IBC SPECIAL - SEPTEMBER 2017 IBC_SUPPLEMENT_SEPTEMBER_2017 | Page 16

Emmy award for BT

BT has won a prestigious industry accolade- an Emmy Award – for the way it connects television companies to BT Tower to distribute live footage.

The Emmy Awards recognise achievements in the global television industry – including technology innovations- with the US National Academy for Television Arts and Sciences awarding BT for its original Facilityline product which connects TV companies to BT Tower for live television distribution. BT’ s global media and broadcast division has won the Emmy award in the category of‘ Pioneering and Productization of Supporting Digital Video using SDI over Fiber-Optic’. The award will be formally presented to BT in April at the 2018 National Association of Broadcasters( NAB) conference and exhibition in Las Vegas.
“ I’ m absolutely thrilled with our Emmy award,” declared Mark Wilson-Dunn, vice president of BT Media & Broadcast.“ This is a top-tier media industry award and to be recognised in this way is a fantastic endorsement of our track record of leading the industry, and also a great way to frame the world-leading innovation which we are still bringing to the industry today.”
“ It’ s also a fitting tribute to the original team – some of whom are sadly no longer with us- who conceptualised, launched and continued to innovate and develop the service over the last two decades. I’ d also like to thank everyone who has made the product a great success in the marketplace. The award reflects the spirit and passion which comes with the TV industry and is reflected right across the BT team.”
BT’ s global media & broadcast division touches every part of the global television supply chain, seamlessly linking the processes to ensure content is delivered in a way audiences see as effortless. Its state-of-the-art facilities handle up to 16,000 hours of content per day through BT Tower with the business distributing domestic and international TV for many global brands and channels.
The business has underpinned the global television industry for more than 60 years, dating back to the first international TV broadcasts, today helping 600 customers distribute and broadcast content around the globe.
Always at the cutting edge of the latest available technology BT has delivered a series of industry‘ firsts’ over the years, including HD
and 4K / UHD, and prides itself on delivering bespoke solutions to help customers address both current and future challenges. As experts in live TV, BT combines industry experience and heritage with unrivalled network capacity and capability in the last mile, including fibre, satellite mobile and wireless.
The division has recently successfully provided the UK’ s first uncompressed video contribution network connecting all 20 Premier League football stadiums in a three-year deal with the League’ s international broadcasting outlet, Premier League Productions( PLP).
Kaltura commits to 99.995 % Cloud TV service
Video technology provider Kaltura has revealed several enhancements to the company’ s Cloud TV Platform. As traditional TV undergoes a transformation, shifting from legacy broadcasts to IP-based TV, more companies are embarking on the journey to establishing their own fullfledged cloud TV offering. The new release of the Kaltura TV Platform ensures 99.995 % availability for live and VoD TV viewing across all devices – which it claims is the first in the industry to commit to this level of service.
Kaltura has also invested heavily in the modularity of its platform, allowing customers to experiment with a range of business models, and other features and functionality, on their journey to finding the optimal TV solution for their needs. The platform’ s flexibility also enables Kaltura to integrate with legacy TV platforms and migrate them
to a hybrid cloud solution so that customers can still benefit from their previous investment in STBs and infrastructure while moving to the cloud. And finally, the latest Kaltura TV Platform release includes a slew of features geared towards end-user personalisation, and enabling operators to market to and reach their users in a more targeted, user-specific way.
“ The TV viewing experience is literally changing before our eyes,” declared Shay David, cofounder, president and general manager of media and telecom at Kaltura.“ Kaltura provides customers with cloud-scale TV services, with market-leading availability of‘ four and a half 9s’, along with full flexibility to offer a variety of end-user experiences, all managed in a single platform, which can seamlessly integrate with legacy STBs and platforms that have been heavily invested in.”
“ As large-scale live TV events are increasingly streamed over the Internet, operators simply can’ t afford any glitches – just imagine experiencing buffering
just before the final goal of a football match. Kaltura sets your mind at ease,” he remarked.“ With our tier-1 global deployments and market-leading technology platform, Kaltura is uniquely positioned to guide customers along their cloud TV transformation.”
Additional enhancements to
Kaltura’ s TV Platform include:
• Marketing Campaign and Coupon Engine – Operators can now upsell new TV products and special offers to their customers through a dynamic coupon campaign engine.
• Personalisation based on user interests – Users can select their favourite content, and as a result, enjoy a more personalised service with more relevant content. Users will even with receive notifications when new content that matches their specific interests becomes available. This is especially beneficial to increase user engagement in Sports, where users can‘ favourite’ their teams, players and leagues.
Churn prevention capabilities – operators have a full toolkit to help prevent churn. Kaltura’ s system proactively measures user‘ happiness scores’, and churn predictability- service providers can then send out notifications and create dedicated marketing campaigns, including configurable discounts and coupon codes. * Search Enhancements such as Search history, which enhances the Kaltura search experience by allowing end users to retrieve previously searched queries for fast lookups; as well as Soundex search, which improves the search experience by adding language based Soundex capabilities.
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