Lebanon’s ISOL Chooses ATEME Encoder for Digital Satellite News Gathering

­ATEME, a global leader in advanced video compression solutions for the broadcast industry, announced today that ISOL, a provider of satellite services in Lebanon, has selected the Kyrion CM5000 for its DSNG (Digital Satellite News Gathering) operations.

Based in the center of Beirut, ISOL is an independent provider of production and news gathering services operating its own fleet of vehicles and fly-aways. ISOL clients include leading news broadcasters in the Middle East and throughout the world such as Al Arabiya, Sky News Arabic, CNN, Al Hourra and the BBC.

ISOL selected ATEME’s Kyrion CM5000 encoder in a configuration that is dedicated to news professionals. The encoder includes satellite modulation to save costs and space in vehicles and fly-aways and additional features that effectively simplify field operations, reduce setup time and minimize risks of configuration errors.

Houssam Mansour, head of broadcast operations, ISOL, said, “At ISOL, we often operate under extreme pressure, whether in Lebanon, or when covering news in other Middle East countries. We found the ATEME encoders and decoders to be very well designed for our day-to-day race against time, effectively saving us precious minutes when we need them. Picture quality was also important in our selection process, as we strive to delight our customers in every aspect of our service.”

The Kyrion CM5000 delivers perfect picture quality even at low bitrates compared to other dedicated encoders utilized for news broadcasts. ATEME’s unmatched video compression performance allows ISOL to deliver flawless
broadcasts to the most demanding news channels worldwide, despite bandwidth limitations.

Alexandre Rouly, Middle East sales manager, ATEME, said, “We are very proud to see the growing adoption of our contribution solutions in the Middle East, a region that draws massive coverage from around the world and is the ultimate test bench for our news encoder. ISOL is a great customer and its experience of SNG is invaluable for us as we continue to take the lead in what has become a very competitive marketplace.”