A9 Intent to Sole Source S2.pdf

Description

THIS IS A NOTICE OF INTENT TO SOLE SOURCE, NOT A REQUEST FOR A QUOTE, A

SOLICITATION DOCUMENT WILL NOT BE ISSUED AND QUOTES WILL NOT BE REQUESTED.

The Office of the Secretary of Defense – Public Affairs operates the American Forces Network (AFN). AFN is a worldwide radio and television broadcast network serving over one million American service men and women, Department of Defense civilians and their families overseas, stationed in 175 countries as well as U.S. Navy ships deployed at sea and overseas. AFN-Broadcast Center (AFN-BC), Riverside, California distributes multiple channels of popular American radio, and television programs via satellite and terrestrial circuits to the Pacific and Atlantic regions. Content may differ between regions.

The current distribution system is comprised of 18 high definition (HD) and 8 standard definition (SD) television channels; each with discrete stereo audio, as well as 36 music services. AFN replaces all commercials within radio and television programs with AFN produced command information spots (CI), Public Service Announcements (PSAs) and interstitial materials (here forward known as assets). Sub-audible Cues are transmitted within individual radio and SCTE-35 for television broadcast programs to trigger local affiliate break-away, local spot insertion, and remote operation of equipment. Based upon a desire to better serve and improve the quality of life of Sailor and Marines serving the United States on board U.S. Navy ships, American Forces Network (AFN) and the Naval Media Center (NMC) initiated studies in 1995 to determine the feasibility of providing full-time, satellite delivered television services directly to Navy ships worldwide.

Full operational capability for the Direct to Sailor (DTS) satellite system was reached on 23 December 1997 with the activation of three global transponder platforms for the Indian, Atlantic and Pacific Ocean Regions. Using global, premium transponders, these three satellites provide DTS with almost complete coverage of all oceans and seas where U.S. Navy ships operate. Currently each of the two standalone DTS services (DTS Pacific/DTS Atlantic) consists of four digital television channels and four music services.

American Forces Network has a requirement to update its Digital Video Broadcast, Satellite Second Generation (DVB-S2) encoding, encryption and distribution head-end to serviceable hardware and software versions. Many of the components in the existing system have exceeded, or are approaching the end of manufacturer service and support. The objective is to have the system components originally purchased as the DVB-S2 COOP System at DMA, Ft. Meade, installed and integrated into the Broadcast Mission Network at the AFN Broadcast Center. The system will be refreshed with equipment already owned by DMA, AFN

These services will be provided to The Defense Media Activity AFN (DMA/AFN). The NAICS Code is 334220 and the small business size standard is 750 employees.

SPECIAL REQUIREMENT: This requirement is for proprietary products and/or product support and no competitor functional replacement products exist in the market to meet the Government's need, at this time. The Government will continue to conduct market research to determine if there are changes in the marketplace that would enable future competitive actions; i.e., there are similar products and/or product support in the marketplace that provides the same functionality, the original equipment manufacturer releases ownership rights of the product, or it is economically feasible to procure a new system