Intelsat supports Live Earth

The Live Earth series of concerts – being staged to raise public awareness of climate change as a result of man-made carbon emissions – will be broadcast tomorrow to what will probably be the largest television audience, for a single event, that the world has seen.

The event will boast 24 hours of music across seven continents from eight cities, and will feature performances by more than 150 of the world’s top musical artists. It will be broadcast live to an estimated figure of over two billion viewers. As with the Live 8 event in 2005, satellite communications firm Intelsat is providing the technology and expertise to make these staggering viewing figures possible.

“We’ve been doing live TV from almost our very first days. From the first space walk on the moon we”ve been providing global coverage of live events since then,” Steve Spengler, SVP EMEA and Asia Sales, Intelsat told telecoms.com. “Our engagement with Live Earth was a natural connection with some of our strengths as a company in telecommunications and video provision.”

Intelsat will spend 24 hours gathering the various video feeds from the each of the eight concerts and then distribute that to the various television viewers around the world.

From the eight different venues by satellite, fibre and through four different teleports Intelsat will bring the content back to a production centre in London before distributing it back out through its network to various video communities throughout the world.

“There is a great degree of preparation in getting the satellites lined up and getting the fibre and teleport facilities ready. It is something we do every day. That’s our core business. That’s not unique. But the size of this event really is unique. It is the largest live high definition TV event so far. So it’s pretty significant,” said Spengler.

Key to the success of a project of this size is coordination. So while you’re sitting at home watching the world’s rock and pop stars perform, spare a thought for the unsung heroes behind the scenes, working for firms such as Intelsat, to make it all possible.