Newtec to Upgrade MENOS Platform

Since 2008, the Arab States Broadcasting Union’s (ASBU) Multimedia Exchange Network over Satellite (MENOS) has allowed broadcasters in the region to exchange multimedia content, including video and audio material, over satellite across several sites scattered across a large geographical area. The platform has continued to gain momentum, with an increasing number of member terminals and national deployments using MENOS and a growing volume of content being shared, including news, radio, television programmes and sports.

Newtec originally installed the MENOS platform, but since then times have moved on and technology has empowered broadcasters even more. Broadcasters are set to include much more HD content and MENOS must be able to cater for these increasing requirements. Therefore, Newtec is keeping up the pace by upgrading MENOS with the use of its Newtec Dialog^® technology.

Work to upgrade the architecture has already started, with MENOS^PLUS+ due to go live later in 2017. The new system – which is based on the Newtec Dialog multiservice broadcast solution – will create up to 50% additional capacity for HD exchanges. HD mesh contributions to other MENOS^PLUS+ terminals will also be enabled. Additionally, the quality of the Fast News Gathering (FNG) content will be drastically improved from 1 Mbps to 2 Mbps using the same space segment (Arabsat 5A). HD contributions will be enabled with Newtec’s new high-speed MDM5000 Satellite Modems.

“Newtec is a long-standing partner of ours and as a result of the success of our MENOS platform, the company was an obvious choice for us again in developing MENOS^PLUS+,” said Abdul Rahim Suleiman, ASBU’s Director General. “The upgrade is important as more and more users demand HD and UHD content and, with Newtec, we can provide the additional capacity required for this at no extra cost to our customers.”

The Newtec MDM5000 is the first-ever DVB-S2X high-throughput VSAT modem, with a symbol rate ranging from 1 up to 133 Mbaud and coding from QPSK to 256APSK in the forward channel. It offers the choice of three return technologies, MF-TDMA, SCPC and Newtec’s unique Mx-DMA^® which combines SCPC efficiency with the flexibility of MF-TDMA.

MENOS^PLUS+ will ultimately be integrated with the ASBU Cloud, which is currently being developed to enable organisations outside of Arabsat 5A coverage to exchange programmes.

“As the broadcasting union for the Arab States, MENOS^PLUS+ is an important step for ASBU and we are pleased to be able to provide our expertise,” said Xavier Orri, Vice President Customer Solutions at Newtec. “With efficiency, scalability and flexibility at its heart of the all-IP solution, we are confident MENOS^PLUS+ will future-proof ASBU’s operations, enabling the company to grow and adapt its service offering according to the demands of the market and its customers.”

Original published at: https://spacewatch.global/2017/03/newtec-upgrade-menos-platform/