SALEM – When millions of viewers tune in to the Beijing Olympics later this year, live footage will be available with the help of local firm specialized in satellite communications.

Newpoint Technologies, a Salem firm providing ground station software for Integral Systems, a satellite communications corporation, will be playing a large role to ensure live broadcasts from the Olympics are trouble-free and without interference.

"All the satellite video feeds coming out of Beijing, whether they're going into the NBC studios or CBS studios, they're all to be up-linked by the Newpoint software," Newpoint President Wally Martland said.

Integral Systems CEO Alan Baldwin said the Maryland-based satellite communications company sought out and purchased Newpoint in 2003 as part of an effort to expand the business to include software for its expanding satellite infrastructure.

"Newpoint was acquired to fit into this big picture," Baldwin said.

Previously a customer of Newpoint, Integral Systems has used the Newpoint Compass software to detect and correct errors during satellite feeds.

Newpoint, which employs just fewer than 20 in its Salem office, has continued to hire local programming talent from universities, including the University of New Hampshire and the University of Massachusetts, while employees have stood up to the worldwide demand.

"Most of the talent we've got here in our building, we've gotten out of local universities," Martland said. "I think the farthest college is the University of Maine. Most of them have come right out of college to Newpoint and most have stayed with us."

Already with a global customer base to identify and correct satellite ground station malfunctions, Newpoint Compass software has provided support to the United Nations and military customers with mobile communications stations.

"We do 800 terminals for the UN for food distribution," Martland said. "They're put in a place where they're putting in a hospital or a mobile station.

"Unfortunately they can't put technicians everywhere so they use our software." Television viewers are most likely to recognize the benefits from uninterrupted live broadcasts through networks like ESPN, CNN and other cable networks, Martland said.

"If they're out doing a sport event, they'll use a satellite feed to bring it back to a central location where they can take and retransmit it out to viewers," Martland said.