Evertiq - SWE-DISH Suitcase breaks new ground in Africa

Electronics Production | November 15, 2005

SWE-DISH Suitcase breaks new ground in Africa

The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) has selected satellite communication systems from SWE-DISH Satellite Systems in their expansion into Africa. The chosen IPT Suitcase has also been awarded a type approval by the Independent Communication Authority of South Africa (ICASA).

The SWE-DISH IPT Suitcase has been chosen by the national broadcaster, South African Broadcasting Corporation to expand its coverage in the African SADEC countries (Botswana, Swaziland, Lesotho, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Angola, Mozambique and Malawi). SABC will use the IPT Suitcase systems to strengthen their satellite newsgathering operations, to cover national breaking news as well as overseas news and coverage of major events.

The SWE-DISH IPT Suitcase fulfilled SABC requirements of portability, bandwidth efficiency and ease of use. With the IPT Suitcase the news teams will be able to do live broadcast video transmissions up to 5Mbps, IP based intercom, Voice over IP and Audio broadcast as well as store and forward of video and audio files from virtually anywhere in the world.

In conjunction with the expansion in Southern Africa, the SWE-DISH Suitcase has been granted a “radio equipment type approval certificate” (TA-2005/574) by the Independent Communication Authority of South Africa (ICASA), who regulates the telecommunication and broadcasting sectors.

Lars Jehrlander, CEO of SWE-DISH, says “We are very delighted that the South African Broadcast Corporation selected SWE-DISH for its future satellite communication in Africa. The launch of the IPT suitcase concept in this region proves that small Ku-band earth stations may very well be operated in the African region. With help from our African distributor, Zimele Broadcasting Services, that we have worked with for a long time, we see new business opportunities and continued success of the Suitcase in the region”.

Nic Bonthuys, General Manager at Air Time TV Outside Broadcasts, a business unit of the SABC, says “We are pleased that the launch of the IPT suitcase concept are now taking place in the region. I am convinced that that this is only the beginning, simply because during the extensive demonstrations and field trials, it soon became obvious that the IPT concept easily proved itself, passing every test and trial that the SABC went for.

The SWE-DISH Suitcase has previously been awarded type approvals from Intelsat (IA097AA0), Eutelsat (EA-V042), Europe*Star (ES-ME-39), Hispasat and also holds a FCC license.