Tim Furniss/LONDON
The next Ariane 5 launch in February will help to spread radio broadcasts across the world. One of the two satellites it will carry will be the AsiaStar, the second in the three-satellite WorldSpace constellation, which provides the world's largest digital audio broadcast system.
The WorldSpace service was inaugurated in October, using the AfriStar satellite. It provides a unique satellite radio service that transmits multilingual radio programming across the African continent.
The AfriStar made history. It was the first direct-to-receiver radio satellite to be launched and was described as "the biggest breakthrough since the invention of the radio". The AfriStar has the potential to send a tidal wave of programming into an area of the world where there is a drought of information.
It was the first broadcast satellite for the WorldSpace system, which aims to cover emerging - and underserved and untapped - markets in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Latin America and the Middle East.
The third satellite, the Ameristar, is to be launched later this year. USA-based WorldSpace sees a huge untapped market for satellite digital radio services, accomplished by transmitting from the three geostationary satellites directly to millions of L-band personal portable receivers.
Traditional satellites broadcast to dishes before the signals are turned to sound and images before being relayed to customers.
The satellites are built by Alcatel Space, the industrial prime contractor responsible for the complete end-to-end WorldSpace system. A spare fourth satellite has also been ordered. This may be added to the fleet to serve the Russian and Eastern European market. The WorldSpace satellites use a common adaptable design that permits the spare craft to substitute for any of the three operational satellites.
Communications payloads
Alcatel Space builds the communications payloads and integrates them with the flight-proven EuroStar 2000+ bus, built by Matra Marconi Space. It is the largest of these spacecraft buses which have been used for the Eutelsat Hot Birds broadcasting satellites. Once the system is completed, the AfriStar, AsiaStar and AmeriStar satellites will be located respectively at 21°E, 105°E and 95°W in geostationary orbit. Each has a design life of 12 years, although they have enough propellant on board to maintain the orbit for 15 years.
Each satellite will broadcast three beams, with more than 50 channels per beam. The AfriStar satellite, for example, supplies more than 25 channels of news, music, entertainment and educational programming. Each of the three beams generated by the satellite covers an area of 14 million km2 (5.4 million miles2), covering all of Africa and the Middle East.
Noah Samara, WorldSpace chairman and chief executive, raised $1 billion over eight years for his brainchild and owns 20% of the company. The African, Japanese, Middle Eastern and US investors reportedly include the Saudi royal family. He aims to attract a further $250 million investment.
The original goal of Samara, a lawyer and former adviser to the International Telecommunication Union, was to provide direct satellite delivery of digital audio communications and multimedia services to the emerging and underserved markets of the world - 4.6 billion people in 123 developing countries.
There is one radio per 30,000 people in the industrialised world, but one radio per 2 million in the developing countries. "For the first time, crystal-clear radio programming is being heard in areas that, until now, have been underserved by traditional radio sources," Samara says. Most people in the developing regions have limited access to broadcast news and entertainment. For example, 30% of the African continent, excluding South Africa and Namibia, is not covered by indigenous radio systems.
The free, multilingual, WorldSpace radio service offers a wide variety of programming with digital-quality sound. Listeners can choose news from CNN International or Bloomberg, or best regional radio in several languages. This means that a local radio station can be heard nationwide. For example, Uganda's Sanya FM has signed a deal with WorldSpace to transmit throughout the country.
Looking wider afield, WorldSpace is in discussion with the BBC World Service and other radio stations to form a digital global radio service. Using its studios in London and Washington DC, WorldSpace also creates its own original programming, from modern rock, contemporary pop hits and global dance music, as well as spoken word programming for children and adults.
"We're delighted with the diversity of broadcasters that we have been able to offer our listeners," Samara says. "This validates our long-held belief that a critical need exists for high quality programming that reaches a much wider geographic audience than with today's conventional analogue radio systems. Ultimately, our programming partners may be able to reach as many as 1 billion people through our broadcast system."
As the system grows, its signals will touch all or parts of four continents. Broadcasters will be able to uplink either from centralised hubs or individual feeder links that are located anywhere in the uplink coverage areas of the three planned satellites.
Revenue creation
WorldSpace will create its revenue by leasing satellite space to programmers as well as selling advertising on the 80 channels transmitted to each region, including standard AM and FM local and regional broadcasts, plus domestic and international short-wave communications. The receivers will also include data points to receive multimedia programming.
Hitachi, JVC, Panasonic and Sanyo have designed and manufacture the receivers to receive the WorldSpace service. These can be linked to a PC to access text. The receivers contain data compression chips and flat antennas. As 75% of the potential customers in Africa, for example, do not have electricity, batteries are needed. WorldSpace is studying the use of a solar panel on later units to generate electricity.
More than 130,000 receivers have been made and are being sold through retail outlets, as well as through additional distribution channels arranged by WorldSpace.
The radio receivers use chipsets consisting of two micro-integrated circuits that process the satellite transmissions. They can be powered either by a direct electrical connection or by battery.
The system is working in Africa and will be fully operational worldwide by the end of the year, but Samara faces regulatory and price hurdles and tough competition from terrestrial radio and Internet broadcasters.
Samara's initial target audience is 300 million "middle class" households buying 9 million receivers, enabling WorldSpace to reduce the receivers' unit price, and making the system affordable to "poorer" users. The receivers cost about $250, however, and most people in the company's target countries such as Uganda spend only $5 on radio sets.
But Samara's goal is more than basic commerce. He says he is attempting to create something "life changing" by offering education programming, reaching the illiterate and promoting indigenous cultures.
"Nothing else like the WorldSpace system exists. It is the sole provider of wireless digital audio and multimedia to areas whose populations comprise 80% of humanity," says Samara.
Sceptics say WorldSpace will not be able to transmit to mobile vehicles, such as cars, satisfactorily. In addition, the system will face competition from American Mobile Radio (AMRC) and CD Radio, which plan similar regional systems, mainly to the "rich" North America, with launches within the next two years.
Samara, just in case, perhaps, has also invested in AMRC.
Source: Flight International
