HD Circuit to Link NHK France to NHK America

BT has been awarded a three-year contract by NHK to supply a full-time HD circuit from Paris to New York. NHK currently sends news content from its European bureau to its main U.S. bureau in Manhattan, and from there the content is routed to Japan via NHK's existing trans-Pacific fiber, for use by NHK's HD satellite and terrestrial channels. (Previously, content gathered by NHK's European bureau was only transmitted in HD by satellite.)

BT will use Atlantic fiber through a compressed 60 Mbps, 4:2:2 format circuit between Paris and New York, as well as through the BT Tower in London. The London routing also will permit NHK to inject content via its existing circuits from its London offices.

The backed-up HD service, to be carried over two diversely routed circuits, will be provided by BT's Medianet International fiber network. NHK said Medianet is capable of transporting all data types up to 155 Mbps over a single network circuit, while also offering guaranteed priority services for time-sensitive video and data traffic.