As the demand for bandwidth continues, IDC's products are ideal for markets such as video-on-demand high definition television, radio and television broadcast networks, distance learning and digital cinema

Today all aspects of life – business, education, governance – are impacted by the ability to distribute and access digital content. For more than 20 years International Datacasting Corp. (IDC) has been at the forefront of the digital content revolution by providing solutions that enhance the capabilities of satellite transmission and has led the way in providing solutions that optimize bandwidth investments.

As the demand for satellite bandwidth continues unabated, IDC's products are growing in popularity in high-growth markets such as video-on-demand high definition television, radio and television broadcast networks, distance learning and digital cinema.

In the world of digital video, telcos now deliver video via Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) and Video on Demand (VoD) so viewers can now choose whether to watch programming on their TVs, computers, or mobile phones and view Internet content and caller ids on their TVs. However, adding video onto a network presents many challenges, not the least of which is maintaining broadcast quality via an Internet Protocol connection. By combining expertise in IP multicast via satellite with the latest digital video broadcast (DVB) and MPEG-4 standards for high-speed distribution of digital video, IDC solutions are tailored to meet these challenges.

For broadcasters, IDC has deployed IP datacasting systems in customer sites since 1997. This experience gave the company a head start in developing products for IPTV and digital cinema applications as well as the next generation of IP datacasting technology.

In the field of distance learning, IDC’s IP multicast satellite solutions integrate video, voice, and data onto a single platform for a flexible, cost-efficient solution for distributing media-rich eLearning content. The broadcast nature of satellites make it an ideal for point-to-multipoint delivery to geographically dispersed sites, particularly where a network has unreliable terrestrial broadband, and the bandwidth efficiencies achieved from IDC’s DVB-S/S2 enable huge cost savings and better signal quality. Offering either one-way or two-way satellite connectivity, scalable and adaptable networks, hybrid video and data capabilities, conditional access and secure encryption, live and on-demand programming, and both MPEG-4 and MPEG-2 capabilities, IDC has the world’s most comprehensive and reliable distance-learning capabilities.

In digital cinema, IDC is also at the forefront. The company works with Access Integrated Technologies to deliver a turnkey digital delivery infrastructure that securely encodes and transmits content via a multicast stream to servers located at each individual theatre on a network. In more than 2,000 cinemas throughout North America, IDC solutions are at the heart of delivering movies.

Why Ottawa

IDC develops and manufactures hardware and software at its 30,000 sq. ft. Ottawa factory and headquarters, under a rigorous externally audited ISO 9001 quality management system, while its European base of operations includes a 7,000 sq. ft. facility in the Netherlands.

As well as IDC, Ottawa is also the home of Telesat, which launched the world’s first commercial satellite in 1969, as well as C-Comm Satellite Systems and MacDonald Dettwiler & Associates. This concentration of satellite expertise along with new engineering talent coming out of Carleton University and Algonquin College has helped IDC prosper.

Business advantage

Global demand for satellite capacity is growing at approximately 10% a year, driven primarily by video and data applications. IDC’s products and services take advantage of this core market as well as neighboring markets in HDTV, IPTV, syndicated TV, digital cinema and other multimedia markets such as distance learning.

Future growth plans

A public company on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) under the call letters IDC, International Datacasting nearly tripled its annual revenues of just four years ago, reporting revenues of $24.7 million in fiscal 2008. The company has also maintained profitability throughout this growth.

Looking forward, a key element of IDC’s growth strategy is to maintain its industry leadership position and base of business in data and radio applications while targeting specific high growth niches of the video broadcast market where it has a significant competitive advantage. Not only is the video segment of the satellite market significantly larger than voice and data combined, it is growing faster as users come to expect high quality content to be delivered when and where they want it.

Contact information

International Datacasting Corp.
+1-613-596-4120
www.datacast.com

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