In Broadcast - December 2015 - 66


66

www.inbroadcast.com | Vol: 5 - Issue 12 | December 2015

InMedia

MultiChoice Africa End-to-End
With Software-Defined Video
Elemental Delta video delivery platform serves up
Video-On-Demand provision for MultiChoice...

I

t all started with a message to an
Elemental sales office in Paris: "Do
you have a solution that can package
Video-On-Demand (VOD) assets?"
The question was asked on behalf of
MultiChoice, the largest African multiplatform pay TV operator serving over
10 million viewers across the SubSaharan continent including Nigeria,
Kenya, Uganda, Mauritius, and its
home market of South Africa.
MultiChoice also expressed interest
in expanding beyond linear television
and pay-per-view to launch a
subscription video-on-demand (SVOD)
service. By deploying the Elemental
Delta video delivery platform as
an origin server and time-shift TV
solution, MultiChoice would be
able to complement its on demand
MultiChoice DStv Box Office and
MultiChoice DStv catch-up services
that enable premium subscribers to
watch the latest movies, sports and
television shows up to seven days after
they air.

Elemental Delta
Elemental
Delta
supports
multiscreen delivery of advanced
live-to-VOD services such as:
* Catch-up TV - Enabling
viewers to replay TV shows
broadcast hours or days earlier,
catch-up TV allows pay TV operators
to offer an alternative to on-demand
movies and to monetise content
through targeted advertising.
* Start-over TV - Time-shift TV
controls let viewers replay a live
broadcast already underway from
the beginning and to switch back to
a real-time broadcast feed. Targeted
advertising streamed on top of
existing commercial breaks offers
distributors a new monetisation
avenue.
* nPVR - DVR controls, which
enable creation and storage of live
TV content recordings for playback
on any device, are increasingly
included as a component of pay TV
subscriptions. nPVR capabilities
help build customer loyalty and
increase content consumption.

Market Growth
This initial question was even more
critical given Africa's rapid market
growth in video entertainment
services. As the premier and first
subscription television service on the
African continent and one of the first
outside of North America, MultiChoice
has led the region since its inception in
1986.
International investors are beginning
to see the potential of this market with
Netflix confirming plans to expand
into South Africa in 2016 and French
startup Afrostream, a specialised
subscription based movie streaming
service that offers African and AfricanAmerican content, launching its
service in September in six countries
including two in Africa, Senegal and
the Ivory Coast.
In response to this growing market
demand for high-quality video,
MultiChoice deployed Elemental Delta
into its content delivery workflow.
MultiChoice required a solution that
could scale efficiently because the
company intended to double the size
of its content library by the end of
2015.
MultiChoice
also
needed
to
implement a software-based solution
that could easily integrate with existing
infrastructure, and unify linear and ondemand workflows, as well as provide
the ability to adapt to changing market
conditions and customer demands as it
scaled its subscriber base.
Demo Clincher
For several months, the Elemental
team worked closely with the
MultiChoice DStv team, responsible
for online digital satellite television
delivery, including the provider's
popular sports and entertainment
content ranging from movies, lifestyle
and culture, sports, documentaries,
to news and business, music, religion,
and programmes for children.
The Elemental effort represented a
full-range of attention from the sales,
technical and support teams, as well
as local partners, to produce a flawless
demonstration trial that closed the
deal. The result was a software-defined

Elemental Delta
delivery platform

video solution that was easy to set up,
integrate, operate and scale.
Elemental
addressed
technical
requirements while offering ongoing
education
regarding
solution
capabilities to MultiChoice. This
included the implementation of
Elemental Delta into the provider's
workflow, alongside Elemental Live
and Elemental Server, to successfully
support content delivery and live-toVOD services for an array of devices
including smart phones and tablets.
Furthermore, Elemental technical
support continues to ensure that
MultiChoice subscribers receive a wide
choice of content and exceptional
viewing experiences via direct-tohome satellite video delivery to meet
expectations around the clock.
Unlike
generalised
multiscreen
delivery services, Elemental Delta
provides on-the-fly support for all
major adaptive streaming protocols,
compression formats, and multiple
digital rights management (DRM)
systems within a single framework.
Among the supported protocols are
HDS, HLS, Smooth Streaming and the
MPEG-DASH standard, which supports
on-demand, live and time-shift
applications and services. Elemental

Delta handles H.264 delivery as well
as the new high-efficiency video coding
(HEVC/H.265) codec needed for nextgeneration video delivery.
To secure content, the platform
combines embedded encryption and
decryption capabilities with JIT DRM
wrapping, enables protected assets
to be stored and moved efficiently
through the network, and applies DRM
in real-time upon delivery.
Finally, Elemental Delta has built-in
failover and redundancy, whether on
the ground or in the cloud.
Software-Defined Video
A complement to existing CDN
topologies, Elemental Delta is based
on
Elemental's
software-defined
video approach that allows video
providers to run software across an
optimal combination of dedicated and
virtualised resources in private and
public data centres.
Together, Elemental Delta and
software-defined infrastructure enable
easy integration of live-to-VOD services into existing broadcast workflows,
from live broadcast capture to video
encoding at the network edge. Elemental Delta is available as a cloud service,
VM subscription, or appliance.
Video streaming main protocols
supported
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