Multibeam antenna

Danish Radio has signed an agreement with TST Kommunikations Technik TST to purchase two Australian-designed,

ICT Centre MultiBeam antenna systems for installation in their new multimedia house in

.

The CSIRO MultiBeam antenna simultaneously communicates with up to 20 geostationary satellites over multiple frequency bands – compared with one antenna for one satellite in conventional systems.

"The MultiBeam project will substantially improve Danish Radio's operational flexibility and significantly reduce their capital, operating and service connection costs", says the ICT Centre's Chief Scientist Dr. Trevor Bird. "It will also contribute to greatly reducing the visual impact of conventional antenna arrays."

As part of its plan to move all of its broadcast operations to digital technology, Danish Radio has built a state-of-the-art broadcasting centre in Orestad to consolidate its resources in the Copenhagen area into one new complex.

Danish Radio is interested in initially accessing up to nine satellites via the two MultiBeam antennas. There is a potential opportunity to expand the system capability in the future to 10 receive-only feeds and five transmit/receive feeds for each MultiBeam.

TST purchased one of the MultiBeam antennas in 2002. CSIRO will deliver a second antenna and co-ordinate the installation and testing with help from Sydney Engineering (Sales) Pty Ltd. Installation should be completed by the end of October.

"This contract represents a strategic partnership with one of the biggest broadcasters in Scandinavia," says Dr. Bird. "Our recent focus has been squarely on the European market. With this success we intend to actively develop the North American and Asia-Pacific markets with a range of MultiBeam antenna products and complementary services."

The CSIRO MultiBeam antenna received the 2004 Industry Innovators Award of the Society of Satellite Professionals International (SSPI) for technology developed by the public sector.

The MultiBeam antenna was developed by the Wireless Technologies Laboratory at the CSIRO ICT Centre, which develops next generation wireless technologies and applications.