Football championship in Qatar marked first opportunity for South African sports specialist to take UHD to air
THAMES DITTON, England, December 19, 2022 – MultiChoice, operator of Africa’s premier sports broadcaster, SuperSport, took UHD channels to air for the first time using a hybrid SDI-IP playout and infrastructure foundation from Imagine Communications. A long-established user of Imagine playout and automation technology, MultiChoice added two UHD channels based on the Versio™ integrated playout platform to provide sports fans with comprehensive, premium-quality coverage of the championship football tournament in Qatar.
The MultiChoice playout center already delivers 32 channels from a fully redundant Versio architecture, ensuring a robust and secure operations for its existing channels. The new project added two more channels — also with full N+N redundancy — to support the mission-critical premium sports content from the tournament. While the existing system is predominantly used for HD playout, the Versio IOX storage network enables easy scaling to accommodate additional bandwidth needed for UHD applications without affecting existing media or interrupting on-air operations.
“We have worked with Imagine Communications for many years and are familiar with their playout and automation architectures,” said Julian Ankiah, Head of Technology Engineering & Support at MultiChoice. “Working with Concilium, Imagine’s partner in South Africa, we integrated UHD for the World Cup into our existing playout center, with minimal disruption to existing operations, while delivering on flexibility and quality that our audience demands.”
Further to this, Gerdus Van Eerden, Group Chief Technology Officer at MultiChoice, adds, “These new UHD channels are leading the way for us, and part of a rolling redevelopment program that will see all our outputs moving towards IP.”
The two new channels support SMPTE ST 2110 IP inputs at 4K, 50fps and HLG BT 2020 HDR from the host broadcaster. These are seamlessly switched in the Versio platform with stored content in SDR and HDR, at 25 and 50 fps. Audio is input as PCM (ST 2110-30) and output as PCM or Dolby (SMPTE ST 2110-31), with track shuffling as required, source substitution and Dolby up-mixing. A dedicated UHD workstation was configured to provide offline graphics creation for the duration of the event to alleviate any impact on the existing playout operation. The whole sub-system runs on COTS hardware on site in Johannesburg.
Imagine Selenio™ Network Processors (SNP) provide IP/SDI interfaces, as well as other video and audio processing, and operate under the control of the Magellan™ Control System, Imagine’s operator-centric management environment. Coupled with the Magellan Control System, the SNP enables media companies to efficiently and cost-effectively transition to UHD and HDR workflows over traditional or COTS-based, IP networking fabrics.
The new UHD channels are under the control of D-Series™, which is integrated into the existing playout management system and is familiar to the operators. It also integrates seamlessly with MultiChoice’s advertising management and traffic system, which uses Imagine Landmark™ Sales and Landmark™ Rights and Scheduling software, ensuring that the broadcaster maximizes its revenue opportunities during this period of extremely popular viewing.
“MultiChoice is a large and complex operation, serving among others, the sports market, which depends on delivering a flawless experience for its viewing audience,” said Mathias Eckert, SVP & GM EMEA, and APAC at Imagine Communications. “This project really plays to our strengths by leveraging components from across our entire portfolio ― from automation and playout to network infrastructure and advertising technology ― which enabled us to support the delivery and monetization of these premium UHD channels during this marquee global tournament.”
Eckert added, “MultiChoice already rely on our mission-critical integrated solutions, and we have been working together for some time to transition their operations at their pace. The additional redundant channels we implemented for the football tournament fit seamlessly into their existing infrastructure and will be a key part of their operations in the future. This allows MultiChoice to maximize its capital investment while providing a valuable step forward.”
For more information about the complete range of Imagine Communications’ products and solutions, please visit https://www.imaginecommunications.com
About Imagine Communications
Imagine Communications empowers the media and entertainment industry through transformative innovation. Broadcasters, networks, video service providers, and enterprises around the world rely on our optimized, futureproof, multiscreen video and revenue enablement solutions every day to support their mission-critical operations. Today, nearly half of the world’s video channels traverse our products, and our software solutions drive close to a third of global ad revenue. Through continuous innovation, we are delivering the most advanced IP, cloud-enabled, software-defined network and workflow solutions in the industry. Visit https://www.imaginecommunications.com for more information, and follow us on Twitter @imagine_comms.
About MultiChoice Group
MultiChoice Group (MCG), which was listed in the Main Board of the JSE on 27 February 2019, is one of the fastest-growing video entertainment providers globally, delivering entertainment products and services to 21.8m households across 50 countries on the African continent. Its track record of more than 30 years is reflective of a commitment to providing audiences with only the best local, sports, and international content.
MCG’s strong partnerships with distributors, installers, and telecommunication companies, along with its well-established payment solutions, competitive pricing and choice of viewership packages continue to secure its place in the global market, while also providing solutions unique to the African market.
Its direct-to-home (DTH), digital terrestrial television (DTT), and over-the-top (OTT) solutions enable the business to stay relevant and aligned to changing consumer habits while capturing new markets.
Content is at the very core of the business. MCG aims to deliver quality content anywhere, anytime, and on any device through a comprehensive video entertainment offering at different price points. As pioneers in African video entertainment, MCG plays an important role in making information and entertainment easily accessible to Africans.
MCG aims to secure content rights in a manner that is cost-effective and reflective of the diversity of its audiences. Its substantial portfolio includes award-winning local content (a key differentiator in its service offering), a leading sports offering (including production capabilities) and access to international content, which is all shared on the group’s platforms: DStv, GOtv, Showmax, M-Net and SuperSport.
MCG has superior technology capability through the security solutions that Irdeto, its technology company, brings to the group. These solutions enable MultiChoice to protect its investment, create new offerings, and combat cybercrime. With 50 years’ expertise in software security, Irdeto’s software security solutions and cyber services protect over 5bn devices and applications for some of the world’s best brands.
