Worldspace
WorldSpace is a failed digital satellite radio network . It supplied the whole of Africa and also parts of Asia and Europe . It consisted of two satellites, AfriStar and AsiaStar . It was also planned to expand the offer to Latin America ( AmeriStar ). WorldSpace broadcast in the L-band (1467-1492 MHz ). There were three beams (footprints) available per satellite, each with 50 BC channels, whereby each BC channel could provide up to 8 subchannels for digital radio programs, but also multimedia services.
history
WorldSpace was founded in 1990 by the Ethiopian-American businessman Noah A. Samara and worked with many industrial partners: u. a. Alcatel Space , Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits , Micronas , Rohde & Schwarz .
In 2008 Worldspace filed for bankruptcy and in 2009 the satellites were sold to Yazmi . Yazmi uses the satellites to distribute learning content to special e-readers in Africa.
The two satellites, which were launched around 2000 (1997/2001), have now exceeded their planned lifespan of 12 years. However, the operator Yazmi assumes that the satellites will be functional for another 6 years, as none of the existing replacement components have been used so far.
Content
Most of the radio programs came from commercial partners like BBC , NPR , CNN , Virgin Radio , Fox News and Bloomberg . It was broadcast mainly in English , but also in French , Hindi , Arabic , Malayalam , Telugu , Bengali , Gujarati , Marathi , Punjabi , Tamil , Urdu and German . The up to 100 radio channels could be broadcast in different signal quality with bit rates of up to 128 kbit / s in MP3 format (almost CD quality). At the beginning of the broadcasts in 1999, many of the programs could be received freely. After that, they were largely encrypted and could only be received for a monthly fee. Five percent of the channels were exclusively available to the non-profit organization First Voice International (formerly WorldSpace Foundation ).
hardware
WorldSpace digital satellite radios were distributed by manufacturers such as JVC , XM Radio , Hitachi and Panasonic . A radio set consists of a portable satellite receiver and a palm-sized satellite antenna, which had to be aligned with one of the two satellites AfriStar and AsiaStar. AfriStar has been supplying Africa as well as parts of Europe and the Middle East since 1999 . AsiaStar has served large parts of Asia since 2001. In the Middle East, the broadcasts of both satellites overlapped, so that both could be received here. Plans for a third AmeriStar satellite to serve Central and South America failed due to frequency disputes, as the frequency range used by WorldSpace is also used by the US Air Force . The already completed AmeriStar was therefore renamed AfriStar2 and was kept ready as a replacement.
Worldspace in Germany
The State Media Authority Saarland granted WorldSpace Europe Holdings nationwide approval for a total of 23 special-interest radio programs for a period of ten years each. The offers should be distributed nationwide via satellite as a pay audio service.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from October 2, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ [1]
