Ross aids Kenyan channel SwitchTV take to the air
Details
Rebecca Hawkes
| 29 November 2018

Nairobi-based free-to-air channel SwitchTV has gone live in East Africa after adopting infrastructure developed by Ross Video’s partner Broadcast Solutions Hungary.

The channel, owned by the Kenya Red Cross Society (KRCS), is aimed at young people aged 18-35, with the aim of educating and empowering viewers to solve humanitarian issues in Kenya, Africa and beyond.

Entire broadcast and IT infrastructure – from story creation through live studio production to post-production and playout – was required for the project, which was initiated in March 2018.

Ross Video’s Ultrix-FR2, 12G routing/AV processing platform with integrated MultiViewers was adopted to serve SwitchTV’s studio. The studio features four sets – three physical and one green screen – with a combination of manual and remotely-operated cameras, as well as a newsroom and post-production system. IT infrastructure for the office was also required to support the network’s broadcast operations.

Ross Video’s software-defined platform provided security in the system design because no additional hardware will be required in the future, while any added features could simply be enabled via a software key when required.

“It was very easy to design and build the system with the Ultrix router; by getting rid of several additional components like the external multiviewer and glue products, it made the complete setup compact and yet very powerful,” said Tibor Samarjai, project manager, Broadcast Solutions Hungary.

SwitchTV started broadcasting live in October, and will now provide viewers with a mix of news, sports, dramas, movies and local productions.

“The compact video solution BSH delivered us is great to work with; we are happy that we listened to their advice and went for Ross Video ,” SwitchTV said in a statement.