And now for a word with the Managing Director Thomas Becke and the Technical Director Thomas Marquardt:

Question of the editors:Mister Becke, SATCOM was the first private enterprise that, in 1992, has run a SNG vehicle in Germany. How did this happen? 

Thomas Becke: At that time, we entered into cooperation with Deutsche Post in which cooperation our share amounted to 51%. The cooperation worked very well for two years and one of these days, we took over the remaining share from Deutsche Post and we built further SNG vehicles and brought them on the market.

Question of the editors:How have the means of production changed since then? 

Thomas Marquardt:During the last years, two tendencies have developed. On one side, fast and low priced means of production staffed with a small team are on demand for news productions. With our SATCOM easyLINK-System, we have accelerated and strengthened this tendency. The other way consists in big HD outside broadcast vans that are in need for all kinds of sport and entertainment broadcasts.

Question of the editors:Which one was the most difficult production so far realized by Satcom? 

Thomas Becke: SATCOM already has mastered many productions under difficult conditions such as the reporting on the war in Ruanda or the handing over of Hong Kong by Great Britain to China. Another challenge was, or also is, the transmission from Rome in the case of death of the Pope. Who can say whenever this will happen? This means that a quick reaction and sophisticated logistics are needed.

However, one of the most spectacular things was that SATCOM, in the morning of September 12, 2009, succeeded in flying to the United States for the ZDF (second channel of German television broadcasting) taking along transmission and production equipment as well as personnel in a chartered aircraft in order to produce over there and to transmit from there. After all, the airspace in fact had been closed for a period of time until three days after the terror attacks.

Question of the editors:Mister Marquardt, it is obvious that SATCOM, besides the production service, also carries out development and construction work. How does this go together? 

Thomas Marquardt: We always try to use technology in a more efficient manner or to adopt new approaches, such as by the bidirectional MPEG 4 transmission for the daily broadcast of “Südwild” in BR (Bavarian broadcasting). To use technology in a more efficient manner has also been the basic idea for SATCOM easyLINK. To be able to put this into practice, we have to lend a hand whether with the development or with the construction of production units. As this works very well and as we bring along both ideas and experiences, we meanwhile also design and construct smaller SNG vehicles for our SATCOM easyLINK clients.

Question of the editors:Mister Becke, what is the direction of the journey?

Thomas Becke: It will take another few years until HD will completely be established. We will see whether 3D will follow. It is a fact, however, that more and more data have to be processed and, first of all, transported ever more rapidly. I’m pretty sure that besides the standard satellite transmission, further transmission paths will come into being in the near future and that these paths will be just as safe and satisfy the requirements. Furthermore, there will be more and more markets, but diversifications, too. Finally, the iPhone video user has to be served in the same manner as the high-class user with a home cinema surround sound system of his own.