P&TSolutions - P&T Luxembourg

C - LuxTeleport, la station d’uplink satellite de P&T //
Dossier Telecom Solutions for Video-Applications
LUXTELEPORT, P&T’S SATELLITE UPLINK STATION
For greater prominence, P&T’s uplink station will
become ‘LuxTeleport’
P&T’s satellite activities began 25 years ago, in 1985,
when P&T’s first teleport was installed in Dudelange
and made the uplink to a Eutelsat satellite of the German
channel RTL Plus (renamed today RTL Television,
and leading private channel in Germany). At that time,
P&T was already a signatory of the Intergovernmental
Organisation Eutelsat before becoming a shareholder
in 2001.
Since 1995, P&T has operated the teleport at the Cloche
d’Or, which notably consists of three, 9-meter diameter,
parabolic antennae and two with a 3.7-meter diameter for Ku
band satellite broadcasting services. Owing to the optimal
orbital coverage of this teleport, satellite uplinks and receptions
are possible through an arc of approximately 70° East to
30° West.
All broadcasting equipment has a 1:2 automatic commutation
and redundancy system for the modulators, amplifiers
and antennae, and a de-icing and automatic tracking system
to guarantee precise tracking of the satellite and ensure
optimum data and video-service transmission at all times.
P&T has thus received authorisation from the satellite service
providers Eutelsat and SES-Astra to access their satellites.
Over the course of the past 25 years, P&T has operated
many uplinks to various satellites, including in particular:
- RTL Plus
- RTL4
- Canal+ (NL)
- RTL Télévision for Switzerland
- Ocean-Cell (uplink for mobile phone services on a cruise
ship)
- Horizon (uplink for the Internet service for Saudi Arabia)
- Luxe.TV
- ARTE
At the end of 2010, the installations at P&T’s uplink station
were renamed ‘LuxTeleport’ to make them more prominent
nationally and internationally.
System redundancy giving 99.99% availability
The uplink station’s installations are equipped with reliable,
electric, breakdown-recovery systems to prevent any interruption
to satellite services that could be caused by a local
power cut.
For more details, contact 8002 4000
Connection of LuxTeleport to the international network
TERALINK
One of the station’s main advantages is that it is connected
in a redundant way, with physical diversity, to
P&T’s optical transmission network via SDH loops. The
station is also directly connected to the 15 international
points of presence (POP) in Europe of P&T’s IP broadband
network TERALINK. Owing to this connection, P&T
is able to offer national and international uplink services
and complete communication solutions using satellite
connectivity (such as Internet via satellite, mobile
telecommunications via satellite).
LuxTeleport extends its activities to include headend
and playout
In addition to uplink activities, P&T has operated a
network headend since 2010 for its IPTV service Tële
vun der Post at the Cloche d’Or teleport centre itself.
Eight 2.4 to 3.4m reception antennae are installed for
this service. They currently receive all the High Definition
channels as well as some standard-definition channels
broadcast for the Tële vun der Post and Mobile TV
offers. These channels are encoded on site using stateof-the-art
encoders.
LuxTeleport’s activities are not only limited to uplinking,
but also include the aggregation (playout) and distribution
of entire TV channels, as is the case for ‘Ma Commune
TV’ or business TV (‘Corporate TV’). Aggregated
channels can be distributed in Luxembourg on P&T’s
IPTV network or in other countries thanks to the
TERALINK network (see also other articles on the subject
in this edition).
Within the station, convertible spaces are also available
for hire to businesses wishing to install their own racks
for uplinking, headend or playout activities.
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