OSN taps Imagine for sports transmissions

Middle East pay TV operator OSN has tapped technology provider Imagine Communications to upgrade its sports transmission infrastructure. 

According to Imagine, OSN needed to upgrade its existing server network, largely dedicated to its sports channels, to meet rising demand for HD content, with a requirement to ingest 12 simultaneous streams and support a minimum of six playout streams at the same time. Completed in January, the implementation of the new servers has already enabled OSN to convert its two remaining SD Sports channels to HD, according to the company.

Imagine provided its latest generation Nexio AMP generation 7 servers, attached to a mirrored Nexio Farad SAN, providing 48TB of storage and 9Gbps of bandwidth. Imagine Communications engineers based in its Dubai office worked with the team at OSN on the configuration, which includes mirrored playout as well as redundancy in other operations, according to Imagine.

Imagine also supplied Velocity ESX editors and Adobe Premiere Pro software as well as H.264 browse encode/transcode services and proxy workflows using Nexio PRX Scavenger, an application that hich high-resolution clips need to be transcoded.

“During the RFP and selection process, local system architects at Imagine Communications in Dubai were able to demonstrate that the Nexio AMP7 and the Farad SAN would support our requirements both now and in the future,” said Mark Billinge, CTO of OSN.

“We were confident from what we had seen.  The system allows us to look forward and plan for ever more coverage, exceeding the expectations of our audience.”

Mathias Eckert, vice president, EMEA at Imagine Communications said, “OSN is a very successful and forward thinking broadcaster, and it is great to continue our strong relationship with them. We have always known that you need technical resources immersed in the region if you are going to really support your customers. Our Dubai team knows the people and understands the technical challenges of OSN well. It is through real co-operation that we have been able to deliver this remarkable storage platform on which OSN can continue to build services.”