SIS Live to debut vehicle-mounted antenna system

Outside broadcast, uplink, and product design specialist SIS LIVE returns to IBC to demonstrate developments to its ever-growing portfolio of satellite and broadcast products. An array of products, all developed and manufactured by its in-house teams, will be unveiled to the industry, including the new DriveForce vehicle mounted antenna, PlexSIS fibre system, and innovative ManPak compact VSAT terminal.

SIS LIVE has designed an entirely new vehicle mounted antenna system, DriveForce. With increasing demand for high bandwidth HD transmissions, many existing systems use mounts developed for small aperture antennas, bolstered to take a larger reflector, thus compromising the design and wind load performance.  The high-performance carbon fiber antenna is fully automated, capable of high bandwidth transmissions, operational up to wind speeds of 60mph, and incorporates SIS LIVE’s award-winning differential antenna control technology to find and track any satellite within seconds.

David Meynell, managing director, SIS LIVE says, “As a service provider we have used antennas from other manufacturers and they are just not up to the job, often failing in strong winds.  DriveForce has been designed from the bottom up and we have ensured this antenna meets our demands and those of our clients.”

Mounted on a Mercedes Sprinter stationed in the outside exhibition area, DriveForce will transmit IBC TV News daily broadcasts. These twenty-minute shows will start at 9am each morning from 7-11 September and will be broadcast on local channel AT5 and distributed to the rest of Europe and North America. SIS LIVE’s RouteCase portable production studio was also selected by IBC TV News for use during live webcast interviews as part of its multi-media content offering.

The SIS LIVE outside exhibition area will also play host to Ka Band satellite demonstrations, showing off the exceptional amount of bandwidth that can be transmitted through the small ManPak and uPak 60 terminals.

SIS LIVE will also be exhibiting NewTek’s MINI LiveMan. This compact mobile production unit, which was integrated by SIS LIVE, features the award-winning uPod satellite uplink system. uPod allows instant satellite access and high bandwidth streaming capabilities through SIS LIVE’s dedicated iDirect multi-satellite hub.

Franck Lafage, managing director at 3D Storm, NewTek EMEA Distributor, says, “When we launched the MINI LiveMan project, the concept was to showcase the latest production systems developed by NewTek. We had two key terms in mind: ‘Compact’ and ‘all-terrain.’ Because of this it was natural for us to team up with SIS LIVE to mount their compact uPod antenna on the vehicle’s roof. We thank them for the tremendous work and close collaboration on the MINI LiveMan project, and look forward to a fruitful and long-lasting partnership.”

Also on display will be the brand new PlexSIS fibre optic transport system.  PlexSIS provides transport of up to 16 SDI signals over a single optical fibre and was extensively used during this summer of live sport.  Other innovations include market-changing ManPak, the ultimate sub 12kg VSAT terminal with no removable parts; uPak 60, a fully automated lightweight VSAT terminal; Tr-uPod, a compact tripod satellite uplink system and RouteCase, a powerful, compact and affordable 4 channel HD/SDI production unit.