From June 17 to July 2, 2017, Russia hosted the FIFA Confederations Cup. This tournament is seen as a rehearsal for the soccer World Cup, which will take place in Russia in 2018. Broadcasts of the Confederations Cup games in HD format were arranged from four cities: Moscow, Sochi, St. Petersburg, and Kazan. Fans in Chile and other Latin American countries were able to watch the games of the Confederations Cup thanks to the broadcasts via the Russian Express-AM8 satellite (14-degrees W) and mobile satellite communications stations of the Start TV and radio company.
The START’s mobile facilities carry two satellite transmitters with a capacity of 750 watts each, assuring good protection from any inclement changes of weather, including torrential rains and strong wind. “Thanks to the well-coordinated interaction between Start and RSCC, we have achieved ultrashort code delays. Taking advantage of the ability to switch the Express AM8 satellite capacity from Russia over to Latin America, it became possible to avoid the traditional re-upload of the satellite signal in Europe”, says START’s General Producer Vladimir Shirokov. “The technical solution we have used provides a signal delivery speed exceeding that of fiber-optic transmission over the transatlantic cable. This was extremely important for our Latin American television partners, because in Chile, for example, the games of the Confederations Cup were broadcast in parallel by three competing TV channels, and the viewer intuitively chose to watch the channel which showed the action ahead of the others.”
According to Yury Prokhorov, the RSCC General Director, “broadcasting events of this scale carries with it a special responsibility and a certain challenge for TV and communications companies. It is on reliability of their operations that success of the event as a whole depends to a large extent. RSCC spacecraft are configured to support high-speed information bridges such as Russia – Latin America, Europe – Africa, Europe – Middle East, Europe – Asia, creating great opportunities for transfer of video and data in any desired direction. Broadcasting of the Confederations Cup 2017 games was provided at a high technological level.”
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