Polish News Agency PAP orders innovative news distribution system from mecom GmbH

HAMBURG (Germany) April 15 (PROTEXT/PRNewswire) - The PolishNews Agency PAP (Polska Agencja Prasowa S.A.), Warsaw, hasordered a system for the distribution of news from the Germanfirm mecom (Medien-Communikations-Gesellschaft mbH), Hamburg. Thesystem named "mecom-newsPIPE" uses satellite and Internetcommunication for the distribution of text, pictures, graphicsand data to customers of the news agency.

Having formed a consortium with VSAT System s.j, Warsaw,mecom won a public tender and is to deliver in 2005 a system ofthe newest generation to PAP, providing the agency with uniquequality in data transmission and cost efficiency in operation.One module of newsPIPE, the Content Distribution System, allowsPAP to deliver news individually to their customers using storedprofiles based on news-content. VSAT Systems will carry out allantennae installations, both for the central hub and for about100 remote receive stations. PAP issued the order with a volumeof about 1 million Eur after the consortium has won aninternational public tender.

"Announcing a public tender our goal was to get one of themost advanced and cost efficient systems of its kind," saidWaldemar Siwinski, President and Editor-in-chief of PAP. "Now weare ready to make an important step forward in our effort tomodernise the technology in PAP, and with mecom and VSAT we havetwo competent partners for this plan".

"We could not buy anywhere the kind of innovative systems werequire for our own operations. Therefore, we had to develop itourselves," said Ulrich Wiehsalla, CEO of mecom. "The highquality and functionality of the system will bring over manyyears advantages to PAP as our first customer for newsPIPE. Sincewe are using the same system for our operations, our experiencewill result in continuous development and will be of immediatebenefit to our customers."

"Our core competence is the technology for the space segmentand in this we are number one in Poland," said Wojciech Eckstein,CEO of VSAT System. "We are delighted to continue bringing thiscompetence together with mecom to our customer PAP."About the project:

The Polish news agency PAP is modernising its technicaloperations and in particular the news distribution system fortheir customers. One focus is the satellite based communication,complemented by Internet distribution. The project will replacethe old satellite transmission system with one central hub andabout 100 receive stations. The new generation system asdelivered by mecom offers PAP not only satellite communicationbut a seamless interface to the Internet. The project will becompleted by the end of 2005.About newsPIPE:

Under the name of newsPIPE, mecom offers a unique modularsystem for data transmission of text, pictures, graphic andaudio. The system supports all known network types and isscalable and efficient in operation from small to a large numberof users, bandwidth and data volumes.

Focusing on news distribution, the Content DistributionSystem is a module of newsPIPE knowing all major news formats ofnews agencies. It analyses the metadata contained in the newsobjects using them for onward routing to individually targetedcustomers.

The Satellite Broadcast System is a module of newsPIPEdesigned for the special conditions of satellite broadcastcommunication. Owing to a unique design feature it reduces commondata transmission errors to almost zero. The satellite receiveris integrated into a server (SatServer) which is located at thecustomer sites of the news agency. It may be connected by secureprotocols to the Internet recovering data corrupted locally atthe receive station.

The Network Delivery System is a newsPIPE module interfacingwith terrestrial networks including the Internet, activelypushing news objects as selected by the Content DistributionSystem to individual customers in a variety of formats. AgencyNews is a database for customers who want to retrieve news viathe Internet and as an alternative for the news normally pushedto them. See http://www.newspipe.bizAbout PAP:

The Polish Press Agency (Polska Agencja Prasowa S.A.), inexistence since 1918 and commonly known as "PAP", is the nationalnews agency in Poland. Its service, subscribed by the majority ofboth print and electronic media in Poland, is the leading newssource in the country. PAP is also a leading provider of businessnews and photo service. See http://www.pap.plAbout mecom:

The company was founded in Hamburg in 1989 as mecomMedien-Communikations-Gesellschaft mbH by the news agencies dpa,AFP, ddp, epd and KNA. As a communication service provider,mecoms major market is the news and media industry, offering itscustomers integrated solutions including hardware, software andmaintenance support. Owned by and also operating as carrier fornews agencies, mecom focuses on the real time distribution ofnews material (text, pictures, graphics, audio), simultaneouslyand securely to many agency customers, especially via satelliteand the Internet. It also offers solutions for the distributionof advertising and print-ready material. In the recent years,mecom also became a system house, designing, engineering andoperating solutions for customers within and outside the media.See http://www.mecom.deAbout VSAT:

VSAT System s.j. founded in 1996 in Warsaw is companyspecializing in the integration of satellite and wireless datatransmission systems. VSAT System offers turn-key solutions,project management, maintenance, service and support. VSAT Systemprovides services to major Polish telecoms, media companies andalso for government agencies. For further details seehttp://www.vsat.plFor questions please contact:Ulrich WiehsallaCEO, mecomTel.: +49-40-4113-2801E-Mail: wiehsalla@mecom.deSource: mecom GmbHFor questions please contact: Ulrich Wiehsalla, CEO, mecom, Tel.:+49-40-4113-2801, E-Mail: wiehsalla@mecom.de

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