The Qatar Foundation expands feeds to access more TV content

The Qatar Foundation is a non-profit organisation which was founded for education, science and community development with an aim to "support Qatar on its journey from a carbon economy to a knowledge economy by unlocking human potential".

Its work in the education field has brought a number of international universities to Qatar to help develop the education sector in which young people can develop the attitudes and skills required for a knowledge economy.

Al Jazeera Children's Channel, a member of the Qatar Foundation for education and science, is used to provide programmes to enable children to strengthen their knowledge and values in all these areas.

For the Qatar Foundation, a quality and stable satellite infrastructure was needed to receive integrated entertainment and educational content for all Arab children and families.

The feeds would come from all over the world and would be used to support the existing Arabic language Channel. The content received would be a mix of shows from other sources and original programming dubbed into English from the existing Arabic-language Channel.

The Qatar Foundation selected ETL Systems' equipment, which was installed mid-way through 2012, to expand and give further access to TV content from Aljazeera Children's Channel.

Historically satellite teleports did not handle the same number of live satellite feeds as seen today. ETL Systems has witnessed a huge increase in the use of modulation and bandwidth enabling many more carriers to be delivered on a downlink. Previous designs of patch panels, fixed RF splitter systems and consumer multi-switch technology are constantly upgraded which makes the modern satellite teleport a constantly evolving part of the industry.

Three feeds for Qatar Foundation were ready to be received through three satellites (Arabsat, Nilesat and Hotbird) but needed a high quality and stable piece of technology to extend the signals reach.

ETL recommended the 4 off 16 input x 48 output L-band Vortex Matrices to help provide a dependable signal structure to access feeds from North America and Asia. ETL provided RF engineering advice and support during the design process of a new teleport and the installed technology ensured an extension to the feeds, to allow access to global programmes and distribution across the Qatar Foundation network.

Extending the satellite signal has enabled access to programmes from North America and Asia and Europe. By using ETL's matrices, the reliability and quality of the downlink feeds have been improved. Not only did the Vortex offer better RF performance, it also added the benefit of constant monitoring and reporting of status for peace of mind at the teleport.

"With new RF board designs and components, we were able to offer huge benefits to The Qatar Foundation project. Our in-house surface mount technology means that we are seeing better crosstalk, return loss, VSWR and flatness in much smaller housings. As the average Satellite Teleport is expanding fast, this means huge pressure on rack space, and technology has allowed ETL to offer hot-swap, strong RF performing downlink distribution in a smaller chassis. The Vortex is a perfect example of this. We are delighted to have worked with the Qatar Foundation."

Dr Esen Bayar, Chief Technical Officer, ETL Systems.