KITIKMEOT INUIT ASSOCIATION AND SSI MICRO TO COLLABORATE ON REGIONAL RADIO PILOT PROJECT Cambridge Bay, Nunavut, June 11th, 2015

The Kitikmeot Inuit Association (KIA) and SSI Micro are very pleased to announce a collaborative partnership to launch a Regional Radio Pilot Project in Nunavut’s Kitikmeot region. The Pilot Project will operate for an initial two years, with an anticipated start date in spring 2016 once all necessary regulatory authorizations are secured. Under the framework of the Pilot Project, SSi will construct and commission a satellite-supported FM radio network in the Kitikmeot communities of Kugluktuk and Cambridge Bay with initial engineering and regulatory work commencing this summer. Once in operation, SSi’s radio network will provide a platform for KIA to broadcast what is proposed to be a daily Inuit Language radio service mainly focused on revitalizing the Inuinnaqtun dialect in the two communities.

To allow KIA and other community collaborators to manage content over its radio network, SSi intends to employ a web-based, media asset management system developed by Yukon-based OpenBroadcaster Inc.; thus making the Pilot Project a uniquely pan-territorial initiative. Following the recent meeting of the KIA Executive Committee, at which KIA’s formal support of the project was confirmed, KIA President Stanley Anablak stated, “The launching of the Regional Radio Pilot Project is a very important milestone in KIA’s efforts to help revitalize the use of the Inuit Language in our communities. KIA is fortunate to have a technical partner in SSi Micro that has a very capable team and years of experience delivering telecommunication services in the north. This partnership allows KIA to focus our efforts on developing content for the proposed language service. To create this content, we intend to work with Inuit Language speakers in our communities and beyond to generate the material that will form the backbone of the radio service. While we are still in the very early days of this initiative, KIA already recognizes that the partnerships, infrastructure and content management systems proposed to be put in place could, if the Pilot Project proves to be successful, be scaled up to provide a regional radio service to the entire Kitikmeot.” Jeff Philipp, President and Founder of the SSi Group of Companies, noted, “As a company with deep northern roots SSi understands the value of oral communication in the Inuit culture.

Today’s announcement is an important step in what I hope will be the first building blocks for a Nunavut-wide radio network. I commend the Kitikmeot Inuit Association for their vision and I am proud to say that SSi has a long and successful working relationship with KIA, dating back to 1998 when we broke new ground together and built our first satellite network to bring Internet to the region’s five communities. We’ve come a long way since then and we are constantly engaged in new opportunities to upgrade and enhance our network. I look forward to this next venture and a new era of radio communication in Nunavut.”

Totally excited to be part of this project.