STS’s Satellite Uplink Truck Handles World Feed of Super Bowl XLIII

When
the
Pittsburgh Steelers and Arizona Cardinals hit the gridiron at Raymond James
Stadium in Tampa, FL, for the 43rd Super Bowl,
Crystal Lake, IL-based Satellite Technology Systems (STS) provided the world
feed for NFL Films. This Super Bowl broadcast marked the third consecutive year
that NFL Films has contracted STS for satellite uplink services.

Using its
recently upgraded Ku/HD Production Uplink Vehicle, which features FOR-A’s HVS-1000HS
HANABI 1-M/E HD switcher, STS’s feed was made available in HD and SD simultaneously,
as well as on both C- and Ku-band satellite frequencies. The C-band antenna part
of the truck was used for HD, and the Ku portion was used for the
SD world feed. Within the truck, Tandberg Television encoders were used to
encode the Super Bowl world feed.

The
dual-band transmission capabilities ensured security for the game’s
far-reaching broadcast. Last year’s Super Bowl was transmitted to 232 countries
and territories in 34 languages and made available to an estimated 1 billion
people. While somewhat more complicated to control, the dual-band technology
provides an essential backup system should the primary system fail.

“Our truck
served U.S. network affiliates and national and international broadcast entities,” says STS founder/President Chuck Spoto. “There are many methods of receiving signals.
By transmitting in every possible scenario, everyone’s needs were
covered.”

Spoto said
the signal sent from STS’s powerhouse dual-dish truck on Super Bowl Sunday may
have had a larger audience than the domestic transmission of the game.

The 33-foot
STS truck provides robust production capabilities, an equipment inventory on
par with larger mobile-production vehicles, as well as uplink services,
creating a cost-effective solution for shoots requiring up to six cameras. It can
seat a crew of eight.

“We’ve gone
coast-to-coast with this truck, and we know that our success can be credited in
part to the HVS-1000HS and our ability to add a certain level of effects that
make us stand out,” says Spoto.

On Feb.
10, STS will relocate its truck to NASA’s Kennedy
Space Center
in Cape Canaveral, FL, to provide uplink services
for Nippon Television’s (NTV) coverage of the next launch of the Space Shuttle Discovery. NTV offers broadcasters and distributors programming for several
dozen Japanese television stations as well as to foreign bureaus in Europe and Asia.

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information about FOR-A’s product line, visit the Website at www.for-a.com