1 

Driving Transformation Driving Transformation

2011 Technology, Services, & Innovation 

Annual Performance Report
1 
1 

In October 2011, for the first time, 

Benghazi residents were able to hear 

Radio Sawa’s unique mix of six hours 

of daily news and popular Arabic and 

Western music on their FM dials. 

Operating on 88.1 MHz, the TSI 

commissioned FM transmitter quickly 

became the most popular radio 

destination in the liberated city. 

TSI has procured, commissioned, and 

shipped an additional transmitter 

scheduled to come on-air in 

Libya’s capital city, Tripoli, during 

the first quarter of 2012.

Table of Contents 

Driving Transformation in FY 2011......................3 

Profile: A Look Inside TSI......................................4 

Key Focus Areas.......................................................6 

Strategic Objectives...............................................7 

 Reduce Organizational Risk........................8 

 Lower Operating Costs.................................9 

 Increase Systems’ Reliability....................10 

 Increase Operating Agility..........................11 

Continuing the Transformation in 2012.............12 

Enabling 

Free Media 

in Libya 
2 

Our 

 Customer’s 

Perspective 

“During FY11, TSI provided invaluable support to the Martis in IT, engineering, telecom and day-to-day 

operations. Through our Psiphon nodes, IAC helped provide the Cuban people access to Internet content, 

support for our e-mail blasts and text messaging to Cuba have been instrumental in this effort. TSI also 

manages the routers at our sites, administers our email system and deals with our FISMA security issues. 

TSI Engineering is assisting OCB in exploring additional ways to deliver Radio Marti programming, including possible MW facilities in Mexico and Haiti. The conversion of our satellite link to MPLS, yielded considerable cost savings to OCB. 

 

TSI’s Telecom successfully transitioned services to the Networx contract, and on a day-to-day basis the 

NCC was particularly helpful, as the contact point for resolving all Cohen Building issues. The Greenville 

Station provides excellent service, reliably delivering Radio Marti to Cuba via shortwave.” 

Carlos Garcia-Perez 

Director, Office of Cuba Broadcasting 

“TSI brings great value to RFE/RL and USIB in general. The support we receive is of the highest 

professional caliber. The combination of technical expertise, practical wisdom and solid business sense 

helps make RFE/RL a better organization. 

We warmly welcome TSI's partnership and collaboration.” 

Steve Korn 

CEO, RFE/RL 

“Voice of America benefited greatly from the TSI changes in 2011. There’s a new sense of problem 

solving, evidenced by a creative solution to overcome jamming by the Ethiopian government. The 

cost-effective VOA24 satellite audio channel accompanied by photos and text has proved popular in 

serving VOA audiences throughout Africa. 

Changes to workflow and establishment of service level agreements delivered tangible results and 

changed attitudes within VOA about what TSI’s IT department can do. 

As TSI adapts to the seismic changes in the way content is delivered and positions itself as a leader in 

that area, I become more confident that VOA’s future is extremely bright.” 

Steve Redisch 

VOA Executive Editor 

“MBN relies heavily on TSI to provide transmission and connectivity for our 24/7 news and programming operations. Despite the complexity of our transmission scheme, TSI does an admirable job of 

keeping connectivity and transmission systems highly available and running well. 

 

Over the past year, communications have definitely improved as TSI quickly notified us of any anomalies 

and provided excellent assistance during our maintenance windows. 

The effort surrounding the FM installation in Benghazi, Libya was outstanding and enabled Radio Sawa to 

quickly become the favorite source of news and information for Benghazi citizens as the situation 

unfolded throughout their country. 

We sincerely appreciate the effort and level of service TSI routinely provides MBN.” 

Brian Conniff 

CEO, MBN 

“RFE/RL enjoyed excellent cooperation from TSI in FY11. Working with IBB Engineering (former name) 

over a number of years, one can’t help but notice that the level and quality of support for our content 

distribution has significantly increased. It is much welcomed. 

We regard TSI as a valued partner not only with respect to quick identification and resolution of technical problems and issues but also in optimizing communications and seeking to align our respective strategic objectives in a professional, collegial and completely transparent manner.” 

Julia Ragona 

V. P., Content, Distribution & Marketing, RFE/RL 

“Fiscal Year 2011 proved to be a watershed year for the TSI organization. The amount of progress 

achieved with our infrastructure and reliability was matched with a superb amount of business acumen 

and budgetary parsimony. 

In a short period of time, TSI has transformed the Agency’s technology base and brought us firmly into 

the 21st century.“ 

Maryjean Buehler 

CFO, BBG 
3 

Our Mission 

To deliver the critical content 

distribution and information 

processing solutions that keep 

the Broadcasting Board of 

Governors running and 

growing. 

Our Vision 

Become one of the Broadcasting Board of Governor’s core 

competitive advantages by 

delivering outstanding 

business value culled from 

the industry’s best technological solutions and leveraged by 

the most effective Federal 

workforce. 

Driving Transformation in FY 2011 

Welcome to the first edition of Technology, Services, & Innovation’s 

(TSI) Annual Performance Report. 

In this publication, we’ll discuss TSI’s operations in FY 2011 and how 

we kept the BBG networks running and growing. 

This past year, we continued to support the 24/7 activities of the 

BBG networks, operating our global content distribution systems, 

running and substantially upgrading our IT infrastructure, and 

operating the historic Cohen Building. 

We supported the continued growth of BBG transmissions including 

several emergency deployments of assets to address unfolding world 

events, humanitarian crises, and late-breaking news. 

In addition, we embarked on a systematic and multi-faceted 

remediation plan to address substantial infrastructure deficiencies 

accumulated over decades of continuous operation. 

In FY 2012, we will continue to aggressively push forward a pragmatic agenda designed to drive the transformation of the BBG from a 

legacy broadcasting environment to a modern, agile, and multiplatform global media enterprise. 

Internally, we will maintain a tight focus on operational excellence 

by constantly improving processes and procedures, enhancing our 

project management skills, increasing our organizational agility, and 

placing special attention on workforce performance management as 

we strive to make TSI a great place to work for each and every one 

of its employees. 

A very special thanks to all the TSI employees who strived to make a 

difference in FY 2011. I thank you for your support, enthusiasm, and 

dedication to the BBG mission and look forward to many more 

outstanding and rewarding outcomes during FY 2012. 

 André V. Mendes 

 CIO/CTO , BBG 

 Director, Technology, Services & Innovation, IBB 
4 

Our Operations 

Our Customers 

 3,628 BBG employees 

 5 Broadcast Networks 

 59 language services 

 53 bureaus, production centers, & overseas offices 

 Global audiences in excess of 165 million people 

Our Transmission Network

 Over $1 Billion in Physical Assets 

 84 Transmitting sites with 182 transmitters 

 14 geo-stationary satellites 

 1,400+ affiliate stations 

 Circumnavigating Fiber Circuits 

 Rapidly expanding global MPLS network 

 1 Continuity of Operations Facility (COOP) 

Our Team: 

 Contractors: 27

 Engineering Staff: 69 (56 at HQ, 13 in Greenville) 

 IT Staff: 68 

 Foreign Service Nationals: 258 

 Foreign Service Officers: 19 

 Resources Staff: 16

Our IT Assets 

 200+ Enterprise Servers 

 Over 1 petabyte of online storage 

 Multiple Broadband Internet Connections 

 Enterprise Class networking equipment 

 Over 2,500 workstations 

 Hundreds of mobile devices 

 Largest DaletPlus installation in the world

Keeping BBG Running and Growing in FY 2011 

Our primary mission is to distribute the content created by the BBG’s networks to their intended audiences in 

the most cost-effective and efficient manner possible. 

In that regard, TSI delivered significant improvement in two of the key metrics for the agency, Radio Signal 

Strength and Satellite Effectiveness, while keeping the network consumable expense stable from the prior year 

despite inflationary pressures and aging transmission equipment. In addition, in FY 2011, TSI delivered network 

and Information Technology systems availability statistics that far exceeded its target goals: 

 Transmitting station availability exceeded 99.75% despite drastic reductions in Maintenance & Repair budgets, initiation 

of remote control for overnight shifts in Tinian and Saipan, and the retirement (without replacement) of five Foreign 

Service Officers. 

 Internal IT systems were available 99.84% of the time (January to December) despite a very large amount of remediation 

activities that presented substantial opportunity for disruption. 

In 2011, TSI converted the majority of our shortwave transmitters to a new modulation scheme (AMC), delivering 

savings of approximately $1.5M in power consumption, successfully migrated hundreds of workstations to 

Windows 7 and Office 2010, decommissioned over 100 obsolete servers, became current with all operating 

system and application patching, removed a long standing Persistent Advanced Threat (PAT) which had been in 

our networks since January of 2009, and deployed new virtual server and virtual storage environments. Together, these projects helped propel the BBG from a trailing position in the Federal IT arena to one of the leading 

agencies in the deployment of modern Information Technology systems. 

From a personnel standpoint, we are gratified that the Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey yielded such 

dramatic improvements in most ratings, but we are keenly aware of the need to further progress in that arena. 

This will be clearly reflected in our 2013-2014 TSI Strategic Plan to be unveiled in the first quarter of 2012. 

Additional information on the ratings improvements may be found on page 6. 
5 

With Direct-to-Home (DTH) satellite audiences quickly growing in East Asia, dish penetration in China 

has now been estimated at 11% of households. In July 2011, TSI introduced a new set of services to 

both VOA and RFA that targets China and Tibet and combines a crystal clear, CD quality, digital radio 

signal with a low bandwidth video slate. Not only can that video signal display additional text or 

pictures related to the covered story, but it can also contain additional informational banners that 

can display web addresses for proxy servers enabling circumvention of Internet censorship. These 

services are carried on Telstar 18, the most popular Direct-to-Home (DTH) satellite in those two 

countries. Examples are shown below: 

Evolving to serve our audience’s shifting preferences 
6 

Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey Results 

Transmission Metrics 

 Key Performance Metric Definition FY 

2008 

FY 

2009 

FY 

2010 

FY 

2011 

Radio Signal Strength Index 

Based on a 5-point scale, this network level indicator 

applies to cross-border short wave and medium wave radio 

signals, and measures whether programs can be heard by 

target audiences. 

2.65 2.74 2.80 2.92 

Satellite Effective Index Assesses whether the BBG satellite delivery is keeping 

pace with global media developments. 9.8 10.4 10.4 10.9 

Transmission Network 

Consumable Expense 

The cost of power and parts (in millions) to operate the 

global IBB transmitter network $34 $34 $35 $35 

6% 17% 

13% 

4% 

19% 

5% 

TSI Key Performance Metrics: People and Systems 
7 

Key Focus Areas 

The 2010-2012 BBG Technology Strategic Plan established strategic 

objectives for both Information Technology and Engineering 

Operations. In FY 2011, our team worked in four key focus areas: 

1. Platform Consolidation 

Selecting a set of platform standards for the entire organization 

and systematically migrating systems and applications from other 

platforms into these standard environments, TSI has very quickly 

consolidated its operating basis, simplified systems integration, and 

developed deeper staff technical knowledge: 

 Made obsolete 100+ servers 

 Consolidated and migrated dozens of databases 

 Retired unsupported operating systems and A/V Switches 

 Converged to industry standard DVB-S2 and MPEG-4

 Deployed uniform Monitoring and Control system (Crystal)

2. Platform Virtualization 

Leveraging server, storage, and networking virtualization, the BBG 

has substantially increased capital investment performance. 

Virtualization has become the highest priority in the Federal IT 

space and a government-wide virtualization process is underway. 

BBG is now one of the leading agencies in this arena: 

 Deployed redundant server virtualization platform 

 Virtualized dozens of servers 

 Deployed redundant storage virtualization platform 

 Migrating to virtualized storage pools (ongoing)

3. Systems Co-location

Co-locating systems in high availability data centers specifically 

designed with multiple redundancy layers, the BBG can effectively 

leverage much higher expected levels of infrastructure reliability 

than it is likely to achieve with its own dedicated investment. RFE/

RL’s Prague building exhibits these desirable characteristics: 

 Currently evaluating Prague redundant IT setup (1st Quarter, 2012) 

 Currently evaluating Prague Disaster Recovery (1st Quarter, 2012)

4. Computing in the Cloud

By leveraging cloud computing BBG can better leverage its staff 

with higher level tasks unique to the BBG that pertain directly to 

the accomplishment of its primary mission: 

 Migrated from legacy email platform to Office 365 (completed 12/11) 

 Migrating FTP systems to cloud providers (Completion 4/12) 

 Migrating CMS systems to RFE/RL’s Pangaea system (Completion 9/12) 

 Leveraging MPLS networking to replace satellite links (ongoing) 

2011 

PERFORMANCE 

“FY 2011 was a banner year 

for TSI. Their accomplishments paved the way for 

superior performance, true 

enterprise level reliability, 

innovative functionality and 

outstanding stewardship of 

taxpayer’s funds in FY 2012 

and beyond.”

Richard M. Lobo 

Director 

International Broadcasting 

Bureau 
8 

Strategic Objective — Reduce Risk 

In FY 2011, the entire TSI organization undertook a focused effort to 

identify areas of organizational risk and to develop and deploy the 

appropriate remediation plans. 

Information Technology: 

 Over a three-day weekend, TSI’s IT department implemented a 

security remediation plan to eradicate a Persistent Advanced 

Threat (PAT) that, beginning in early 2009, infected multiple 

servers and workstations in the BBG infrastructure. The team 

successfully re-deployed all the assets and identified systems, 

processes, and procedures to prevent future incursions. 

 During 2011, TSI also deployed the latest version of the Internet 

filtering WebSense technology to protect the network from 

known malware infections while simultaneously restricting 

access to inappropriate web content (e.g., gambling/hate 

speech). 

 New enterprise class firewalls were deployed, and all inbound 

and outbound traffic rules were examined and corrected as 

necessary to further secure the integrity of the network. 

 Substantially more complex password rules were implemented to 

further enhance computer security at the user level. 

 The Agency completed and submitted its first Federal 

Information Security Management Act (FISMA) assessment. 

Engineering: 

 The mission critical Frequency Database was migrated from 

legacy hardware and software no longer supported by vendors 

onto fully redundant database clusters, ensuring high availability 

of one of the fundamental network asset managing tools. 

 The Network Control Center’s (NCC) mission critical, aging, and 

no longer vendor supported, audio and video switch was 

replaced with a fully redundant state-of-the-art system. 

 A system-wide electrical breaker maintenance and relay calibration to strengthen the transmission infrastructure. 

 A massive de-wiring project removed over one metric ton of 

obsolete cabling in the NCC. 

 The antenna towers at the transmitting station in Tinian 

(Northern Marianas) were re-painted to prevent corrosion. 

 The chain link fence was replaced around the station in Bangkok. 

 Physical security upgrades were installed at the station in Sri 

Lanka. 

Reduce 

Organizational 

Risk 

We must ensure seamless 

operation of the entire BBG 

Technology infrastructure in 

the face of cyber-security, 

accidental disruption, 

natural disasters, and other 

internal and external 

threats to ongoing business 

continuity. 
9 

Strategic Objective — Lower Costs 

To identify cost savings, TSI carefully examined all of its 

operations. A total of $4.18 million in savings were realized in FY 

2011 with $2.65 million set to recur annually. In addition, TSI 

secured $17.4 million in additional funds for its activities. Key 

data are as follows: 

FY 2011 Savings: $1.53 Million 

 Satellite optimization and new contracts saved $1.4M. 

 New fiber at the transmitting station in Germany saved 

$100,000.

 New NTIA Spectrum License Fees saved $30,000.

Recurring Annual Savings: $2.65 Million 

 Implementing new transmitter modulation scheme (AMC) 

saved $1.5 million in power costs and is expected to lower 

future equipment, inventory, and shipping costs. 

 Replacing the OCB satellite link with an MPLS circuit saved 

$400,000 annually. 

 The new GSA overtime utilities contract saved $500,000 

annually. 

 A new digital support contract saved $250,000 annually. 

 Switching to latest encoding and transmission protocols (DVB

-S2 and MPEG-4) provided 30% bandwidth savings, enabling 

more transmissions without additional cost. 

 Broadcasting swaps saved thousands in lease fees. 

 New LED lights saved 90% on usage and 80% on heat load.

New Revenue: $17.40 Million 

 The Internet Anti-Censorship (IAC) division received a $1.5M 

transfer from the Department of State and, thanks to the 

dedicated efforts of the Board of Governors and in 

recognition of TSI’s demonstrated expertise and performance 

in the Internet Anti-Censorship arena, a new appropriation of 

$10M from Congress. 

 After 22 years in the process, the Erching property was sold 

for $5.9M (about the twice amount expected.) 

Lower 

Operating 

Costs 

In an era of declining budgets, 

we must continually work 

together to identify new and 

innovative ways to consistently 

deliver on our charter while 

having access to fewer and 

fewer resources. We must 

relentlessly examine our cost 

structure and ruthlessly weed 

out ineffective assets, systems, 

and workflows. 
10 

Strategic Objective — Increase Reliability 

The transmission stations ended the fiscal year with an average 

availability of 99.7%. A remarkable feat, especially when 

considering the challenges with the electrical power supply in 

Djibouti and the deferred Maintenance and Repair (M&R) budget. 

To improve reliability, TSI’s IT Directorate undertook a massive 

effort to remediate years of flawed operations: 

 Thousands of connections were properly re-cabled. 

 Standardized server base configurations were fully deployed. 

 Dozens of databases were migrated and consolidated from 

single servers to highly redundant clusters. 

 E-mail system was upgraded for headquarters and stations. 

 Real-time monitoring of the entire Active Directory setup 

(user authentication) was introduced. 

 Windows 7 was deployed to over 550 users. 

In FY 2011 (Jan.-Sept.) IT availability exceeded 99.8%. While this 

appears to be a record, no records exist from prior years. 

Increase 

Systems’ 

Reliability 

Our global scope of operations requires a very high 

level of availability and an 

increasingly interconnected, sophisticated 

global infrastructure. In 

2011, we substantially 

outperformed all of our 

availability targets. 

In the journey from being a 

poorly managed IT setup to 

becoming a leading edge 

computing environment, 

TSI’s IT Directorate took 

some major strides in FY 

2011. Doing so, it laid the 

groundwork for additional 

substantial progress in the 

coming year. 
11 

Strategic Objective — Increase Agility 

Working collaboratively with all of the Broadcast Networks, TSI 

led a task force examining the feasibility of using RFE/RL’s 

Pangaea Content Management System (CMS) as a common tool 

for the entire Agency. 

With a clear opportunity for cost savings and easier sharing of 

web-related digital assets, and upon completion of the 

responsible due diligence, the system was adopted by the 

majority of the BBG networks. Content migration is already 

under way and this entirely self-funded project is scheduled for 

completion in September 2012. 

In collaboration with the Department of State, the local Embassy 

and Ambassador Wohlers, TSI installed a new FM transmitter in 

Bangui, Central African Republic on Embassy grounds. 

Enhancing coverage into Iran, TSI added 12 broadcast hours for 

Radio Farda on a leased medium wave facility in the UAE. 

Improving penetration into Zimbabwe, TSI and VOA launched a 

new DTH 24/7 satellite stream, VOA Southern Africa, in July 

2011. This new stream is carried on Intelsat 10 and features the 

very popular Zimbabwe Service Studio 7 programming. 

TSI continued a phased implementation of a digital video system 

for VOA. This system manages the entire news production workflow and allows journalists to operate in a fully digital mode 

from video production to on air presentation. The DaletPlus 

Video ingest, production, and playback system was implemented 

for all live VOA programming and includes an automated 

archiving system that supports the VOA Library Management 

Services. 

TSI also initiated two virtualization projects to consolidate and 

simplify server and storage configurations. Over 100 servers and 

three storage systems have been removed from production as a 

result of these projects. 

TSI’s IAC team deployed and adapted tools to facilitate 

uncensored web access in Burma, China, Cuba, Ethiopia, Iran, 

Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam.

TSI’s Engineering & Transmission Directorate 

recently developed a customized smart 

phone application that discreetly captures, 

analyzes, and transmits reception data for 

various radio signals, enabling monitoring of 

signal reception and signal quality in 

restricted environments. 

Increase 

Operating 

Agility 

As global media landscapes 

continue to evolve and the 

geo-political situation shows 

no evidence of stabilizing, 

TSI must constantly identify 

new and innovative ways to 

meet the growing and shifting content consumption 

habits of the BBG’s strategic 

target audiences. 
12 

2012 

Our Plan 

“By September 2012 we will 

be operating at much higher 

levels of performance than 

today’s radically improved 

norms. We will become a true 

strategic partner to all of the 

BBG broadcast brands; we will 

have again substantially 

improved our global content 

handling and distribution 

capability and we will be one 

of the most advanced and 

innovative IT environments in 

the U.S. Government”

André V. Mendes 

CIO/CTO 

BBG 

Continuing the Transformation in 2012 

The progress made during FY 2011 helped set the stage for rapid 

advancement in the near future. The foundation laid will reap 

benefits for years to come, but we cannot rest upon these successes. 

We must continue to find new and innovative ways to achieve the BBG 

mission as we seek to connect and engage our global audiences. 

Focusing on Our Team 

TSI employees are the cornerstones of our success. Technology is only 

one aspect of TSI. To provide high-quality IT and engineering products 

and services, we must rely on the talents and resourcefulness of our 

employees. 

We want our employees to continuously increase their skills, 

knowledge, and job satisfaction. We want to provide diversity and 

career opportunities. We want to establish acceptable workloads and 

flexibility. We want to encourage everyone to work as a team and rise 

to meet the challenging demands of the future, and we will continue 

to strive to make our organization the best place to work, learn, and 

contribute to such an admirable cause. 

We will introduce a skill gap analysis process to protect corporate 

memory. We will identify areas for training and skill enhancement. 

We will reinvigorate the performance standards to identify 

performance gaps and superb performance. We will establish 

remediation and training plans as needed, and we will properly 

reward truly superior achievement. 

We want to continually make TSI an ever greater place to work and to 

set the standard for workforce performance management within the 

entire Agency. 

Planning for the Future 

To meet the demands of the future, we must focus on identifying the 

opportunities and challenges we currently face. The 2010-2012 

Strategic Plan has allowed TSI to make considerable structural change 

for the benefit of the Agency, and in 2012, we will refocus our strategic planning on the identification and communication of our vision for 

the technological future of the Agency, while continuing to execute 

against our current plan. 

Let’s get to work!
13 

Notes 
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