Entries are invited for the Asian Television Technical & Creative Awards 2002, Asia‘s only region-wide awards programme that recognises the efforts and talent of the broadcast, production, and post-production community.

Launched last year, the technical and creative awards programme is an off-shoot of the Asian Television Awards, the continent‘s prestigious awards for programming and performance. The Asian Television Technical & Creative Awards this year will have 18 categories, four of which are new additions.

These are: Best Original Music Score (Short Form), Best Original Music Score (Long Form), Best TVC by an international company produced for Asia, and Best Broadcast Design by an international company produced for Asia. The addition of the last two categories is a response to the feedback from companies outside Asia who are active in co-producing with Asia-based partners or taking on work in the region and would like to see their efforts in Asia recognised as well.

The Asian Television Technical & Creative Awards 2002 are sponsored by Kodak and the Singapore Broadcasting Authority, with media support from Asia Image. Full details and entry forms can be downloaded from www.asiantvawards.com or www.ai-interactive.com or by e-mailing awards@tvasia.com.sg

"Reporting from USS Theodore Roosevelt." US broadcaster National Broadcasting Company (NBC) did just that when it utilised a short-term satellite space lease in combination with occasional use TV services to broadcast its Today show from the USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier recently.

Intelsat has claimed that NBC chose Intelsat‘s global satellite fleet to carry the show as its flexibility and powerful satellites are well positioned to serve broadcasters looking for high-quality, reliable transmissions from virtually anywhere in the world - even from the middle of the ocean. The transmission of the Today show broadcast, which aired on 26 and 27 March, was between the ship in the Atlantic Ocean and Verestar‘s Holmdel and Glenwood, New Jersey earth stations. The capacity was also used for full-bandwidth video ‘cross-talking‘ between sailors on the ship and their families. It was carried over the Intelsat 605 satellite, located at 332.5?E.

Jonathan Wald, Executive Producer of Today said that guaranteed reliability of transmission that Intelsat could provide at short notice resulted in its selection for transmission of the show.