What's New

12/02/02

NPR Distribution Signs Contract with IDC to Acquire Satellite Receivers

On December 18, 2003, NPR Distribution signed a contract for satellite receivers with International Datacasting Corporation (IDC). Based in Ottowa, Ontario, IDC has been a provider of products, systems, and service for broadband multimedia content distribution via satellite since 1984.

The award was made after an extremely thorough evaluation process that included site visits to see similar systems in operation. "IDC offers the combination of hardware and software required by the ContentDepot," says Scott Bridgewater, ContentDepot project engineer. Scott adds, "IDC is an ideal fit—not only for their high-quality products and services, but also for their IT and broadcasting experience."

Pete Loewenstein, NPR Distribution's vice president, notes that "we are gratified to find an off-the-shelf product that meets our needs so well. One of the mandates of the ContentDepot is to use commercially available products in a modular approach so that the technology will be sustainable for the long-term."

For the ContentDepot, each interconnected station will be provided with one satellite receiver and a backup to support both file transfer (stored programs) and the data streams containing live programs. Since the ContentDepot will be a wideband IP service, multiple receivers for multiple audio programs are not necessary—in fact, only one receiver is needed and the second is a backup. Stored programs will be delivered as files and stored on hard drives inside of the satellite receivers at stations. Each IDC receiver comes equipped with 80 gigabytes of space available for storage, which equates to over 600 hours of programming.

The IDC satellite receivers will be connected to the station's Local Area Network (LAN), so that local automation systems can retrieve the files and transfer them for play back by the automation system. The combination of satellite receivers for storage, streaming decoder cards, and station automation systems will effectively replace all the functions of SOSS.

NPR Distribution expects to begin testing the first production run of IDC receivers in its headend test lab by the end of January 2004. In the spring of 2004, NPR Distribution plans to pilot satellite file transfer at selected stations. These stations will be given receivers as part of the testing. In the fall of 2004, we will begin to deliver to all interconnected stations receivers for stored (pre-recorded) programs and live streams as well as the necessary command and control systems for integration to automation.