EchoStar’s News Gateway Network Aims to Simplify Video Delivery

EchoStar Satellite Services (a subsidiary of EchoStar Corp.) has unveiled the commercial availability of the News Gateway, a TV news delivery service that leverages EchoStar’s nationwide fiber network combined with IP multicasting technologies to route and deliver live, high quality video from any one of 210 U.S. DMAs. The service was unveiled at the satellite industry trade show SATCON at CCW 2010 in New York City.

Through an online interface, newsroom directors, engineers, and reporters can select, decode and route simultaneous live video content in real time from cities across the country. Selected video is then delivered to client locations through a dedicated fiber connection into EchoStar’s Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) network managed by 24/7 network engineering staff.

The number of simultaneously viewable sources is scalable to meet customer needs and is encoded in high quality MPEG formats, including SD from 210 DMAs and HD from 170 markets.

“EchoStar pioneered the efforts with major U.S. telco providers to implement a nationwide, fault-tolerant MPLS fiber network capable of transporting real-time, broadcast quality content,” says Ken Carroll, chief operating officer for EchoStar Satellite Services. “With News Gateway, we can bring this proven expertise to the broadcast community and deliver important television news of natural disasters or historical events to a nationwide audience, live and instantaneous.”

Through video over IP multicasting technologies, EchoStar is able to provide clients with access to the same content from up to 210 DMAs with minimal duplication of infrastructure. Professionally trained and experienced employees located in EchoStar’s 24/7 regional uplink facilities actively monitor and manage every point in the data path to ensure uninterrupted delivery to client sites. Additionally, the small footprint of the client-side hardware ensures ease of integration into existing video routing infrastructure.