Bandwidth bottleneck

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Jamal Al Sharif, director of Dubai Studio City (DSC).

The contentious issue of satellite bandwidth supply - or lack of it - attracted plenty of debate among delegates at last month's CABSAT 2008 conference in Dubai.

The emerging commercial strategies supporting the introduction of HDTV and mobile TV services dominated the two-day CABSAT conference programme.

The conference was opened by Jamal Al Sharif, director of Dubai Studio City (DSC), who focused specifically on both issues in his keynote address.

Speaking exclusively to Digital Broadcast, Al Sharif said that an increasing number of mobile TV specialists were considering establishing operations at DSC.

"We're also hopeful that the first commercial DVB-H mobile TV services will launch later this year in the UAE," he said.

Michael Rofe of du Broadcast Services presented a paper at the event which focused on the amount of bandwidth currently being offered by the region's main satellite providers, Nilesat and Arabsat.

"Today, unfortunately the ‘bandwidth drought' continues. However, this ultimately may prove good news for satellite [service providers] in the Middle East," he claimed.

Speaking off the record to Digital Broadcast, one delegate claimed Nilesat didn't "even have the capacity to carry a single standard definition channel at the moment".

Arabsat intends to launch a new satellite every year for the next four years, while Nilesat plans to soon introduce its next-generation 200 series satellite.

However, two of these satellites are replacements for existing hardware, which is scheduled for decommissioning in 2013 and 2015, distorting the amount of additional capacity these launches will actually provide.

Yahsat, a new UAE-based satellite service provider, confirmed it will launch its first satellite in 2010 with a second launch scheduled for the first half of 2011.

With the so called bandwidth drought set to subside and as the phased investment in HD by content producers begins to bear fruit, there should be few barriers to the wholesale introduction of commercial HD services.

As contracts for transponder space on the satellites come up for renewal, Rofe claims a phase of repurposing will begin with many smaller SD channels forced out as the big boys raise demand, and prices, as they look to secure enough bandwidth for their new HD services.

This could represent the beginning of elevated prices for bandwidth.

This process will also represent the earliest opportunity for broadcasters to get HD content on air. Rofe suggests a large-scale regional rollout of HD services will take place in 24 to 36 months. By the end of this period, there should be four additional satellites serving the region courtesy of Arabsat, Nilesat and Yahsat.

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