Nilesat Chooses Cisco Media, Satellite, and Broadcast Solution

Cisco Builds on Experience in Video and IP Protocol to Deliver High-Quality Video for Nilesat the Leading Satellite Operator in Middle East & North Africa Region

CAIRO, Egypt, 11 May 2012 – At Cairo ICT 2012, Cisco and Nilesat, the leading satellite operator in the MENA region, announced that Nilesat has successfully installed Cisco® Digital Media solutions for its contribution network.

Cisco’s end-to-end Media, Satellite, and Broadcast Video Solution provides all the important features Nilesat will need in the digital headend, including acquisition, video encoders and transcoders, video processors, encryption and management.  Using the Cisco Lifecycle Services approach, Cisco and its partners developed a broad portfolio of services that addressed all aspects of planning, deploying, operating, and optimizing Nilesat’s video network. The Cisco ROSA® Video Service Manager system will also provide a complete solution for end-to-end management. It will monitor, manage, and control equipment and services throughout the Nilesat network.

Currently the new digital contribution system between the Nilesat headend and the Egyptian Radio & Television Union (ERTU) site carries 32 government TV channels and hosts 40 radio stations to be broadcast over Nilesat’s Satellites, Cisco video solutions at Nilesat headend (Nilesat DVB Center) is also processing more than 150 TV and radio channels.

Highlights / Key Facts:

• Cisco’s Nilesat installation is built around three of its  latest encoding solutions :
  1. Cisco D9036 Modular Encoding Platform which provides multi-resolution, multi-format encoding for all applications requiring high levels of video quality.
  2. Cisco DCM Series D9900 Digital Content Manager MPEG Processors the next generation of intelligent headend processing equipment combines compactness and flexibility and leads to a cost-effective solution.
  3. The Cisco ASR 1002 Router which comes in a two-rack unit (RU) form factor and  is an ideal solution for a large branch office, for WAN aggregation, or as a managed high-speed customer premises equipment (CPE) device to support enhanced features such as security, deep packet inspection, and firewall.
• As the number of advanced applications continues to expand in the Nilesat network, managing and monitoring the network and its performance increases in importance.  The Cisco ROSA Video Service Manager system will reduce complexity, increase uptime and also help to decrease operating expenses.
• Media production, contribution and distribution solutions are also integral to the Cisco Media, Satellite, and Broadcast Solution. They provide the foundation for an end-to-end digital workflow that dynamically moves media through each stage in the media delivery process.

• With Cisco media production solutions Nilesat will not only be able to  easily extend content to any business unit, partner, or customer device, anywhere in the world, but it will also be able to reduce costs by consolidating and virtualizing media applications and infrastructures. The delivery of new content will also be accelerated.
• Cisco media production solutions will also enable Nilesat to adopt the concept of the medianet: an intelligent network of networks that is optimized end-to-end for dynamic media experiences.  This will help to deliver a single, scalable IP architecture that extends from the point of content ingest through every aspect of editing and production, across video contribution and distribution networks, all the way to the customer screen. A medianet will transform the customer experience by delivering more content, mobility, personalization, and control.
• Cisco media contribution solutions can provide editing and modifying content for regions and sponsors, add special graphic treatments and transport content, error-free, to dispersed facilities. In a sporting event, for example, video feeds may originate from a stadium and be edited and enhanced at an onsite editing facility. They are then transported to a national or global broadcast center for distribution.

• Cisco’s media distribution solutions will allow Nilesat to serve hundreds of operator head-ends and affiliate locations thereby meeting requirements for diverse video formats, quality levels, and compression standards. Also, with media distribution solutions Nilesat can deliver finished content and advertising to consumers in new ways.

Executive Quotes:

Mr. Salah Hamza, chief technology officer and acting chairman, Nilesat

“Nilesat chose Cisco’s Media, Satellite, and Broadcast Video Solution because satellite communications in Egypt are evolving rapidly and we know how important it is to invest in the latest state-of-the-art solutions to enable us to take our customer offering to the next level.  The Cisco solution will enable us to do this cost-effectively whilst also delivering the highest possible quality service.”

Olaf Krahmer, president and general manager, Cisco, Egypt

“Based on Nilesat’s business need Cisco introduced a platform that completely moved away from the traditional next-generation direct-to-home platforms and as a result we were able to successfully deploy a smart solution offering high performance and system availability whilst reducing the capital and operational expenditure  for Nilesat overall. Following this successful deployment, Cisco is now working very closely with Nilesat to introduce other new technologies that will help enhance their customer offering in the Middle East region and even further.”

Links / URLs:

• Nilesat web-site  :  www.nilesat.com.eg
•  The Network in Africa: http://newsroom.cisco.com/africa

About Nilesat:

The Egyptian Satellite Company, Nilesat, is a joint-stock company operating under the Free Zone Law in 6th of October City, and the name of a series of Egyptian communications satellites. It was established in 1996 to operate Egyptian satellites, associated ground control stations and up-linking facilities. It has launched 2 satellites to the 7° West orbital neighborhood (Nilesat 101 and Nilesat 102), and launched its second generation satellite, NILESAT 201 in August 2010. In December 2010, Nilesat broadcasts over 600 TV channels, and over 100 digital radio channels uplinked either from Cairo, Dubai, Amman, Doha, Riyadh and Beirut and covering North Africa, the Middle East and the Gulf Region. Nearly 76% of the TV channels are free to air, the remaining channels are encrypted. Nilesat viewership in the MENA region has shown steady growth, from 11 million households in 2003 to more than 40 million households in 2009. Nilesat is enjoying the highest viewership in the MENA region according to the most recent surveys in 2010, about 95 % of the house hold in the MENA region. For more details visit: http://nilesat.com.eg

About Cisco:

Cisco (NASDAQ:CSCO, news, filings) is the worldwide leader in networking that transforms how people connect, communicate and collaborate. Information about Cisco can be found at http://www.cisco.com.  For ongoing news, please go to http://newsroom.cisco.com.

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