TurkmenAlem_MonacoSat - SOW - 01APR2026.pdf

STATEMENT OF WORK (SOW).

TURKMENÄLEM/MONACOSAT AT 52O E SATELLITE TV

DISTRIBUTION TEST AND EVALUATION

U.S. AGENCY FOR GLOBAL MEDIA

330 INDEPENDENCE AVENUE S.W.

WASHINGTON D.C. 20237

DATE

APRIL 1, 2026

Table of Contents 1 Introduction and Background 2 Scope of Work 3 Period of Performance 4 Place of Performance 5 Work Requirements

5.0.1 Direct Internet Access Network

5.1 Direct Internet Access Network

5.2 Space Segment, Ground Support and Content Delivery

5.3 Monitoring, Reporting and Service Outages

5.4 Technical Recommendations and Service Upgrades

5.5 Customer Support

6 Schedule and Implementation 7 Contractor Furnished Equipment 8 Government Furnished Equipment (GFE) 9 Contractor Responsibilities 10 Government Information 11 Deliverables 12 USAGM Points of Contact (POC)

12.0 Contracting Officer’s Representative

12.1 Program Manager

13 Appendix

13.0 PREFERRED SCHEDULE AND IMPLEMENTATION PLAN AS PROPOSED BY USAGM

1 INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND.

1.0 The U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM), in support of the Voice of America (VOA) will be awarding a follow-on contract for satellite capacity and managed teleport services. This is to support the distribution of VOA Persian TV (HD) on TurkmenÄlem/MonacoSat at the 52o East orbital location originating at USAGM headquarters in Washington, D.C. and USAGM’s Data Center in Ashburn, VA. This action will be additive and will contribute to the distribution of VOA Persian TV on a diverse set of satellites and frequencies available to audiences in the target area.

1.1 The proposed satellite solution must provide high-availability interconnects, deliver high quality content, and be agile enough to reach USAGM’s distribution hubs, news bureaus, and international audiences via satellite and terrestrial network connectivity.

1.2 USAGM will provide program content channels utilizing MPEG Transport Streams from its

Points of Presence (POP) in Washington, DC and Ashburn, VA. USAGM will transport the channels to the Contractor’s Point of Presence (POP) over a Direct Internet Access (DIA) connection.

1.3 The USAGM’s goal is to obtain managed services which offer the following attributes:

1.3.1 Cost effective, reliable, scalable, and secure global network capability optimized for high-definition audio and video broadcast programming.

1.3.2 Rapid procurement and deployment of new terrestrial and satellite connectivity services supporting urgent mission requirements.

1.3.3 Connect anywhere in the world via any satellite via key terrestrial points-of-presence (POPs).

1.3.4 Monitor, troubleshoot, and quickly restore any disruption in managed services.

1.3.5 Simplify the management of network operations by offering turnkey services.

2 SCOPE OF WORK.

2.0 The Contractor shall maintain a digital broadcast and digital radio distribution infrastructure with an experienced and knowledgeable staff. The infrastructure shall include:

• Digital video and digital audio teleport facilities capable of reformatting streams

• Analyzing stream performance at the transport (MPEG) layer

• Adjusting streams and Packet IDs (PIDs)

• Receiving digitally encoded transport stream(s) over DIA digital media transport networks and

• Providing technical staff capable of adjusting front panel digital video and audio encoder/decoder settings.

2.1 The Contractor shall provide channelized Satellite Transponder Mux capacity on TurkmenÄlem/MonacoSat at 52.0° East to accommodate approximately 6.50 Mb/s of program content to be transmitted as follows:

Program Content Program Type Bitrate Transponder VOA Persian TV (HD) with MPEG1/Layer II program audio

Video 6.50 D03

Total 6.50

2.2 The Contractor shall employ trained and experienced digital video and audio broadcast technicians capable of 24/7/365 signal monitoring and the ability to identify, troubleshoot, isolate, and resolve signal anomalies and outages related to USAGM video and audio programming.

2.3 The Contractor shall provide a fully managed and maintained DIA network connection of not less than 13.0 Mb/s from USAGM’s Headquarters in Washington, DC to the Contractor’s POP for distribution by the Contractor to its teleport(s) for uplinking to TurkmenÄlem/MonacoSat @52.0° East as a bundled managed service.

2.4 The DIA network connection shall be configured for use with an Error Correction Protocol e.g.

Zixi, SRT, etc. between the USAGM premises and the Contractor’s premises.

2.5 The Contractor shall provide 24/7/365 signal monitoring of USAGM’s contribution feed, as well as the downlink signal from the satellite. The Contractor shall provide discrepancy reports to the USAGM Program Manager (PM) and Contracting Officer’s Representatives (CORs) per this statement of work.

2.6 In the event USAGM requires additional capacity on TurkmenÄlem/MonacoSat at 52o East or any other satellites available to the Contractor, the Contractor shall have the ability to provide additional capacity and services, as required, upon receipt of a completed contract modification issued by the USAGM Office of Contracts.

3 PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE.

3.0 The Period of Performance (POP) for this contract is To Be Determined.

4 PLACE OF PERFORMANCE.

4.0 The Place of Performance for TurkmenÄlem/MonacoSat at 52o East will initially be at the

Contractor’s designated uplink teleport.

5 WORK REQUIREMENTS.

5.0.1 DIRECT INTERNET ACCESS NETWORK.

5.0.1.1 The Contractor shall be responsible for managing and maintaining the DIA circuits from the Contractor’s Point of Presence (PoP) to the uplink teleport(s).

5.0.1.2 USAGM shall be responsible for all contracted DIA circuits at its POP (Washington, DC and Ashburn, VA).

5.1 DIRECT INTERNET ACCESS NETWORK.

5.1.1 The Contractor shall provide a redundant 13.0 Mb/s DIA service at its PoP to be scaled to avoid traffic contention at the serving Point-of-Presence.

5.1.2 USAGM shall provide a 13.0 Mb/s DIA circuit to deliver its Transport Streams to the Contractor’s Point of Presence (PoP).

5.2 SPACE SEGMENT, GROUND SUPPORT AND CONTENT DELIVERY.

5.2.1 The Contractor shall provide satellite bandwidth capacity on TurkmenÄlem/MonacoSat @

52.0° East with the following parameters:

Satellite: TurkmenÄlem/MonacoSat (52o E) Transponder: D03 Downlink Beam: East Downlink Frequency: 10762.0 MHz

FEC: 2/3

Symbol Rate: 27.5 MSym/s Downlink Polarization/Mod: V, QPSK

5.2.2 The total satellite bandwidth shall be adequate to accommodate USAGM’s program stream and be capable of reception by a 70 cm antenna in the downlink footprint.

5.2.3 The Contractor or Sub-Contractor shall uplink fully formed video and audio streams received via the DIA Network to TurkmenÄlem/MonacoSat @ 52.0° East in the Ku-Band frequency spectrum as follows:

Satellite Capacity and Uplink Services – 6.50 Mb/s

VOA Persian TV (HD) - Service ID: TBD, Video PID: TBD, Audio PID: TBD

5.2.4 Upon agreement and with an applicable contract modification, the Contractor shall arrange and coordinate the reception and delivery of USAGM content downlinked and monitored from TurkmenÄlem/MonacoSat at 52o East (for confidence monitoring), and where required, downlink regional satellite video and audio contribution feeds from the Contractor’s or Sub-Contractor’s Teleport to the USAGM Point of Presence (PoP) as required.

5.3 MONITORING, REPORTING AND SERVICE OUTAGES.

5.3.1 The Contractor shall staff a 24/7/365 Network Operations Center and Technical Support Call Center with competent English-speaking technicians to monitor USAGM’s video and audio content and proactively communicate technical issues to USAGM’s PM and CORs.

5.3.2 The Contractor shall provide coordination, system health monitoring (including content and signal quality monitoring at edge devices), and management of the network, components, and subsystems.

5.3.3 The Contractor shall define response times for USAGM service calls, trouble ticket processing, and outage reporting. USAGM encourages the Contractor to provide an online portal (or similar system) accessible by USAGM Staff to monitor the status of open trouble tickets.

5.3.4 The Contractor shall contact USAGM’s PM and CORs every 60 minutes during a transmission outage providing updates including status and remedial actions in place.

5.3.5 The Contractor shall be responsible for returning the satellite services, teleport services and terrestrial circuits back to full operation as quickly as possible. If the outage is prolonged, the Contractor, with agreement from the USAGM Contracting Officer (CO), and or the Contracting Officers Representatives (CORs), shall be required to provide USAGM with alternative signal/service routing to maintain continuity of operations.

5.3.6 If the Contractor schedules satellite or terrestrial service outages to conduct system(s) maintenance, it shall be the Contractor’s responsibility to notify and obtain USAGM’s approval via USAGM PM and CORs in writing via email at least 48 hours prior to the planned maintenance period.

5.3.7 The Contractor shall provide and notify the USAGM PM and CORs of measures to ensure continuation of maximum service during the planned maintenance outage.

5.3.8 The Contractor shall host monthly meetings (Teleconference/Microsoft Teams/on site at USAGM) with the USAGM PM and CORs to discuss operational concerns, (outages, maintenance etc.). The Contractor shall provide network availability, as well as outage and discrepancy reports (pertaining to satellite capacity, DMF connectivity, DIA connectivity, and program content). The Contractor shall initiate these meetings, determine the schedule, and provide Outlook calendar invitations to USAGM staff.

5.4 TECHNICAL RECOMMENDATIONS AND SERVICE UPGRADES.

5.4.1 Where the Contractor is providing Managed Teleport Services, then the Contractor shall be responsible for providing technical recommendations to USAGM for consideration with respect to satellite and terrestrial content transmission and reception.

5.4.2 Where the Contractor is providing Managed Teleport Services, then the Contractor shall have adequate terrestrial bandwidth to deliver program content to the designated uplink Teleport and to accommodate potential return feed program content requirements.

5.5 CUSTOMER SUPPORT.

5.5.1 The Contractor shall provide expert technical operations and a management team that can advise USAGM on optimal operational practices, recommend deployment network topologies, day-to-day and emergency procedures, performance reporting and metrics, and ensure the overall reliability and responsive operation of the network through both proactive planning and rapid situational response.

5.5.2 The Contractor shall provide the contact information of senior staff who will be associated with this contract. USAGM requests the address, telephone number, and email address for the following Key Contractor Personnel:

5.5.2.1 Account Manager

5.5.2.2 Account Engineer

5.5.2.3 Project Manager

5.5.2.4 I.T. Manager

5.5.2.5 Teleport Station Manager (Managed Teleport Services Only)

5.5.3 The Contractor shall be responsible for keeping Key Contractor Personnel information current and submitting any changes to the USAGM PM and CORs via email within 3 days of key personal replacement.

5.5.4 The Contractor shall provide a detailed escalation plan relative to this contract for system failures, outages, or technical support to the PM and CORs. The Contractor shall also be responsible for keeping this plan current and submitting any changes to the USAGM PM and CORs.

6 SCHEDULE AND IMPLEMENTATION.

6.0 The service commencement and implementation date will be finalized once the Contract has been awarded (see Section 3 and Appendix 13.0 of this Statement of Work). The Contractor shall adhere to the USAGM’s Period of Performance and start date as indicated in the implementation plan.

7 CONTRACTOR FURNISHED EQUIPMENT.

7.0 The Contractor shall provide/supply the following electronic equipment and terrestrial circuits needed to ensure that content is transmitted and received over terrestrial circuits for uplinking to TurkmenÄlem/MonacoSat at 52o East:

7.0.1 Hardware/software for error-protected transmission, operating systems, and software licenses (e.g. Zixi, SRT, etc.)

7.0.2 13.0 Mb/s DIA circuit from the Contractor’s POP to the Contractor’s uplink teleport(s).

7.1 If the Contractor is required to provide encoders, decoders, or additional equipment, it shall provide budgetary cost estimates to USAGM before the purchase of said equipment.

7.2 The Contractor shall not procure any additional equipment for USAGM unless authorized by the Contracting Officer by way of a Task Order, Purchase Order, or modification to the contract.

7.3 All equipment purchased by the Contractor on behalf of and paid for by USAGM, shall become the property of USAGM upon the conclusion or termination of the contract.

8 GOVERNMENT FURNISHED EQUIPMENT (GFE).

8.0 There is no GFE currently however, upon agreement with the Contractor, the Government may provide/supply electronic equipment, if required, to support the program distribution aspects of this contract to ensure compatibility with USAGM transport stream protocols.

8.1 This equipment shall remain the property of the U.S. Government and returned upon contract completion.

8.2 USAGM will be responsible for connecting the remote devices to the internet and associated network configuration (routing, firewall, etc.) for the Contractor to configure the devices and conduct maintenance and updates as required.

8.3 USAGM will be responsible for providing the correct signal format at the output of the encoders.

9 CONTRACTOR RESPONSIBILITIES.

9.0 The Contractor shall be responsible for notifying USAGM’s PM and the CORs of all outages, whether proposed, planned, or incidental.

9.1 The Contractor shall be responsible for providing monthly status reports (including any outages) via email to the PM and CORs once per calendar month.

9.2 The Contractor shall be responsible for scheduling monthly meetings between the USAGM

PM and CORs to discuss ongoing operational issues and/or concerns.

9.3 The Contractor shall be responsible for maintaining the outage escalation chart(s) and providing USAGM’s PM and CORs with the current key personnel information pertaining to the operation of this contract.

9.4 The Contractor shall be responsible for coordinating and communicating with all third-party providers/sub-contractors to ensure continued operations of the Satellite Capacity, Managed Teleport Services, and the DMF/DIA network connections.

9.5 The Contractor shall be responsible for providing technical support and advice to USAGM throughout the duration of this contract.

10 GOVERNMENT INFORMATION.

10.0 All information provided to the Contractor by USAGM shall remain the property of the government and shall not be made public without the consent of the COR or Contracting Officer.

11 DELIVERABLES.

11.0 The Contractor shall provide the following deliverables to USAGM PM and CORs as indicated below.

11.0.1 Outage Reports (within 12 hours of the Outage) See section 6.4

11.0.2 Escalation Plan (as changes occur) See section 6.6.4

11.0.3 Key Personnel Information (as changes occur) See section 6.6.3 and 10.3

11.0.4 Ongoing technical advice (as required) See section 6.5

12 USAGM POINTS OF CONTACT (POC).

12.0 CONTRACTING OFFICER’S REPRESENTATIVE.

TBD

12.1 PROGRAM MANAGER.

13 APPENDIX.

13.0 PREFERRED SCHEDULE AND IMPLEMENTATION PLAN AS PROPOSED BY USAGM.

Schedule and Implementation Plan Date (X = day the contract is awarded)

1. Award Contract awarded and signed TBD

2. Kick off meeting: Service Implementation Plan &

Project Review

TBD

3. Ready for Service: USAGM dedicated network signal reception at Teleport and distribution to selected satellites.

TBD

4 Testing USAGM dedicated network signal reception at Teleport and distribution to selected satellites.

5. Service Implementation: Acceptance TBD