Anadolu News Agency VBI Project

Anadolu News Agency VBI Project

Anadolu News Agency is the primary and official news agency of Turkey, providing news and photographs to its subscribers. The collected news, photographs and similar information is then classified and filtered at main office located in Ankara. Then they become appropriate to distribute to the subscribers according to their area of interest.

In 1998, SYS had realized the refurbishment of existing photo transfer system of the Agency. The old system was providing transfer of photographs via telephone lines with TTY technology, thus taking long durations for each transfer.

To improve transfer throughtput and quality and to provide a better service for its customers, the Agency decided to implement a new image and news distribution system using VBI technology. VBI is a wireless data broadcast technology which uses TV broadcast to transfer high speed and quality data.

Turkish Radio and Television Company, TRT, has provided the Agency with three lines from one of its TV channels, namely TRT2. The available communication slot is capable of transferring data upto 38.4kbps rate.

The new system enabled the Agency to transfer still images and corresponding news to many leading newspaper companies and to other news agencies both in Turkey, Europe and Turkish Republics.

The system consists of a server software running on host computer system and many workstations located at subscriber facilities. SYS's scope of work includes the hardware platform, design and implementation of complete server and subscriber software, installation and commissioning.

The system design and development conforms to the IIM model (Information Interchange Model) developed by IPTC (International Press Telecommunication Council) and NAA (Newspaper Association of America).

The new system achieved a performance figure of 150 photographs per day which was 30 photographs per day with the old system.