mecom Selects Hughes HX System for Fault-Tolerant Satellite Solution

16 October 2013

Hamburg-based mecom Medien-Communikations-Gesellschaft mbH, Germany's leading company in the transmission of news in text, image, graphics, audio and video formats, has chosen the high-performance Hughes HX broadband satellite system to power its scalable and efficient digital network needed to meet growth plans. 

The new fault-tolerant solution will be rolled out over the next 12 months and will include two Hughes HX central hubs and broadband satellite terminals at 600 sites in the current mecom network. To ensure maximum system stability, the second central hub will provide fully automatic redundancy as a backup. Mecom’s decision to select Hughes technology was based on a successful 20-year relationship between the two companies, during which Hughes Europe has provided mecom with a flexible and easy-to-integrate system.  

Ulrich Wiehsalla, managing director of mecom, said, “Our very demanding customers expect from mecom not only a highly reliable, highly topical, and simultaneous supply of content, but they also pay particular attention to authenticity. They want to be certain that they receive the content issued, for example, by the German press agency (dpa) with a 100% guarantee. Especially in the area of security services, it is essential that mecom continues to function effectively, even in a crisis situation where public networks are not working. We have done this in the past and want to ensure we maintain this in the future.” 

Providing a closed network for hundreds of receivers on a single central hub allows mecom to realise operational and maintenance benefits on a high-quality network at optimal cost. As part of the new agreement, Hughes will also provide comprehensive hardware support.  

“This new contract with mecom is a testament to how Hughes technical innovation and exceptional customer service results in a high degree of customer loyalty,” said Chris O'Dell, vice president of sales and marketing, Hughes Europe. “Our teams worked closely together to create a high availability solution tailor-made to mecoms’ most demanding requirements— in an  environment where a few seconds delay in the transmission of messages may have significant economic implications, ”  added O'Dell.