2008: This has definitely been an exciting year for PBLSat. In our second year of operation we’ve worked hard to establish our position as Europe’s leading specialist in Occasional Service broadcast solutions.

2008 saw our fleet of SNG’s deliver a range of events such as Euro 2008, the Champions League final from Moscow and a whole season of Formula One from various European locations.’’

PBLSat has one of the largest portfolio of European satellite capacity dedicated to Occasional Use. This has served us very well at times of peak demand where our customers really need to have that certainty of supply. Euro 2008, Wimbledon and the US elections are good examples of real peaks in demand for our space.

The proliferation of HD this past year has meant that more satellite capacity has been required for each transmission. Events that would have occupied 9 MHz capacity in 2007 are now demanding 18 or 27 MHz. This can only be a good thing for the consumer, but of course it can sometimes mean that satellite capacity can be hard to come by. In anticipation of this, PBLSat has leased contiguous capacity giving our clients access to a wide bandwidths for each HD transmission.

Probably our Company's most challenging event was the Champions League final in Moscow, which we were delivering for Sky in HD. Fortunately, with the dedicated hands on approach of our Major Event team, we were able to get through all the red tape and provide our service without incident.

2008 witnessed PBLSat acquire key satellite capacity on Eutelsat-W1. This is prestigious capacity and compliments our other capacity on Eutelsat-W2 and Atlantic Bird-1. We also joined forces with partners in the U.S. to offer a complete SNG service for the nation's elections. Other partnership agreements have been achieved with other global suppliers allowing us to provide our customers with SNG’s anywhere in the world.

On the technical front, we have upgraded more of our trucks to HD and DVBS-2 modulation to cope with increasing client demand. Back at base, we’ve outgrown our original offices and have just moved into large new offices in Stephen Street, Central London which will allow us to grow and cope with the challenges of 2009!

2009: We are always looking at new ways to make things easier and more cost effective for our customers so the launch of new satellites from Intelsat and Eutelsat in 2009 is of interest to us. We will also be looking at making better use of our SNG fleet ensuing that we are one step ahead of demand.

In general, I think the industry will face even greater demands for satellite capacity at key times and only those suppliers that invest in the Occasional Use capacity will meet the demands of the 2009 marketplace

About the company
PBLSat specialise in the occasional use marketplace; we can provide you with global satellite capacity, mobile services, uplinks, downlinks and perhaps, more importantly, expert advice on your global connectivity requirements. Our client base includes global broadcasters such as SKY, NTV and ESPN and we work across everything from sporting events, such as the US Open, through to breaking news stories and pop concerts. Our PBLSat Space Centre, in Central London, can help you with all your booking requirements and our major event team can provide expert advice and event co-ordination for larger projects.