NigComSAT 1R confab gathers momentum

The Lagos State phase of a three-day stakeholders’ conference by the Nigerian Communications Satellite Limited (NIGCOMSAT) hosts a three day is gaining momentum with a pledge that the replacement satellite for the country would bridge the gap in digital broadcasting.

Team leader for the conference, Mr. Bala Mohammed said at the weekend that the events slated for Lagos Sheraton and Towers, Ikeja between November 21 and 23 promised to answer all questions in readiness for the NigComSat 1R launch in December.

According to him, the prospects of Direct-To-Home (DTH) local platform and the need to join digital broadcasting, noting that it would be major fallout of Nigeria’s replacement satellite NigComSat 1R.

He said that migration of broadcast media to High Definition (HD) digital platform would be addressed by the satellite.

“These and related issues will be explained when Nigerian Communications Satellite Limited (NIGCOMSAT) hosts a three day stakeholders conference in Lagos,” he said.

Mohammed in a press statement made available to ITRealms Online by the Assistant General Manager, Corporate Communication, Mr. Sonny Aragba-Akpore, informed that the second in the series of several road shows tend to address salient issues in the soon to be launched satellite.

He said that the conference tagged “prelaunch marketing sensitisation for NigComSat 1R will enable officials of the company to enlighten Nigerians more on the satellite which has since been moved to its launch site in China.

“We want to host a grade ‘A’ conference to address all the issues involved with the satellite,” he said.

Mohammed who spoke on behalf of the Executive Director, Marketing, Ms Abimbola Alale, said the conference is a prelaunch marketing sensitization one where experts from within and outside will speak on various subjects relating to satellite communications in general and NigComSat 1R in particular.

As said by him, the managing director, NIGCOMSAT Limited, Mr. Timasaniyu Ahmed-Rufai is expected to flag off the discourse with a keynote paper on “Communications Satellite: A key player in digital broadcasting.”

This would be followed by a paper by Anthony Orjinta whose paper dwells on DTH opportunities at NIGCOMSAT.

Chief regulator of the broadcast industry and Director General National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), Mr. Yomi Bolarinwa would speak on “Future Trends in broadcasting technology.”

Veteran in the broadcast media and former Director of Engineering of Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) Mr. Edward Amana would moderate this session.

The conference which is expected to be declared opened by the Communications Technology Minister, Mrs. Omobola Johnson, will also address broadband internet penetration especially now that the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) has given a matching order to its member countries to make broadband connectivity mandatory by 2015.

Remmy Nweke

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