Artist's concept of EUTELSAT 2-F2 as part of the consortium's Atlantic Gate at 12.5 degrees West. Photo: EUTELSAT

The first regular television broadcasts to North America from Europe using EUTELSAT's Atlantic Gate satellite capacity began this month with Digitaly, the 24-hour 'image of Italy' channel which features programmes on the multiple facets of Italian culture.

Digitaly is being delivered directly to North American television networks via EUTELSAT's Atlantic Gate capacity in the orbital arc around 15 degrees West. The channel is uplinked by Telespazio at its Fucino earth station facilities near Rome and downlinked in Ontario, Canada by the Juch-Tech Inc. teleport.

EUTELSAT opened its Atlantic Gate in the first quarter of this year in order to provide capacity for video and data broadcasting services between North America and Europe. It has been carrying Internet backbone traffic from North America into Europe since March this year and has delivered multiple streaming video and IP television broadcasts using MPEG-4 encoding technology. In June this year EUTELSAT's shareholders gave the go-ahead for the ATLANTIC BIRD 1 satellite which will be launched in mid-2001 to supplement the existing Atlantic Gate capacity and also to open EUTELSAT's first direct connection between South America and Europe.

Digitaly is also broadcast free-to-air to digital IRDs throughout Europe via EUTELSAT's HOT BIRD 4 satellite (downlink frequency 12.673 GHz, vertical polarization, symbol rate 27.5, FEC 3Ž4).

With a fleet of 15 satellites operated from its headquarters in Paris, EUTELSAT is Europe's leading satellite operator and ranks as one of the largest globally. In addition to broadcasting almost 600 analogue and digital TV channels EUTELSAT satellites are used for high-speed Internet connections and Internet backbone traffic, corporate networks, satellite newsgathering, telephony, and for mobile voice, data and positioning services.