MultiChoice taps Imagine for new playout centre
Details
Joseph O'Halloran
| 28 April 2019

Responding to what it says is rapidly growing customer demand for superior content, MultiChoice, the largest satellite broadcaster in Africa, has unveiled a building a new playout centre in Johannesburg.

The building of the greenfield, software-defined playout centre, It is expected to go live late in 2019, marks the first stage of the broadcaster’s transformation from traditional video playout to IP transport and modular playout technology. It is intended to provide greater business agility, technical and operational flexibility and a reduction in the total cost of ownership (TCO), which in turn will allow for improved consumer experiences and faster speed to market with new broadcast offerings.

Currently broadcasting around 150 video and 180 audio channels across six platforms to over 14 million subscribers in 46 countries across Africa, the new facility is being implemented by Concilium Technologies, using Imagine Communications’ software-defined microservices products and IP interfacing technology.

The new playout centre provides playout functionality built around Imagine’s microservices-based Versio solution hosted on the latest generation HPE servers. It includes eight HD channels, with full redundancy on every channel. The architecture is said to deliver the performance and high-availability broadcast resilience MultiChoice demands with the bonus of added value functionality such as integrated graphics for channel branding.

“We recognised a strong consumer demand for pristine content, but need to also provide for that demand in the most cost-effective and efficient manner,” explained Julian Ankiah, head of technology engineering at MultiChoice Support Services.

“We needed to take advantage of the benefits of IP signal reticulation, while ensuring tight integration with our existing platforms, and particularly our business services. Imagine understood our commercial drivers, and showed how their technology could both deliver what we want now and reflect our chosen pace of transition to IP and software-centric platforms into the future. By introducing a dynamic technology platform and assembling an excellent viewing bundle, built around compelling and premium entertainment and sports channels, we are adding significant value for subscribers and television consumers.”