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BEIJING—The Philippines has made its mark in the 29th
Olympic Games—not on the playing field, but in outer
space—through its very own Mabuhay Satellite.
Mabuhay
Satellite was invited by China’s only major satellite
operator, China DBSAT, to help provide satellite uplink
service to international broadcasters.
“Traditionally, [these] services are provided by the
world leader in Olympic broadcast transmission like
Eurovision [EBU], ABU [Asia Broadcasting Union], TVNZ
[TV New Zealand], Globecast and NBC of the United
States,” said Johnson Regalado, head of sales and
marketing of Mabuhay Satellite Corp.
“Satellite operators normally do not go
into this service as it entails a lot of work and
technical expertise,” he added.
China DBSAT, being the only Chinese
satellite operator, was asked to service the Olympics.
It, in turn, invited Mabuhay Satellite because of the
Filipino satellite company’s experience in the last
Southeast Asian Games, the Asian leaders’ meeting in
Cebu and the Asian Ministerial Meeting in Manila and
Vietnam, according to Regalado.
“Plus the fact that Agila 2 was launched
in China, which is one of the most successful launches
of Great Wall Holdings. They consider Mabuhay as one of
their own. Mabuhay Satellite has provided technical and
marketing personnel to compliment their own.”
“The uplink provides a very beautiful
nighttime panorama for standup position, and has the
capability of transmitting directly to any part of the
world. The current users are the Brazilian Television
group, the USA pool with a weekly live interview, like
the interview on Michael Phelps, and the Eastern
European countries,” added Regalado.
Mabuhay Satellite Corp. (MSC) is the
first Philippine entity to own and operate a
communications satellite.
With the full support of its parent
company, the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co., MSC
successfully launched Agila 2 on August 20, 1997, and
commenced commercial operations on January 1, 1998.
Since then, the company has successfully
positioned itself in the competitive international
satellite communications arena by offering video, IP and
telecommunications solutions for clients in Asia and
North America. |
