With slowly improving backhaul technologies, the concept of multi-channel service providers is becoming popular so that a single teleport can provide services to a large number of individual channels in a more effective and economical manner.

The Indian market for earth station installations for the broadcast industry in 2010-11 was dominated by General Dynamics, Indiasign, and Essel Shyam. Two direct installations and two upgradation projects were undertaken by General Dynamics, for a total value of `15.43 crore in 2010-11. Indiasign installed one earth station and upgraded four teleports, with a total value of `12 crore. Essel Shyam installed five earth stations and supplied TV transmission apparatus for one, with the total value being `8.5 crore. Arraycom and Rtronix are the other major system integrators.

In 2010-11, the DTH expansion projects for Sun Direct DTH and Reliance Digital TV have been undertaken by General Dynamics. The total value of the projects was `12 crore. The company has also installed new teleports for Beximco (Bangladesh) and India TV.

Indiasign undertook projects which include upgradation of their own teleport at Hyderabad with latest state-of-the-art equipment, on a 9 M antenna for 14+1 MCPC chain with Irdeto encryption facility. The company also installed their second teleport at Hyderabad IS-10 Satellite, with latest facilities such as MPEG-4, DVB-S2, 8PSK, 6.3-m antenna and encryption to endow clients with latest technology.

ABC Teleport at Hyderabad has been upgraded to 6+1 system with latest uplink facilities by Indiasign. The latest technology implemented has given it an edge over its competitors in South Indian market. The company also upgraded its own teleport at Gurgaon with latest Ericsson compression chain. The teleport can work on multiple satellites simultaneously. The project of teleport shifting for TV Today Networks Limited from Videocon Tower, New Delhi to Noida, has also been undertaken by Indiasign as a complete turnkey project.

Essel Shyam undertook projects for the supply, installation, and integration of transmission equipment for setting up a teleport for Maasranga Communications Ltd., My TV, Gazi TV in Dhaka, in the year 2010-11. The company has also initiated projects for supply, installation, and commissioning of C-band earth station for Virgo Media Ltd. at Dhaka and Sri Venkateshwara Bhakti Channel at Tirupati. Essel Shyam has also supplied television transmission apparatus to Himalayan Television, Kathmandu.

Essel Shyam Communications has committed to new capacity under a multi-transponder, multi-year commitment on Intelsat's fastest growing video neighborhood at 66 degrees E on the Intelsat 17 satellite. Essel Shyam will join Sony Pictures Television and Sun TV Network Ltd., utilizing Intelsat 17's broad footprint, which is optimized to distribute programming across the greater Indian Ocean region.

Arraycom executed a few projects during the year 2010-11 for Delhi Doordarshan Kendra (DDK). The projects include the upgradation of compression system for increasing bandwidth efficiency to insert one HDTV channel in the existing bandwidth at 8+1 channel earth station at DDK, New Delhi. 
The system includes Ericsson 
Television's encoder cards and 
compression software; Ericsson Television's nCompass control for remote M&C of the compression system; Harris HD-SDI router; and video-patch panels for HD-SDI signals. The project cost was `2.63 crore.

The company also implemented the project for insertion of one HD channel in C-band at 8+1 channel earth station at DDK, New Delhi and in Ku-band DTH at DDK, Todapur. This system includes Ericsson Television's HD encoders with 5.1 HE AAC audio, working as 1+1 redundant system, Snell & Willcox's fiber optic system, Harris de-embedder; Wohler's TFT monitors and Audio bar-graph system for monitoring, and Ericsson Television's receivers for downlink monitoring. The project cost was `5.0 crore.

For the year 2011-12, Arraycom (India) Ltd. has been awarded an order for `9.86 crore for supply, installation, testing, and commissioning of upgradation of DDK's existing five earth stations. The system comprises of Ericsson Television's compression system and nCompass M&C software, CPI SSPA, Comtech EF Data's up converters, and monitoring and measuring systems. The company has also been awarded an order worth `3.59 crore for three numbers of 7.5 m C-band earth stations comprising antenna, LNA, and down converters.

In 2011-12, a request for EoI has been invited by Broadcast Engineering Consultants India Limited (BECIL) and Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) for the upgradation of existing teleports at Mumbai, Pune, Bengaluru, and Hyderabad for uplink of TV channels of private broadcasters. The project is to be executed as public-private partnership (PPP) mode. The existing teleports at Bengaluru, Mumbai, Pune, and Hyderabad have 9.3 m motorized C-band dish, 7.3 m motorized C-band dish, 9.3 m motorized C-band dish, and 9.3 m motorized C-band dish with teleport equipment room respectively.

BECIL and STPI will be handling the day-to-day technical operations of the facility as well as overall business operations. The private partner shall be required to work out detailed business plan and execute the upgradation of teleports for uplink of TV channels as well as to handle the marketing of services. The business plan shall include the required uplink capacity of the teleport which shall be based on the business projections and the proportional band width shall be obtained by STPI-BECIL who shall also be responsible for all regulatory clearances. STPI-BECIL shall be paid the leasing charges toward uplink dish, space, and accommodation as well as any other facilities taken on lease for the operations.

Trends

With slowly improving backhaul technologies, the concept of multi-channel service providers is becoming popular so that a single teleport can provide services to a large number of individual channels in a more effective and economical manner. The trends include change of antenna size based on regulatory requirements, i.e., 4.5 M up to 9 MHz and 9 m antenna thereafter; change in RF from tube technology (TWTA) to solid-state power amplifiers (SSPAs); change in compression from MPEG2 to MPEG4; change in compression from DVB-S to DVB-S2; and introduction of high definition (HD) technology.

Challenges and Drivers

Satellite service providers, earth stations, and satellite operators continue to face several challenges. Non-availability of bandwidth is a major issue. There are seven DTH players in the field, thus the need for more bandwidth space increases drastically. With the severe shortage of broadcasting space in the national hemisphere from ISRO, operators are waiting for leased territory on foreign satellites by ISRO. A request for proposal has been initiated by the ISRO to obtain responses from interested foreign satellite operators for leasing satellites with transponders working in Ku and C-band frequencies. At present, ISRO has 187 transponders from nine Indian communication satellites including transponders of GSAT-12. It has taken 86.5 transponders on lease basis from foreign operators through marketing arm Antrix Corp. Ltd. ISRO plans to increase the transponder capacity by building and launching communication satellite GSAT-9, GSAT-10, and GSAT-11. ISRO's move comes in the wake of acute Ku-band transponder shortage that the Indian DTH industry faces as it seeks to add channels and offers HD services. ISRO will need to speed up the satellite launches in order to meet demand.

Satellite services have become less competitive in comparison with terrestrial services in the already existing regions. Service providers need to differentiate themselves.

Profitability margins of satellite services are under pressure. As the profitability is being driven by OpEx, dominated by the cost of satellite capacity, there is a definite demand for technology to reduce bandwidth needs and to allow operators to do more business with the same satellite capacity. The lack of satellite capacity to expand business in some areas needs to be tackled.

The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting is in agreement with the TRAI's recommendation on no cap to be placed on the number of satellite broadcasting channels permitted to be downlinked for viewing in India or to be uplinked from India and the period of permission for uplinking/downlinking of channels be made uniform to 10 years.

The authority has recommended that the total net worth should be `25 crore for the first channel, and enhanced by `10 crore for each additional channel for uplinking of non-news and current affairs and downlinking of channels. The ministry however differs on this aspect. It says that this will benefit only big companies thereby denying an opportunity to the medium and small players in TV channel business. It will also adversely affect new/first generation entrepreneurs.

The market for earth stations will be primarily driven by the use of multiple satellite constellations by DTH operators, increasing capacity for HD channels, redundancy sites, use of new bands, and increasing number of teleports.

This article is based on research conducted by Broadcast & Cablesat in July, 2011

On market trends

With slowly improving backhaul technologies, the concept of multi-channel service providers is becoming popular so that a single teleport can provide services to a large number of individual channels in a more effective and economical manner. The other changes in technologies are MPEG4 compression and DVB S2 modulation which serve to economize on bandwidth. Also, compression/transmission is now moving from ASI to IP, which allow for better monitoring, control, and routing.

On key drivers

The projects for regional channels in India and SAARC region are providing good opportunity. Channels are opting for their own earth stations as the current backhaul connectivity is not as reliable and economical as it should be. With time, this infrastructure will improve and we may see channels outsourcing uplinking to commercial teleports.

On major customers

Essel Shyam has set up earth stations for Sri Vekateswara Bhakti Channel Tirupati, Maasranga Communications Ltd., Dhaka, My TV Dhaka, Gazi TV, Dhaka, Virgo Media Ltd., Dhaka. Currently the company is setting up an earth station for Channel 24, Dhaka. It has also undertaken projects for setting up its own teleports at Mumbai and Kochi and upgrading its teleport at Noida.

On USP of the solutions

The solutions are engineered for near zero downtime. The equipments are selected carefully over an extended period of time and the design is kept modular to allow for future expansion and modernization. Being a service provider for more than 10 years, Essel Shyam recommends only such equipment that the company has tested and used. With a strong team of trained telecom engineers, all installations by the company are backed by a long-term after-sales support.