Shortwave Broadcast Transmission Services

Added: Mar 30, 2015 11:27 am

BROADCASTING BOARD OF GOVERNORS
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Title: SHORTWAVE BROADCAST TRANSMISSION SERVICES
NAICS CODE - 515111
REFERENCE NUMBER - BBG50-R-15-0028
Posted 03/30/2015 Close 04/17/2015
Interested Offerors are reminded to submit via email two separate attachments - a Technical Proposal and a separate Price Proposal. Offerors must send one email with both attachments. ALL ATTACHMENTS MUST BE CLEARLY LABELED, SENT IN "PDF FORMAT", AND THE TOTAL SIZE OF ALL ATTACHMENTS MUST NOT EXCEED 23MB. See paragraph (xv), below.
Notice Type: Combined Synopsis/Solicitation

(i) THIS IS A COMBINED SYNOPSIS/SOLICITATION FOR COMMERCIAL ITEMS PREPARED IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE FORMAT IN FAR SUBPART 12.6, AS SUPPLEMENTED WITH ADDITIONAL INFORMATION INCLUDED IN THIS NOTICE. THIS ANNOUNCEMENT CONSTITUTES THE ONLY SOLICITATION; PROPOSALS ARE BEING REQUESTED AND A WRITTEN SOLICITATION WILL NOT BE ISSUED.
Pursuant to an agency class deviation issued pursuant to FAR 1.404 and as set forth in the attached Addendum, the Government is conducting this procurement under the Test Program for Certain Commercial Items authorized by FAR Subpart 13.5 and in accordance with the simplified acquisition procedures established in FAR Part 13.
(ii) Solicitation No. BBG50-R-15-0028 is issued as a Request for Proposals (RFP).
(iii) This solicitation document and incorporated provisions and clauses are those in effect through Federal Acquisition Circular FAC 2005-80 effective March 2, 2015.
(iv) This is a full and open competition and the North American Industry Classification Systems (NAICS) code for this acquisition is 515111 with a small business size standard of $32.5 million.
(v) Interested Offeror(s) will be required to provide the following Contract Line Item (CLIN):
The Contractor shall lease to the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) shortwave broadcast transmission capacity, receive BBG programming feed provided by satellite or terrestrial circuits, and transmit the programing by shortwave for the benefit of BBG and its grantees in accordance with agreed upon schedules for the Area or Areas or regions within an Area or Areas awarded and receive payment for hours delivered based on a fully loaded flat hourly capacity lease rate (the transmitter rate per hour).
The successful Offeror or Offerors are required to provide all equipment and facilities required to perform the contract, including all equipment and facilities to accept the BBG's programming feed and to transmit it by shortwave to the Area or Areas identified with the requisite coverage. Each Offeror's proposal must state that it will provide and maintain all equipment, (including, but not limited to, any real property/leasehold facilities) required to provide the shortwave transmitting services. The Government will not furnish property, i.e., there will be no Government Furnished Property (GFP).
The successful Offeror or Offerors will be required to also comply with the terms and conditions included in the attached Addendum which includes the "Lease Agreement," with Annex I, Annex II, Transmission Schedule and Price Sheet, the FAR Clauses 52.212-4 to 52.212-5 and additional incorporated clauses as set forth therein and below, all of which are collectively attached as an Addendum to this Combined Synopsis/Solicitation or incorporated by reference.

(vi) BBG's Office of Contracts has a need for one or more contractor(s) to lease high quality transmission capacity for shortwave broadcasting to Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe (hereinafter "Areas") as required by the BBG and its grantees in accordance with agreed upon broadcasting schedules and the Attachment titled "Addendum." The successful Offeror(s) must be able to cover all, or part of one or more of the three aforementioned Areas during both the BBG summer and winter broadcast seasons. It is a technical requirement that the BBG obtains full coverage for these Areas in making one or more awards under this Combined Synopsis/Solicitation. For the BBG to meet its needs, BBG will select the combination of Offerors or the sole Offeror that provide or provides coverage of all three Areas and all regions within the Areas in the manner most advantageous to the Government based on the factors contained in this Combined Synopsis/Solicitation.

(vii) The Base Period of performance for this acquisition is June1, 2015 to December 31, 2015. The requirement includes four (4) one-year Option Periods. The subsequent Options, if exercised by the Government, will follow sequentially for a total contract duration not to exceed fifty-five (55) months.

(viii) The Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) provision FAR 52.212-1 Instructions to Offerors-Commercial Items (APR 2014) applies to this solicitation. FAR provisions and clauses may be obtained from the Internet Web address at: http://acquisition.gov/far/index.html. Interested Offeror(s) who have transmission capacity for shortwave transmitting to the identified three Areas and the capability to provide these high quality shortwave transmission services from BBG programming feed provided by satellite or terrestrial circuits should submit a proposal identifying capabilities as instructed at paragraph (ix) below.
Each Offeror is required to submit: (a) a single Technical Proposal informing the Government how it has the available shortwave transmitting capacity to meet the portion of BBG's needs its proposal covers in all of the Areas, some of the Areas, or regions within the Areas identifying transmitting stations by location, equipment, coverage and any criteria only applicable to a specific Area and/or Areas, and (b) a Price Proposal setting forth a fully loaded flat hourly capacity lease rate (the transmitter rate per hour) for each transmitter required to satisfy the portion of BBG's needs the Offeror's proposal covers in all the Areas, some of the Areas or regions within the Areas for which award is sought based on the total estimated hours as further described below.
(ix)The Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) provision FAR 52.212-2 Evaluation-Commercial Items (OCT 2014), applies to this solicitation for the evaluation of Offerors' Technical and Price proposals as set forth below.
(a) Technical Approach:
Each Offeror is required to submit a Technical Proposal for the portion of BBG's needs its proposal covers and must specify whether the proposal covers all the Areas, some of the Areas, or regions within an Area or Areas. Each Offeror shall structure its Technical Proposal to convey to the Government how the Offeror's capacity, management personnel, transmitting equipment/facilities, and experience (including past performance) satisfy the technical requirements in a straightforward and concise manner. In its Technical Proposal, each Offeror shall demonstrate its ability and experience in providing the shortwave broadcast transmission services in one or more (up to and including all) of the three aforementioned Areas or in regions within one or more of the three Areas. Each Offeror must include in its Technical Proposal a narrative about how it will provide the broadcast services it is offering including the capability to provide these high quality shortwave transmission services from BBG programming feed provided by satellite or terrestrial circuits. Each Offeror's Technical Proposal shall comply with all requirements to provide the required transmission capacity in the Areas, some of the Areas, or regions within the Areas the offer covers on an hourly basis in accordance with the estimated schedule. Each Offeror's Technical Proposal shall also include a statement that it agrees to comply with all requirements including the terms, conditions, and clauses included and incorporated in the attached "Lease Agreement" and Annexes I and II.

(b) FAR 52.212-2(a) is deleted in its entirety and replaced with the following Basis for Award and Evaluation Factors:
Basis for Award: The Government will make award to the Offeror or Offerors that best meet BBG's operational requirements in Africa, Asia, and Eastern Europe as those Areas are identified in the Transmission Schedule and Price Sheet based on evaluation of the capability of each Offeror and/or evaluation of the collective capabilities of multiple Offerors in the identified Areas including past performance and price.
Technical qualifications should demonstrate a history and capability of providing "coverage" to the target Areas the Offeror is proposing to cover to the maximum extent possible as set forth below:
BBG's goal for shortwave "coverage" is to provide the Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR) required for standard broadcast quality levels for 90% of the listeners and for 90% short term fade protection. BBG has determined that this requires a minimum SNR of 73 dB referenced to a noise power of -145 dBw in a 1 Hz bandwidth at 3 MHz, as calculated by the Voice of America Coverage Analysis Program (VOACAP). If there is any question as to what regions or what portions of a region in an Area are provided coverage by a proposed facility or whether one Offeror offers better coverage than another, the performance of the proposed facility(ies) will be evaluated against this goal for coverage using the proposed transmitter and antenna of the Offeror or Offerors in question and the expected solar indices.
The Technical Proposal must address the evaluation criteria described in this paragraph (ix) above and the Evaluation Factors 1) through 4) below. The Offeror(s) must state in their Technical Proposal any restrictions that will limit BBG's ability to have its programing broadcast in the Area and/or Areas mentioned above for the Area or Areas for which an Offeror or Offerors seek award or awards. "Restrictions" include, but are not limited to, language, coverage and power limitations, terms or conditions of pre-existing transmitting agreement(s), and laws of the country where the transmitters are located.
The Price Proposal must be in accordance with paragraph (ix), Evaluation Factor 5.
Evaluation Factors: As previously discussed, the Government will provide no Government Furnished Property (GFP), facilities or equipment. All the Government will provide is the programming to be transmitted and payment for performance. The Government is leasing the shortwave transmitting capacity and the services, facilities and equipment necessary to receive the programming feed provided by satellite or terrestrial circuits and transmit the programing by shortwave to the Area or Areas for which the Offeror seeks award. These services will be provided on a fully loaded flat hourly capacity lease rate (the transmitter rate per hour) which will be based on the Government's estimated total required annual transmitting hours for the three Areas. It is therefore important that each Offeror's Technical and Price Proposals provide the required information for evaluation of proposals.
A description of the Evaluation Factors follows:
1) Technical Approach -Each Offeror shall provide a detailed narrative of the service requirement, i.e., explain how well the Offeror's broadcast transmission will cover for the Area, Areas, or regions of an Area or Areas its offer covers (in Africa, Asia, and/or Eastern Europe), at the broadcasting times in the "Transmission Schedule and Price Sheet", strength of signal, and the performance measures that the contractor will take to meet all contract requirements. The Offeror shall also provide detailed information on any signal-processing of the BBG-provided programming after its downlink. In other words, the Offeror shall provide information on the equipment they use in the signal path between the reception point of the programming and the short wave transmitter input. Each Offeror must also provide day-to-day operational contact information as well as escalation contact information in the event an extensive problem requires higher level managerial attention. Each Offeror shall provide a description of its organization and its demonstrated capabilities in performing the portion of the service requirements and schedule its offer covers. Each Offeror must state in its Technical Proposal any restrictions that will limit BBG's broadcasting;
2) Management Approach - Each Offeror shall provide a description of the management approach that it will use to meet the portion of the agency's requirements its offer covers, including description of the responsibilities of key and backup personnel and a copy of their resumes;
3) Contractor Qualifications -Each Offeror shall provide its understanding of BBG's requirements and demonstrate its ability to meet the portion of BBG's requirements its offer covers. The Offeror must also include the following information in its Technical Proposal: (i) number and location of transmission stations; (ii) number of available transmitters per station (including available transmission power levels); and (iii) number of antennas per station (including antenna types, azimuth bore sites, and steerable increments). Each Offeror must provide detailed descriptions of how it will employ its facilities to reach shortwave audiences in Africa, Asia, and Eastern Europe or the Area or combination of Areas for which award is sought;
4) Past Performance - Each Offeror is required to provide three (3) references from previous customers for same or similar services to the requirements set forth herein within the last five (5) years of the date of this Solicitation. Offerors shall also provide the names of three (3) customers/clients and the following information: (i) client's name, address, and name, email and telephone number of the contact person; (ii) dollar amount of the contract; (iii) term of the contract; and (iv) brief description of the work performed. Each Offeror shall use the form uploaded to the FedBizOpps with this Combined Synopsis/Solicitation titled "Past Performance References" to provide the information.
The BBG shall evaluate an Offeror's Past Performance on a comparative basis based on the information provided or any other information readily available to the Government. If an Offeror is unable to provide all or part of the Past Performance information requested, such inability should be explained in the "description of work performed" section of the "Past Performance References" sheet included in the attached Addendum. Pursuant to the FAR in the case of an Offeror without a record of relevant past performance or for whom information on Past Performance is not available, the Offeror may not be evaluated favorably or unfavorably on Past Performance; and
5) Price - The attached Transmission Schedules reflect the transmission hours BBG anticipates experiencing for its requirements for the three Areas broken down by transmission times and CIRAF Zones. For purposes of evaluation, BBG has extrapolated the current anticipated schedule out for the total hours that would be incurred to meet BBG's transmission requirement for one year for use as BBG's best estimate for price evaluation purposes. As stated earlier, BBG will select the combination of Offerors or the sole Offeror that provide or provides coverage of all three Areas and all regions within the areas in the manner most advantageous to the Government.
First, during the period of performance of the contract BBG's operational broadcasting needs and the transmitting hours per day that BBG will order and the Contractor must provide may vary throughout the contract's period of performance. BBG anticipates, at a minimum, issuing new transmission schedules every six months.
Second, during the period of performance of the contract, regardless of the transmission schedule that BBG issues, BBG will only pay the Contractor for the actual hours that BBG orders and the Contractor delivers. BBG will pay by month and the amount it will pay will be the product of the actual hours it ordered that the Contractor delivered times the hourly rate (price per transmitter hour/fully loaded flat hourly capacity lease rate/transmitter rate per hour) applicable to those hours.
Third, in its Price Proposal each Offeror must submit the information requested in the instructions preceding the attached "Transmission Schedules," "Price Summary and Totals Chart," and "Price Sheet." The instructions are very detailed. A summary of them follows.
There are six Transmission Schedules, three for summer (one each for Africa, Asia, and Eastern Europe) and three for winter (one each for Africa, Asia, and Eastern Europe). On each the Offeror must fill in its offered hourly rate for the Area, part of the Area, or regions within an Area for which the Offeror seeks award. On each the Offeror must also list at the bottom of the Schedule its total offered price for its total offered hours (which equals the sum of the products of offered hours times hourly rates).On the Price Summary and Totals Chart the Offeror must list its total transmitter hours proposed, which must equal the sum of the transmitter hours proposed on the six Transmission Schedules. The Offeror must also list its total price proposed, which must equal the sum of the total prices on the six Transmission Schedules. The total transmitter hours proposed and total price proposed represent total hours and total price for Summer and Winter.
Fourth, on the Price Sheet each Offeror must provide its price for the seven (7) month Base Period, along with its hourly rate for each transmitter to be used. Also on the Price Sheet, the Offeror must provide for each Option Period its price along with its hourly rate for each transmitter the Offeror plans to utilize.
Offerors are cautioned that failure to address each of the above factors may render their proposal unacceptable.
FAR 52.212-2(b) and (c) remain in effect.
(x) Offerors shall include a completed copy of the provision FAR 52.212-3 Offeror Representations and Certifications-Commercial Items (MAR 2015) with their Technical Proposals. These representations and certifications will be incorporated by reference in any resultant contract. Offerors may either submit a paper copy of FAR Clause 52.212-3 or submit this information through the System of Award Management (SAM) www.sam.gov. Proposals must also include the Offeror's DUNS Number, prompt payment terms, and correct remittance address, if different from mailing address. THE OFFEROR MUST BE REGISTERED ONLINE IN THE SAM DATABASE AND LISTED AS "ACTIVE" PRIOR TO CONTRACT AWARD, AND PROSPECTIVE AWARDEES ACKNOWLEDGE THE REQUIREMENT TO MAINTAIN AN "ACTIVE" SAM REGISTRATION STATUS DURING PERFORMANCE AND THROUGH FINAL PAYMENT OF ANY RESULTING CONTRACT. Accordingly, the following FAR provisions and clauses are incorporated into the solicitation and any resulting contract by reference: 52.204-7-System for Award Management (JUL 2013); 52.204-13-System for Award Management Maintenance (JUL 2013); FAR 52.204-16 Commercial and Government Entity Code Reporting (NOV 2014); FAR 52.204-18 Commercial and Government Entity Code Maintenance (NOV 2014).

Pursuant to FAR 12.301(d), the FAR provisions 52.209-7 Information Regarding Responsibility Matters (JUL 2013) and 52.222-56 Certification Regarding Trafficking in Persons Compliance Plan (MAR 2015) also apply to this acquisition and are incorporated in full text in the Addendum to this synopsis/solicitation. Offerors must comply with the requirements of these two provisions.

(xi) The FAR clause 52.212-4 Contract Terms and Conditions-Commercial Items (DEC 2014), applies to this acquisition with addenda to the clause. Any conflict between clause FAR 52.212-4 titled Contract Terms and Conditions-Commercial Items and the Lease Agreement and/or Annexes I and II shall be resolved by giving precedence to the 52.212-4 clause. Additional FAR clauses pertaining to this acquisition are set forth in the Addendum to this Combined Synopsis/Solicitation.
(xii) FAR clause 52.212-5 Contract Terms and Conditions Required to Implement Statutes or Executive Orders-Commercial Items (MAR 2015 applies to this acquisition and is incorporated in full text in the Addendum to the Synopsis/Solicitation. Accordingly, subsections (a), (d), and (e) of FAR 52.212-5 apply in their entirety. The following additional FAR clauses cited within paragraph (b) of FAR 52.212-5 also apply to this acquisition:
52.203-6, Restrictions on Subcontractor Sales to the Government (SEP 2006), with Alternate I (OCT 1995)
52.203-13, Contractor Code of Business Ethics and Conduct (APR 2010)
52.204-10, Reporting Executive Compensation and First-Tier Subcontract Awards (JUL 2013)
52.204-14, Service Contract Reporting Requirements (JAN 2014)
52.209-6, Protecting the Government's Interest When Subcontracting with Contractors Debarred, Suspended, or Proposed for Debarment. (AUG 2013)
52.222-50, Combating Trafficking in Persons (MAR 2015) (22 U.S.C. chapter 78 and E.O. 13627);
52.223-18, Encouraging Contractor Policies to Ban Text Messaging While Driving (AUG 2011)
52.225-13, Restrictions on Certain Foreign Purchases (JUN 2008) (E.O.'s, proclamations, and statutes administered by the Office of Foreign Assets Control of the Department of the Treasury)
52.232-33, Payment by Electronic Funds Transfer--System for Award Management (JUL 2013)
(xiii) All additional contract requirements, terms, conditions, provisions, and clauses applicable to this acquisition are contained in the attached Addendum.
(xiv) No Defense Priorities and Allocation System (DPAS) rating assigned.
(xv) Please note that questions must be submitted in writing to Cherylynn Peters by email (cpeters@bbg.gov) and received before the deadline of 12:00 p.m., Eastern Daylight Time ("EDT") on April 8, 2015. Offerors are required to put the Combined Synopsis/Solicitation Number in the subject line when submitting questions.
Failure to offer to provide the required services for the above CLIN may result in the rejection of your proposal. Proposals shall be in writing and must be signed by an official authorized to bind the organization. No oral, faxed, mailed in hard copy, or delivered in hard copy by Government or commercial courier proposals will be accepted. All proposals must be sent via email delivery and must be received before the deadline. The Price Proposal must be clearly distinguishable and separate from Technical Proposal. Offerors should send one email with the Solicitation Number in the subject line and the Technical and Price Proposals as separate, clearly identified, attachments. Proposals should be sent to cpeters@bbg.gov and must be received before 12:00 p.m., EDT on April 17, 2015. In sum, each Offeror should send one email with its Technical Proposal and Price Proposal attached separately.
Offerors are reminded to email two separate attachments - a Technical Proposal and a separate Price Proposal. Offerors must send one email with both attachments. ALL ATTACHMENTS MUST BE CLEARLY LABELED, SENT IN "PDF FORMAT", AND THE TOTAL SIZE OF ALL ATTACHMENTS MUST NOT EXCEED 23MB.
(xvi) Contact: Cherylynn Peters, Director of Contracts, 202-382-7866. All responsible sources may submit an offer for one or more of the three aforementioned Areas described in paragraph (vi).