BT TV taps Telestream for quality assurance

BT is using Telestream’s Vantage Media Processing Platform to provide automated quality assurance for BT TV customers. Telestream’s UK channel partner, Boxer Systems, worked closely with BT TV to specify, install and configure the system, according to Telestream.

BT TV is using Vantage to analyze the technical properties of VOD content, extract and create appropriate metadata which is used to drive Vantage workflow decisions, and to transcode VOD content into multiscreen formats for OTT delivery.

In addition, Telestream’s Switch player is being used as BT TV’s media player, with multi-format support, file inspection and support for captions and subtitles playback, according to the companyh
Vantage is supporting the BT TV app across iOS and Android devices as well as Amazon tablets. A later release will incorporate access to large screens, including Apple TV, Chromecast, Amazon Fire TV/Firestick and Samsung Smart TVs, according to the company.

“The Vantage Workflow Designer has proved popular with our team as an easy to understand, yet powerful and dynamic toolset.  Vantage has given greater control of our VOD processing, reducing manual effort and helping the team to work more efficiently. It has reduced multiscreen media transcoding times by up to 30%, which was key in selecting Vantage,” said Peter Harvey, head of content operations at BT Technology.

“Vantage contributes significantly to our business agility. The fast turnaround times of our multiscreen files allowed our new app and web product to launch on time two weeks ago. We are also currently looking at the speech-to-text model to assist with subtitling requirements and a number of other elements that are currently under development. The fact that Vantage can be used as a workflow tool – replacing or substituting some MAM functionality – the turnaround speeds of multiscreen files, and the further options to utilize Telestream’s elastic transcoding option, if required, were all strong drivers in our selection decision. Already, we are formulating exciting plans for additional ways in which we can utilize Vantage in our core business operations.”