BNCS REACHES OUT FOR NEW HEIGHTS

BBC Resources have secured a major contract with broadband communications company, United Pan-European Communications (UPCtv [EuroHITS]) in Amsterdam for their Broadcast Network Control System (BNCS) to control satellite uplinks for the first time.
BCNS, the total control integration system used throughout the BBC, is used by BSkyB, London Weekend Television, two major American broadcasters and a Nordic Television station.
BNCS controls operations within Master Control Rooms (MCRs), and UPCtv (EuroHITS) will use the system to control up to of their six satellite uplinks across Europe.
Craig Bury CTO of UPC Media said: “We chose the BBC BNCS product for our monitoring and control requirements because it represents the unifying element of a very complex, multiple site control requirement. UPC will, over the next year intend to fully monitor and control both our remote satellite assets as well as those elements of our broadcast operation that should be centrally controlled. BCNS meets all our monitor and control requirements in a single, flexible and extensible package.”
The BNCS installation project for UPCtv will involve three phases. The first will deal with the operation of the satellite ground stations involving the alignment of transmission dishes, power and alarm control and monitoring frequency and the attenuation control and monitoring. This phase will begin at satellite round stations in Prague, Budapest, Vienna, Warsaw and later at UPCtv’s Teleport at Helmond in the Netherlands, as well as the Network Operations Centre (NOC) in Amsterdam.
Phase two will involve doubling the work to set up an automatic antenna redundancy system in all six facilities. The third phase moves on to the integration of flyaway antennas including mobile remote satellite ground stations. This will allow the BNCS back in Amsterdam to monitor and control the flyaway antennas and the BCNS will then set up the parameters via GSM network (or any standard telephone line) and control transmission and reception from UPCtv’s NOC in Amsterdam. Systems can be deployed anywhere in the world but still remain under the complete control from the NOC in Amsterdam.