Satellite Television & Radio Australia purchases Appear TV XC Platform

The Australian government’s VAST (Viewer Access Satellite Television) service is a direct-to-home digital satellite television service that provides comprehensive coverage across Australia.

This service is particularly beneficial for viewers who are unable to receive digital signals from terrestrial transmitters in their area, as it offers a reliable free-to-air satellite television option that includes the full range of digital channels.

Recently Satellite Television & Radio Australia purchased an Appear TV XC flexible, modular head-end solution for IPTV and broadcast distribution from Magna Systems for the VAST service.

Magna BDM Adrian French explained, “Magna BDM Adrian French explained, “Satellite Television & Radio Australia works across Australia with regional councils to design and provide DTV transmission solutions that deliver terrestrial broadcasting to their communities and take advantage of VAST’s distribution to access all required services. VAST includes programming from major networks such as the ABC, SBS, Channel 7, Channel 9 and Channel 10, along with time-shifted versions where applicable. With aging equipment and the transition to high-definition broadcasting for several channels, Satellite Television & Radio Australia were tasked with enhancing and upgrading the re-broadcasting capabilities of various councils throughout Australia. For that they came to Magna and we supplied them with the Appear TV XC Platform.”

Satellite Television & Radio Australia’s requirements included the option to receive multiple satellite feeds, a common Interface (CI) CAM for decryption of all services, full PID remapping functionality to rebuild correct PSI/SI table information including for specific regional council locations, the ability to rebuild Electronic Program Guides, a minimum of four ASI outputs for transport stream delivery to their downstream DVB-T modulator – all across seven sites in Western Australia.

To meet these requirements Satellite Television & Radio Australia purchased the Appear TV XC5100 platform from Magna.

The XC Platform is a flexible, modular head-end solution for IPTV and broadcast distribution, offering advanced media compression, stream processing and robust de-scrambling. It supports distribution across cable, satellite, terrestrial networks and hospitality applications, delivering versatile performance for all media needs.

French continued, “The XC Platform is a flexible, all-in-one solution for broadcast distribution needs. It serves the broadcast distribution market with its modular, high-density chassis design, delivering a complete broadcast solution from a single platform. It is tailored to meet the unique content distribution needs of broadcasters and media service providers. Thus, for regional councils it provides a low footprint, reliable and flexible solution to turn around the feeds from satellite and present DVB-T ready transport streams for the downstream modulation and transmission.

Satellite Television & Radio Australia work with the regional councils of Australia to maintain the terrestrial broadcast delivery to the local communities. This Appear TV solution from Magna Systems now enables remote communities to remain connected with the wider Australia in receiving news, sport and entertainment for free.

Satellite Television & Radio Australia’s MD Glenn Welsh added, “In some cases, the Satellite Television & Radio Australia team are simply replacing older equipment and others are green field installations. For a greenfield site, Satellite Television & Radio Australia are the prime integrator responsible for the design and installation of the antenna, satellite dish, modulator, and key elements of the overall solution. The Appear equipment is at the heart of the workflow as it manipulates the source content and generates the required output for retransmission depending on the location.”

It’s clear that the Appear TV XC Platform supplied by Magna to Satellite Television & Radio Australia not only meets their needs but excels in performance, flexibility and versatility.

Adrian French concluded, “The density of the XC Platform solution was a key winner given that the real estate footprint is king. Other solutions use multiple boxes compared the Appears sleek 1RU dual PSU chassis containing all I/O and processing requirements. The robustness of the solution is also paramount given the remote locations and the durability provided by the Appear units is seconded to none. The ease of control and management was also key to ensure simplicity for the life of the product. Another key bonus with this solution is the ability to accommodate the customer’s preferred system architectures while reducing complexity. Finally, Satellite Television & Radio Australia required support from a local supplier who hold spares in the market for quick turnaround given the remote planning required to attend sites. This service and support was and is also supplied by Magna Systems.”