SIS LIVE supplies comprehensive connectivity services for election night 2015
Leading connectivity provider SIS LIVE, was relied upon by the UK’s main news broadcasters to provide uplink facilities for their general election coverage, on a night when speed, reliability and clarity were vital to ensure comprehensive reporting.
Milton Keynes, UK(13 May 2015)
SIS LIVE provided 70 satellite uplink vehicles to the main UK broadcasters, as they covered the voting and results in one of the most unpredictable elections in memory.
Uplink vehicles and SIS LIVE crew were deployed throughout England, Scotland and Wales, giving the broadcasters unprecedented coverage of the main electoral battlegrounds during a night of high drama watched by millions of viewers.
SIS LIVE’s clients, including the BBC, Sky News, ITV, ITN, and STV, took advantage of the organisations unparalleled connectivity, to ensure their audiences missed none of the twists and turns unfolding under the election spotlight. Most services were delivered as part of long-running contracts to supply the broadcasters with live news coverage.
The sheer number of key battlegrounds meant the broadcasters’ biggest challenge was reporting back from them all, with correspondents feeding back live input from a huge variety of locations, from rain-swept hills and windy valleys to overcrowded, noisy count venues.
Worldwide interest in the result meant overseas broadcasters, too, were vying for satellite space. But SIS LIVE’s permanently leased, dedicated satellite capacity, as well as its unrivalled uplink expertise and experienced crews with backup support, meant their clients’ live coverage was delivered without a hitch.
SIS LIVE provided the UK broadcast industry with approximately 550 MHz of Ku and Ka band satellite capacity on 4 different satellites, some permanently contracted, with a significant amount supplied from the company’s large pool of in-house, ad-hoc capacity. Many of the uplinks also used SIS LIVE’s innovative, fully automated DriveForce uplink system.
David Meynell, managing director, SIS LIVE, said: “SIS LIVE’s mobile satellite uplink fleet is the largest in Europe and we were able to complement our contract trucks with additional ad-hoc vehicles – all available with experienced crew.”
He added: “It is a testament to the quality of our equipment and the dedication of our staff that SIS LIVE can offer coverage on such a scale and subsequently receive tremendous feedback from our customers.”
Jackie Faulkner, director of operations, Sky News, said: “The biggest challenge in covering a UK election is being able to deliver all the action and results as they happen – from all corners of the UK.
“SIS LIVE made the planning, logistics and delivery considerably smoother with our contract trucks, which we can double crew with reliable and established engineers, as well as the addition of ad hoc trucks from Europe. This enabled us to concentrate on providing the exciting UK election coverage our viewers expect.”
Bevan Gibson, chief technology officer, ITN, said: “SIS LIVE’s teams once again worked closely with us, as a part of our operation on election night, to ensure live content was able to be inserted into national coverage throughout 24 hours of unmissable drama as the election unfolded.
“As a part of our newsgathering operation for the evening, we utilised our highly specified Ka Band DriveForce uplink vehicles, enabling us to provide seamless, high quality links to our correspondents around the country.”
About SIS LIVE:
SIS LIVE is a leading broadcast connectivity supplier, offering an innovative, wide ranging portfolio of products and services. The company operates a comprehensive fibre and satellite network that includes global distribution, streaming services and IP provision. The company covers over 100,000 hours of live events worldwide each year and provides venue connectivity at over 60 different locations. SIS LIVE also designs and manufactures an innovative, market-leading range of satellite products. SIS LIVE is the UK’s largest live content distributor, supporting multiple contracted and occasional use transmissions every day via its extensive fibre and satellite network and its MediaCityUK and Milton Keynes network operations centres.
For more information, please contact:
Donna Palumbo, Marketing Manager, dpalumbo@sislive.tv, Tel: +44 (0)1908 865554 www.sislive.tv
About ITN:
ITN is one of the world’s leading news and multimedia content companies creating, aggregating, packaging and distributing news, entertainment and lifestyle content on multiple platforms to a wide range of customers around the globe.
ITN has built a world-class reputation as the leading provider of independent broadcast news delivering powerful, authoritative, award-winning coverage.
ITN produces news for the largest free-to-air commercial broadcasters in the UK, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5. ITN’s news bulletins are watched by nearly 10 million viewers daily in the UK with millions more worldwide through partnerships with news outlets such as CNN, NBC and Channel 7 (Australia). www.ITN.co.uk