At the WBU-ISOG Forum, May 31st, 2012, Slava Frayter from Newtec presented on Ka-Band for News. Topics discussed where: - Ka band facts - QoS on Ka band, minimum SLA - ACM controlled adaptive video

1. Ka-Band for News
ACM Controlled Adaptive Video
WBU-ISOG Forum, May 31st, 2012
Slava Frayter
slava.frayter@newtec.eu
Broadband Systems
Professional Equipment
IP Software

2. Ka Band facts
 Almost 40 satellites with Ka band capacity
 Estimated over 200 Ka Band transponders
 WW footprint
 Excess capacity – frequency re-use across spotbeams
 Lease cost for Ka Band is lower than C/Ku
So ?
 Satellite operators understand that video is the best
means to fill the pipe
 Broadcasters and SNG operators have access to cost-
effective bandwidth
But …
 Quality of Service remains a big concern for live video
contribution such as Satellite News Gathering (SNG)
2
© Newtec Cy nv – All Rights Reserved. Newtec confidential and proprietary information

3. What is impacting QoS on Ka Band ?
Rain fades are the biggest source of QoS reduction
on Ka Band
• (dB) High Fade Depth, mostly related to rain fades
– Much higher impact compared to Ku Band (and C Band)
• (dB/Sec) High Fade Rate of signal fluctuation
– Typically 0,1 to 1 dB/Sec ( up to 2.5 dB/sec)
• (GHz) Frequency dependency
– Impact on 20GHz is 3 times bigger compared to 11GHz
Different technologies can help reduce the impact
of rain fades
• Uplink Power Control (UPC)
• ACM Controlled Adaptive Video
3
© Newtec Cy nv – All Rights Reserved. Newtec confidential and proprietary information

4. Ka-Band: Rain affecting the Minimum SLA
Rain Fade
X dB/sec
1dB: Ku fade event
4dB: Ka fade event
CIR, SLAmin: Live CBR contribution
Fade depth of typical rain-fade event
Ku = 1dB
Ka = 4dB (below CIR?)
Min bandwidth in thunderstorm
C : little impact
Ku: stayed working
Ka: 2 or 3 outages experienced during overnight tests
Ka: Faster fading (high dB/sec)`
© Newtec Cy nv – All Rights Reserved. Newtec confidential and proprietary information

5. ACM Controlled Adaptive Video
ACM Control
(Closed, Open, Managed)
Satellite Modulator Satellite Demodulator
Compressed Most of the time Compressed
Video TS (ASI/IP) Video TS (ASI / IP)
ModCod: 16APSK 5/6
SNG MPEG Encoder MPEG Decoder
Es/No : 12 dB
Baseband Video Baseband Video
(SDI) Throughput 5MB: HD 16,1 Mb/s (SDI)
Bad weather
ModCod: QPSK 4/5
Es/No : 5.1 dB
-7dB Post production Ingest & storage
Video Bitrate : HD 7.7 Mbps
5
© Newtec Cy nv – All Rights Reserved. Newtec confidential and proprietary information

6. ACM Controlled Adaptive Video
When something is better than nothing
Store and Forward
– Preserve high quality video (time-shift)
– Local recording of HQ video
– Workflow for file transmission of high quality video
clip for n+1 news break
6
© Newtec Cy nv – All Rights Reserved. Newtec confidential and proprietary information

7. ACM Controlled Adaptive Video Technology
Building blocks are available
• ACM control loop and ACM satellite demodulator
requirements
– Accurate link margin measurement
– Active margin prediction (fade speed) & management
– Adaptive to rain fade depth (different frequencies)
– Works with DVB-S2 and VSAT
• Video encoder and decoder need to support variable rate
MPEG TS
– E.g. using SMPTE 2022-4 variable bitrate MPEG TS on IP
• Store and Forward
– High quality file store on modulator and/or MPEG encoder
7
© Newtec Cy nv – All Rights Reserved. Newtec confidential and proprietary information

8. Conclusions
• Video is the best manner to fill Ka band
capacity at a lower operational cost
• ACM Controlled Adaptive Video technology
for live news gathering is mature enough to
start building a solution set
• The big question is : Are satellite
operators, SNG operators and broadcasters
willing to agree on new type of SLA?
8
© Newtec Cy nv – All Rights Reserved. Newtec confidential and proprietary information

9. 9

10. Company confidential
10 Unrestricted