Australian pay-TV operator Telstra has chosen thePlatform as the central video management system for its BigPond TV service. thePlatform's mpx video management system will provide Telstra with a unified system for aggregating both linear and on-demand video from various content sources, formatting video content to different device specifications and centrally managing and publishing this content for multiple purposes; Telstra customers will be able to access high quality content on the T-Box hybrid set-top box, connected-TVs and Blu-ray players from LG and Samsung, and the Web.
Telstra is the first customers of the white-label online video platform, which is a Comcast (Nasdaq: CMCSA) subsidiary, to roll out the mpx platform to publish “true” television (not just Web video) through a next generation set-top box to the home TV. The deployment highlights the reliability of thePlatform’s mpx system to meet the more stringent requirements necessary to deliver a full pay-TV service.
"Telstra is at the forefront of an emerging global trend among TV service providers," said Ian Blaine, CEO of thePlatform. "Service providers are looking for a more efficient means to manage and deliver premium video content across any screen. One of the key differences when delivering IP video to the TV, rather than a computer, is that consumers will have a higher expectation for reliability and quality. So, we are extremely proud that Telstra has selected mpx to play such a central role in managing video for Telstra's advanced set-top boxes and beyond."
Marty Roberts, VP of marketing and sales at thePlatform, said a number of other operators were in talks with thePlatform about using the mpx technology to manage their traditional TV service.
The key, he said, has been a re-architecting of the underlying delivery technology, something mpx brings to the table.
"We built mpx from the ground up," he said. "We built in redundancy, federated deployment so services are located in different geographies to make sure if one goes down the other can step up and provide support. All of it has to be built into the code in the very beginning and anticipated from the very beginning."
The mpx platform rolled out last year and saw its commercial launch in October. Mpx can be hosted in the cloud by thePlatform, or it can be deployed in a customer's facility which results in, Roberts said, a five-nines reliability.
"The quality should be exactly what the customer expects from TV."
For more:
- see this release
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