Tuesday, November 10, 2009

VT Group secures contract with Polskie Radio


Support services company VT Group has secured a contract to broadcast 20 hours a day of analogue and digital output from the Polish public broadcaster Polskie Radio using its network of European and global transmission sites. VT will deliver the programming on shortwave to listeners in Europe and Israel. Broadcasts by Polskie Radio’s External Service, Poland’s international radio service, will be delivered in Polish, English, German, Hebrew, Russian, Belorussian and Ukrainian.

Programming, originating in Warsaw, will be brought into VT’s Media Management Centre in London for scheduling and distribution to various transmission sites using VT’s Global Media Network - a combination of fibre connectivity and satellite delivery. The majority of transmission will go out from VT’s site at Woofferton in Shropshire, supported by other sites including Rampisham and Skelton, and partner sites in Dhabiyya in the United Arab Emirates and at Moosbrun in Austria.

Most of the programming will be analogue but there is also provision for 1.5 hours a day of digital output using DRM digital short wave.

VT’s John Prior, General Manager Broadcast and Security, commented: ” We are delighted to be appointed as Polskie Radio’s exclusive shortwave transmission partner supplementing their existing output by satellite and Internet. The move demonstrates a continued commitment to short wave from a major European broadcaster.”

The four-year contract with Polskie Radio, which started in late October, is worth some £1.5 million and means VT now has nearly 40 customers for its transmission services. Polskie Radio’s daily output will place it in the company’s top ten broadcast customers.

(Source: VT Group)

Andy Sennitt comments: This confirms our report of 15 October, but at that stage the contract was said to be for six months. A four-year contract is good news for Polish Radio listeners.
(R Netherlands Media Network Weblog)

Related story from Oct. 15
On the latest Multimedia programme of Polish Radio’s English service, presenter Slawek Szefs announced that, like Radio Prague, the future of its shortwave broadcasts is in some doubt, but the station has been able to secure a new six-month contract via a new provider [presumably VT Communications] and will broadcast in English as follows during the B09 transmission period commencing on 25 October:

1300-1400 UTC on 11675 kHz via Moosbrunn, Austria (100 kW)
1300-1400 UTC on 11860 kHz via Woofferton, UK (125 kW)

1800-1900 UTC on 9650 kHz via Dhabbaya, UAE (250 kW)
1800-1900 UTC on 6130 kHz DRM via Woofferton, UK (100 kW)
(R Netherlands Media Network Weblog)