NEW HORIZONS IN SIGHT
HSS brings advanced technology DVB-S2 to Middle East and Central Asia

Created in 2003, Horizon Satellite Services (HSS) has been providing customers in the Middle East, Asia and Africa with innovative satellite communication solutions for corporate networks, as well as access to tier-one Internet backbones. Today, HSS serves some of the region’s largest businesses and Internet Service Providers in 40 different countries, in particular in Iran, Iraq and Lebanon.

To support its development, HSS has recently opened at its on-ground platform, hosted at the Stellar teleport in Germany, one of the first hubs to offer extensive coverage of the Middle East and central Asia using the latest and most advanced satellite transmission technique, DVB-S2.

Hisham Ansari, Horizon Satellite Services Managing Director commented; “With DVBS2, we can use more advanced encoding techniques such as H.264 or VC-1, rather than being limited to MPEG-2 encoding. There is an incredible 30 per cent increase in efficiency with DVB-S2, compared with DVB-S, which results in greater value for our customers through speedy delivery in a much wider range of applications. We have fully deployed this new service on Eutelsat’s SESAT 2 and W5 satellites and our mid-term objective is to expand this advanced technology to the other Eutelsat satellites on which we operate capacity. In addition to increased efficiency for our IP services, which are our core business, this strategy will also boost our new Data and Video services by combining the functionality of DVB-S (for direct-to-home applications) and DVBDSNG (for professional applications). In these markets, HSS delivers solutions for professional video networks, programmes exchanges and on-the-spot news reporting from fixed and nomadic units.”

HSS has also recently increased its in-orbit resources, with a new contract for capacity on the W3A satellite, to extend its coverage in Sub-Saharan Africa. This service operates via a multiplex from Eutelsat’s Rambouillet teleport near Paris, where HSS has installed its own equipment for encryption and encapsulation. Principal markets HSS is addressing on W3A include Mali, Ghana, Chad, Nigeria and Gambia.