Loral Takes Multimedia Into Space

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December 15, 1998 (10:42 AM EST)

By Jason P. Mckay,

Loral Space and Communications announced that it has licensed technology from The Fantastic Corp. that will let it provide satellite-based broadband-multimedia services on a worldwide basis.

Loral, based in New York, will use the technology to provide high-speed broadband distribution of multimedia -- including video, audio, text, and animated graphics -- to PCs and televisions via set-top-boxes. Fantastic said that its technology is an end-to-end system that combines the reach, efficiency, and television quality of broadcasting with the targeted, interactivity and globally standardized nature of the Internet and personal computing.

The multimedia services, expected to roll-out in North America early next year, will be managed and distributed by Loral Orion, a subsidiary of Loral Space & Communications. The broadband services will initially be marketed toward corporations, content developers, broadcasters, and ISPs as well as other businesses that rely on large amounts of complex, time-sensitive data.

Customers using the services will be able to control when and where their content is distributed and fees will be based on a per-byte scale. Users will be charged for the amount of information they send to Loral for distribution. The multimedia content can be organized by the customer and then scheduled for a package delivery, real-time feed, or video/audio streaming.

While Fantastic's software is designed to operate over cable, ADSL, digital terrestrial, and satellite, Loral said that its satellite network is exceptionally tailored to handle broadband-multimedia distribution. "The nature of the satellite-based platform is ideal for these services," said Gregory J. Clark, president and chief operating officer of Loral Space & Communications. "We're very positive about this, very excited."

In addition, Loral has plans to beef up its infrastructure by doubling its fleet of satellites over the next six months according to Neil Bauer, president and CEO of Loral Orion. This will afford the company a larger coverage area, thereby extending all of its service offerings.

Fantastic said its broadband-multimedia services technology will revolutionize the industry and that the technology is also a great deal more efficient than what is being used for the Internet. "Point to multi-point communication will change the way we live today," said Peter Ohnemus, president and CEO of Fantastic. "The Internet will only be as fast as the weakest link in the point-to-point chain."

Some industry analysts said broadband-multimedia services are very attractive and will greatly appeal to ISPs that want to provide better services for some of their larger customers such as broadcasters. "Their [ISPs'] resources are more judiciously applied to fully interactive communications," said Robert Rosenberg, president of Insight Research in Parsippany, N.J. Satellite technology can be very useful when used for these types of broadcast services, added Rosenberg.