MULTIPLATFORM — Hughes Network Systems said this week that it will be a member of Sprint’s team for the recently-awarded U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) Networx Enterprise contract. Hughes will provide managed network access and internet services via broadband satellite as a subcontractor in support of federal mission-critical telecommunications requirements. The Networx Enterprise contract has a minimum revenue guarantee of $50 million to be divided among the Enterprise awardees during the life of the 10-year contract.

INTERNATIONAL — Eutelsat Communications and Digiturk signed a new contract for capacity on the W3A satellite to support continued expansion of Turkey’s leading pay-TV platform. The new contract, concluded for four years, is the third signed between Eutelsat and Digiturk since November 2006 and takes to 11 the total number of transponders leased for broadcasting services by Digiturk on Eutelsat birds. Digiturk’s platform reaches 1.6 million subscribing satellite homes across Turkey and offers pay-TV services across Europe using capacity on ATLANTIC BIRD 1 for contribution links back to its studios in Istanbul.

MISCELLANY — Arianespace signed a contract with Russian space industry interests to acquire the first four Soyuz rockets to be launched from the Guiana Space Center. The company said the contract covers launch preparations and operations, as well as maintenance of the Russian systems. The first two launchers will be ready for shipment by the end of 2008, Arianespace said.

TECHNOLOGY — Philippine Multimedia Systems Inc.’s (PMSI) Dream Satellite TV selected Envivio’s 4Caster M2 encoders for its first commercial deployment of DVB-H mobile TV services in the Philippines. PMSI is currently on test broadcast with eight live channels on select Samsung handsets using the M2 encoders to support multiple output profiles and conditional access systems.

Earlier this year, several automakers announced new and extended deals with both Sirius and XM to offer the competing satellite radio services throughout an array of vehicle lines. The latest to join the list is Volkswagen, which said this week that beginning with 2008 year model cars, the company will offer Sirius as standard, factory-installed equipment.

The cool-commercial car company said Sirius will be standard in all Toureg2, New Beetle, New Beetle Convertible, GTI and GLI models, beginning next year.

Volkswagen said it has exclusively offered Sirius in its 2007 model year vehicles and expects to equip around 80 percent of its cars with the company’s radio receivers.

The news of Volkswagen making the move didn’t surprise, as analysts have commented that the OEM market - and not retail - will be the main driver of satellite radio’s future success.

According to some, the announcement signifies that satellite radio is increasingly being seen as important enough to be a standard feature, and automaker support is paramount to satellite radio reaching a wider audience.

“The good news is that it’s not long before the OEM market will make soft retail sales a lesser emphasis,” said Wedbush Morgan’s William Kidd. “Sluggish retail sales, though better than Q1, seemed to have continued in Q2. We believe an uptick in OEM demand should start to noticeably counter the retail sales trends in Q3.”

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Rumors of a Liberty/EchoStar joint bid for Intelsat was not enough to secure an ownership role in the fixed satellite services provider. Instead, the commercial satellite giant will become part of BC Partners, an international private equity firm, and a group of other investment interests.

According to the company, the BC-led consortium will acquire more than three-fourths (76 percent) primary ownership of Intelsat parent Intelsat Holdings for about $5.03 billion, in addition to about $11.4 billion in company debt. Intelsat said its shareholders, including funds advised by Apax Partners, Apollo Management, Madison Dearborn Partners, Permira and management, are expected to receive more than $4.5 billion in cash - and the remaining 24 percent ownership - when the deal is said and done.

“The private equity purchase, unlike one by the DBS providers, would raise no antitrust issues,” said Stifel Nicolaus’ Blair Levin. “As with Intelsat’s purchase of PanAmSat last year, the purchase of Intelsat will pay handsomely for the private equity sellers.”

Intelsat said the deal should close within six to nine months, pending regulatory approvals and conditions. The company said current CEO Dave McGlade is expected to continue to serve as chief executive.

In other Intelsat news, the company unveiled Tuesday its plans to launch a new Network Broadband GLOBAL Maritime service - the latest addition to its GlobalConnex portfolio. The solution is designed for maritime fleet management seeking global data and voice connectivity and will bring new levels of bandwidth capabilities to the maritime industry, the company said.

Utilizing Intelsat’s C-band capacity, the Network Broadband GLOBAL Maritime network operates at rates up to 2Mbps, with the initial service offering continuous communications with high-powered bandwidth rates from 128kbps to 512kbps, the company said.

Do you own a Pansat 2700 N2 and find that your signal level is high but that your picture quality on your television is bad then you need to make some adjustments to your dish. If your signal is low you may have to turn your dish a little up or down dish and there you can tell you if the signal moves. Click here for more information.

Recently, a consumer purchased a new computer only to realize that it does not have a 9 pin port. They then purchased a USB seriel adapter only to find that their downloads were very slow and its taking an extremely long time to update their pansat. There are actually a few good solutions to this problem one of which is going into my computer and right clicking then proceed into hardware and follow the directions listed here.

If you’re looking to find out how to load a VS Ultra file by USB then you will be glad to find out that it is a pretty simple proceedure. You need to begin by unzipping the current bin file. Secondly, you need to place the bin on the flash drive and insert into STB. Find out your next step by clicking here.

The Pansat 2700 sometimes has a problem where it will lose signal every so often. A common thought in fixing this is to shut it off and turn it back on. To eliminate this problem all you have to do is do database reset and follow the simple steps listed here.

Are you running a b3v satellite dish and have accidently hit the set default key button and now are having problems getting a picture? This is a simple problem to fix and can be taken care of by entering the latest keys manually. FInd out how to solve this problem here.

Have you just recently purchased a Viewsat 2000 platinum receiver with Diseqc 1.2 motorized H-H Motor with 1.2 meter dish and dual LNB and have questions about which way to position your dish either by degrees or just by a number read out? Find out which satellite you are receiving by antenna positioning by clicking here.

As many others have asked this same questions, you might have heard that it is possible to view pictures on your ULTRA as a slideshow via uploading the pictures from your computer to a USB stick that can be transported onto the ULTRA. Well yes this is true! You can view home pictures on your ULTRA just like you do on your regular home computer. They work just like a regular screen saver/ slideshow. All you need to do is go into your pictures folder and copy the ones you want to use to your jump drive. And follow these simple directions.