Another Step has been taken towards making Europe an even more efficient competitor in the global satellite telecommunications market, with the testing of the new SmallGEO satellite platform at ESTEC, the European Space Agency's testing center in the Netherlands.
SmallGEO will offer a service that is presently unavailable in the European space industry, by filling the gap in the market for small satellite platforms. SmallGEO is part of the next generation of modular and flexible telecommunications platforms. It is being developed by ESA in partnership with the Spanish satellite company Hispasat, and is being manufactured by a European consortium headed by the German manufacturer OHB-System.
The SmallGEO platform is predicted to be launched in 2014 as part of the Spanish operator Hispasat’s first fleet of Advanced Generation 1 satellites. In Europe satellite telecommunications affect many areas of our lives, from browsing online to watching sports on TV. This SmallGEO platform will help European industry to be competitive among world satellite manufacturers, and therefore contribute to the continuing development of these services, as well as providing social and economic benefits for Europe's citizens.
More background information can be found on: http://www.esa.int/esaTE/SEM1HGKTYRF_index_0.html

The MPEG-2 files are on the ESA ftp server in the folder entitled: ftp://esa.contentcoders.com/mpeg2/Small-Geo-07112012/