Casablanca Online successfully enables live broadcasts of Copa America with SES and Newtec Dialog®

MORUMBI STADIUM, SÂO PAULO, Brazil, and SINT-NIKLAAS, Belgium, 10 September 2019 – Casablanca Online, a leading Brazilian SNG and service provider, provided IP connectivity to broadcasters’ outdoor production teams during the 2019 Copa America football event this summer.

Broadcasters are often faced with unstable connectivity whilst covering live events. In order to ensure a stable service, Casablanca Online sought a reliable and cost-effective solution. 

Based on Newtec Dialog®, SES’s OU Flex product combines live video transmission and IP connectivity via satellite to enable both data and video applications for Occasional Use (OU) services. It was installed for Casablanca Online – which has a fleet of more than 20 Outside Broadcast (OB) trucks – at the Morumbi Stadium, São Paulo, where the opening game of the Copa America between Brazil and Bolivia was held. 

This enabled a two-way connection between the stadium and the studio, providing greater flexibility to facilitate remote production and distribute video content to online platforms. As a result, Casablanca Online was able to provide guaranteed and glitch-free internet connectivity over a 40/40 Mbps bidirectional link, allowing the field teams to operate optimally.

“While our OB trucks are equipped to carry out video contributions, we also require IP connectivity which often involves installing a leased line,” said Alex Pimentel, CEO at Casablanca Online. “This is expensive and quite often of a low quality. Leveraging Newtec Dialog, the SES OU Flex solution completely transformed our operations, bringing dynamic bandwidth allocation which enabled high-quality IP connectivity alongside efficient content delivery.”

The OU Flex solution was integrated into Casablanca Online’s existing Satellite News Gathering (SNG) trucks via an MDM3310 broadband modem. This required significantly less investment compared to other technologies.

“Live event coverage poses significant challenges to broadcasters when it comes to meeting viewers’ expectations,” said Steve Bisenius, VP Regional Sales Engineering at SES Video. “Instantaneous access to information, a high-quality picture and the ability to watch anywhere, on any device are becoming standard requirements – and OU Flex addresses these needs in a cost-efficient way.” 

The capabilities of OU Flex are enabled by Newtec Dialog which provides a choice of three return technologies – TDMA, SCPC and Mx-DMA®, Newtec’s unique technology which combines the best qualities of TDMA and SCPC.

“With Newtec Dialog and SES OU Flex, broadcasters have a very flexible solution that enables reliable broadcasts and reduces overall costs,” said Bart Van Utterbeeck, VP South America at Newtec. “Scalability in geography and volume is also enabled by the IP-based transmission, creating endless options for content contribution and distribution across the globe.”