03 May 2023
As part of its existing offering, STN is now offering a guarantee of no weather outages and enhanced interference protection when uplinking to Eutelsat 8West B satellite..png?lu=852)
Zero weather-related outages are assured by using two uplink sites located over 5,000km apart. Switching between them is a seamless, totally automatic process based on the measured signal to noise ratio and link margin values. These are pre-configured according to the downlink levels in the region, so guaranteeing no signal disruption regardless of the weather.
8West B is equipped to mitigate interference, due to its use of frequency converters behind the satellite receive antennas. This means that the uplink frequency can be changed without any impact on the downlink frequency. STN has gone one step further to minimize the likelihood of intentional or accidental jamming. The signals are uplinked from two geographically diverse sites located on a different continents.
“We’re excited to be able to offer this additional level of service to our customers in the MENA region,” said CEO of STN, Mitja Lovsin. “We pride ourselves on our customer service, and by offering this geographically remote and diverse uplink facility for Eutelsat 8West B, our customers have the most secure and reliable service available for the region.”
The 7/8o West orbital position (also Nilesat) is the premier broadcasting neighbourhood for the Middle East and Africa and STN also uplinks to Eutelsat 7West A. Channels broadcast from 7/8o reach 90% of TV homes, 95% of DTH (Direct-To-Home) homes and 73% of hotels in the region. 60% of these channels are exclusive to this video neighbourhood. Always popular, this video neighbourhood is continually increasing its channel line-up, which now numbers over 1,000 channels. HD is also becoming increasingly popular. 60% of homes served by this video neighbourhood are equipped to receive HD and there has been a 26% increase in the number of free-to-air (FTA) HD channels carried since 2020.
