Broadcasters, including the BBC and Fox News have been providing ongoing coverage of the political crisis in Egypt using Inmarsat BGAN mobile satellite services from Stratos Global, a global provider of advanced mobile and fixed-site remote communications solutions
The organizations began broadcasting reports of the crisis from Cairo and other Egyptian cities on Jan. 25. Days later, the Egyptian government shut down all terrestrial Internet connectivity and mobile phone service. BGAN enabled these broadcasters to continue newsgathering in Egypt and transmitting live reports to their studios, without interruption.
The broadcasters also are using BGAN for Internet connectivity, store-and-forward video clips, and audio streaming for radio broadcast. All BGAN traffic from these organizations is routed via the Stratos global IP network, known as StratosNexus, into the broadcasters’ studios worldwide.
As it did for last year’s Haitian disaster, Stratos is continually monitoring its BGAN network and StratosNexus during this period of heightened usage in Egypt – and is providing frequent status reports to its media customers. Inmarsat also is taking measures to ensure the usual high level of availability and reliability of its Inmarsat-4 satellite network during this crisis.
“Major news events like these, under seemingly impossible conditions, remind the world’s top broadcasters of the indispensable nature of BGAN and the reliability of the Stratos network,” said Stratos President and CEO Jim Parm. “The Stratos team remains available around the clock, to help our customers ensure optimal performance and efficiency from any imaginable location.”
Stratos’ BGAN service enables media organizations to perform at optimal levels at any remote location. Journalists can effectively use BGAN services with minimal training. The premium BGAN X-Stream service, which was launched in 2009, allows a guaranteed minimum symmetrical video streaming rate of 384 kbps, with up to 450 kbps expected under optimal conditions.
The Stratos Advantage enables customers to monitor airtime, restrict unauthorized usage and manage costs. The organizations also achieve guaranteed, end-to-end bandwidth for their time-critical data with a Stratos GuaranteedAccess solution custom designed by Stratos engineers.
Stratos GuaranteedAccess extends guaranteed bandwidth from the BGAN terminal through to the terrestrial infrastructure to broadcast centers. Stratos GuaranteedAccess is enabled by StratosNexus, a Stratos-managed Global Core network for traditional and IP-based services. StratosNexus is a redundant and highly resilient network, designed and optimized to carry time-sensitive satellite traffic.
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