Each provincial office of the SABC will receive one of the nine Hybrid Electronic News Gathering units/ vehicles that offer on the move broadband satellite communication system.

The vehicles can be driven by personnel with a standard driving license.

These vehicles will have the ability to transmit Video (SD or HD), Voice and Data, all while on the move.  The vehicle no longer needs to park, unfold the dish on the roof, point, go through the “align-the-dish” procedure with the satellite provider and then commence with transmission. Now it’s simply “Point the Camera” and transmit, no matter if the vehicle is driving down a busy “highway” or is at standstill at some event. “Simultaneously”  the user has telephone contact with MCR via SABC own PABX telephone network, making the vehicle independent of a possible overloaded GSM network. Extraneous to this, the ENG user has access to the Internet or Intranet and e-mail at the same time.

To monitor the vehicles and limit wasteful use of satellite capacity, the whole fleet will be controlled from the headquarters in Auckland Park - Johannesburg. From here the Management System – Media Fleet Manager (MFM), an ND SatCom developed system, informs the manager where each vehicle is, if it’s travelling or standstill; transmission is scheduled up to the “second” automatically, reducing the time and effort to a minimum. Key for the used smart technology in the vehicles is the SOTM antenna allowing the MFM to dynamically grant transmission capacity to camera teams when and where needed.

The solution is based on the proven ND SatCom SKYWAN 7000 modem technology that ensures uninterruptible transmissions. The ENG units were built in South Africa by NIC - New 
Installation Company (Pty) Ltd. to assist in the future support of the vehicles.

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