MAYAH SPORTY brings commentators’ voices home at Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2008.

Munich, November 25, 2008: SIS LIVE a British company which provided broadcasting services for the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2008 in Limassol, Cyprus and the host broadcaster CyBC, chose Reporter Codecs SPORTY from MAYAH with their advanced compatibility on ISDN and IP levels as the main commentary tool during the production.



Detlef Wiese, MAYAH’s co-founder and general manager: “Supplying Eurovision Song Contest with our portable audio codecs in the past three years we have gained a lot of experience in this specific market segment. This contest was very exciting for us too, because we introduced our newest product SPORTY which provides commentators with broadest connectivity while still remains easy-to-use and reliable device.”

12 commentary positions were set-up in Limassol for those national broadcasters which sent their commentators and presenters to Cyprus. For transmissions there was traditional ISDN interface used mostly with just as traditional G.722 algorithm. However some broadcasters decided to transmit the commentators’ voices with a higher quality. And SPORTY allows this right “out of the box”. So Belgian VRT used MPEG-1 Layer2, Serbian RTS used MPEG-1 Layer3 and Dutch broadcaster for the Junior Eurovision Song Contest – AVRO used MPEG-4 AAC mono with 64 kbit/s.

All devices were working independently but were monitored over the local IP network using an affordable and user friendly SNMP-based monitoring software NetMon from Euromedia Services (Germany). The software allowed operators in the commentary area control room to monitor the availability of each unit, its system health, as well as incoming / outgoing connection status. Additional feature provided commentators with the possibility to call for technical support by pressing just one button on their unit, so NetMon could fetch an appropriate SNMP signaling and display it to an operator. However this help function has not been in use this time even once.

Easy audio volume controls , as well as overall design and reliability of MAYAH’s new devices have resulted in a number of very positive responses in Limassol. SPORTY’s powerful rechargeable battery proved itself as a good and free of added costs alternative to the backup powering from the OB vans.

Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2008 took place on 22nd of November and featured young participants from 15 countries. As a special guest the winner of the last Eurovision Song Contest, Russian singer Dima Bilan was performing on the stage of Spyros Kyrianou Arena in Limassol. The youngest participants of this year – Georgian trio Bzikebi (all members are 10 years old) – have become a winner of JESC 2008 with their very unusual song “Bzz…”. The next Junior Eurovision Song Contest will take place in Kiev, Ukraine, hosted by the country’s national broadcaster NTU.

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About SPORTY Reporter Codec:

Reporter Codec SPORTY with its 2 phantom powered Mic/Line inputs, 2 additional Line Ins and 2 stereo headphones outputs, as well as with its Li-Ion rechargeable battery and a robust body has been designed for a worldwide mobile use. Easy Audio-over-IP according to EBU Standard is secured with SIP/RTP over Ethernet or mobile 3G networks; ISDN and POTS are also supported by SPORTY. Advanced and traditional coding algorithms for high quality, low delay and lowest bitrates are offered, ranging from G.711/G.722 to Linear audio and from apt-X/Enhanced apt-X to MPEG-4 HE AACv2 and AAC ELD. SPORTY offers a unique possibility to record or playback files to/from local storage media such as SD cards or USB sticks during transmission.

About MAYAH Communications GmbH

The company’s main objective is the development and distribution of innovative high quality solutions for real-time audio and audio/video communications in broadcast and corporate networks. Focus is given to standardized audio and video formats, such as MPEG-1, -2 and 4 as well as proprietary but accepted formats such as E/apt-X, 4SB ADPCM and others. MAYAH started its operations at the end of 1997 and is a privately held company with its headquarter in Hallbergmoos near Munich, an R&D department in Flensburg and a worldwide distribution network. MAYAH stands in close relationship with and is licensing technology from FhG-IIS (Fraunhofer Institute), Coding Technologies, IRT, and others. MAYAH is also a founding member of Audio-via-IP Experts Group working on faster implementation of EBU Audio-over-IP Standard by codec manufacturers. MAYAH’s customers are in radio and TV broadcasting as well as telecommunications, studios and ISPs.