NRK chooses Appear to optimise, modernise DVB, OTT encoding
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Editor
| 15 August 2023
Norway’s leading public broadcaster NRK has chosen media processing and delivery technology provider Appear to expand and modernise its media delivery platform and to take advantage of advances in encoding and video transport technologies.

Appear said that it was delivering a “comprehensive” service to NRK, building and running a “robust” compression platform capable of delivering high-quality encoding streams for transcoding by various content distributors across Norway as well as for NRK’s OTT and DVB systems.

As part of the managed service, Appear is expanding the deployment of its X and XC platforms while taking on operation and management of the solution. Its X Platform provides NRK with mezzanine encoding expansion in DVB and OTT and managing live contribution of NRK’s premium live TV channels. The XC Platform brings NRK’s programmatic and events-based radio channels to NRK customers nationwide.

Both platforms are based on modular and customisable chassis, allowing modules to interconnect to create a system that Appear assures will offer with the highest grade of performance and capability with scale to meet future growth. Appear’s equipment provided to NRK is upgradable to the latest industry standards, including SMPTE 2110, HEVC, Ultra HD and HDR.

“As the demand for premium live content continues to skyrocket, the need for rock-solid live linear delivery is essential. We were already using Appear’s X and XC Platforms because they fulfilled many of our requirements, and when we needed to expand our platform to enable us to take our media distribution into the future, they were a natural choice,” said Henrik Slåen, head of media management and publishing, NRK.

“However, with the increased importance of the upgraded platform, Appear needed to step up as a managed service partner. This means we can rely on having efficient compression hardware in our production chain as well as support and assistance – including software updates, system monitoring, and proactive service checks. We also expect Appear to provide its expertise to advise us on how best to make operational improvements, enabling us to concentrate on providing our customers with exciting new media services and functionality. Our hope is that this will ensure uninterrupted operation, reduced risk and cost, and increased life expectancy. Appear also guarantees the availability of spare parts through its sourcing department and production partners, while providing equipment at NRK’s facility for testing and staging.”