, 1999--
Centralized National Broadcast Facility Will Deliver Automated DTV Programming
NDS Americas, a leading provider of end-to-end digital broadcasting systems, today announced a definitive DTV compression system contract agreement with USA Broadcasting (USAB), a division of USA Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ: USAI), the 8th largest broadcasting group in the nation. USAB is partnering with NDS to deliver automated digital television programming to local market stations from its StationWorks facility in Ontario, CA. NDS will provide USAB with its renowned engineering support and ATSC-compliant compression systems, including the industry-leading Series E5610 encoders and the industry's first commercially available MPEG splicer.
"USA Broadcasting's partnership with NDS embraces cutting edge technologies, giving us the ability to deliver digital television to all USAB markets. We expect to begin transmission this Fall, launching the complete group over the next 18 month," said Jon Miller, President and Chief Executive Office, USA Broadcasting. "This partnership gives us the power to continually improve and update the technology, adding more value to the USA Broadcasting model."
StationWorks, the first fully integrated digital broadcast facility, will transmit localized programming content to USA Broadcasting's 13 television stations. The USAB facility centrally manages the transmission of digital programming, providing a cost-effective solution to the traditional O&O model. USAB avoids large capital expenditures on equipment, concentrating investment on programming and development.
In June of 1998, USAB launched its first station, WAMI-TV in Miami, Florida, recent winner of more Promax awards than any other local television station in America, and the grassroots prototype for future USAB Stations.
"USA Broadcasting selected NDS Americas for this critical project based on the company's unique ability to provide complete state-of-the-art technological solutions. USAB is pushing the envelope in more ways than one, but especially with regard to DTV technology. We believe NDS could be as much as 12 months ahead of the industry with regard to video compression, MPEG splicing, system monitoring and control," said Tom Mann, Vice President of Engineering and New Technology, USA Broadcasting. "NDS has successfully leveraged years of experience in digital compression to produce the most reliable and flexible high-quality DTV systems available today. We are fully convinced that NDS' solution will provide the technological platform to carry us forward at the pace we anticipate."
NDS will initially deliver fully redundant, fully expandable, three-channel ATSC encoding systems to USA's distribution headend facility in Ontario, California. These systems include compression, multiplexing, statistical multiplexing and extensive remote monitoring and system control capabilities. They also provide automatic redundancy protection and configuration control through NDS' StreamServer PC-Pro control system. The StreamServer systems handle the PSIP insertion capability for the ATSC services and afford an automatic external interface to the Louth automation and traffic systems.
USA Broadcasting will distribute locally driven programming from each of the NDS network systems to its 13 O&O stations via DS3 fiber optics. These systems will enable affiliate stations to transmit a fully compliant ATSC DTV signal and a NTSC analog signal. USAB will monitor and control all digital programming transmissions from its remote broadcast facility in Ontario, CA. This includes full remote control of the local MPEG splicer for insertion of local content into the compressed network feed from Ontario, CA.
About USA Broadcasting USA Broadcasting, a USA company, is the eighth largest television broadcast group in the nation. With 13 fully operational stations, USA Broadcasting has established a presence in the top 12 Designated Market Areas. Coupled with a minority interest in 4 additional television stations, USA Broadcasting reaches over 36 million households, covering over 37% of the United States. USA Broadcasting will launch its local stations in incorporating the latest digital and fiber-optic transmission technology out of its base of operations in Ontario, CA. Modeled after the creative and popular success of WAMI-TV, Miami, FL., locally produced, network-quality programming that mirrors the style and sensibilities of the native market, will serve as the model for USAB's group-wide localism concept. WAMI's fully powered, 30,000 square foot, storefront studio is located on South Beach and has been serving local viewers since June, 1998.
About NDS NDS, headquartered in the UK, with operations worldwide, provides end-to-end solutions for digital broadcasting through the company's research, development and manufacturing activities. NDS is a recognized leader in digital video compression and conditional access, and has proven systems integration and global support capabilities. NDS is providing its advanced technologies, products and services to many of the current and planned satellite and terrestrial broadcasting systems around the world. In addition, over ten million subscribers around the globe use NDS conditional access systems to receive Pay-TV satellite and cable services. NDS plays a major part in developing open systems and the international standards for the digital broadcasting arena, providing the technology and market know-how to implement standards such as MPEG -2, DVB, ATSC, SMPTE and DTTV. The company continues to make a major commitment to R&D, with over 700 of its 1,350 plus employees dedicated to its pioneering development work at research centers in Israel, the U.S. and the UK. NDS is a subsidiary of News Corporation (NWS), a leading global media company. NDS has won many awards for technology including an Emmy from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and three Queen's Awards, one for Technology and two for Export. NDS is on the World-Wide-Web at: ndsworld.com.
Contact: CONTACT: TSI Communications, New York Patricia Mozzillo, 212/320-2252 pmozzillo@tsicomm.com or NDS Americas Inc., Newport Beach Lisa Hobbs, 949/725-2548 lhobbs@ndsamericas.com or NDS Limited, United Kingdom Margot Field, +44 181 476 8158 mfield@ndsuk.com 09:06 EDT JULY 12, 1999 |