Sky Italia Launches File-Based HD Platform, with Omneon MediaGrid Active Storage and Spectrum™ Servers
SUNNYVALE, Calif. — September 3, 2008
Omneon, Inc., today announced that Sky Italia, the Italian pay-TV owned by News Corporation Limited, has deployed the company's MediaGrid active storage system at the heart of its new file-based HD workflow. The HD platform, located at Sky Italia's new central facility in Milan, also relies on Omneon Spectrum™ HD media servers for ingest. Sky Italia offers 24/7 broadcast of more than 170 channels of news and entertainment including movies, sports and original programming to more than 4.5 million subscribers. The new HD platform will now meet growing viewer demand for HD content .
"At a round-the-clock operation like ours, the proven reliability and resiliency of the Spectrum servers is essential," said Sky Italia Director of Broadcast Susan Wakefield. "Combined with the high-performance of Omneon MediaGrid active storage, we have efficient file-based workflow which integrates with our legacy SD Profile systems, enabling a cost-effective transition with minimal disruption. We are pleased both with our technology choice and the dedicated support and training we have received from the Omneon team.,"
At Sky Italia, both live and recorded SD and HD content, is ingested to five Spectrum media servers that have a combined total storage of 31 TB. The 54 TB MediaGrid active storage system, the first in operation in Italy, provides a nearline cache as well as media processing via the Omneon ProXchange application to repurpose content for other applications as needed. The MediaGrid system under direction of TMD asset management interfaces with a SGL archive manager controlling a Spectralogic Archive system. Playout will continue to be performed by Sky Italia's legacy server system and a fully redundant Main and Backup Spectrum Media servers system, controlled by ADC automation. The Spectrum and MediaGrid systems were installed by local systems integrator and Omneon partner, Video Progetti, and went live in June 2008.
In addition to its Milan operation, Sky Italia has also been using Spectrum servers for ingest and playout of SD programming since 2004 at its regional facility in Rome.
"Sky Italia's innovative engineering team sought the most efficient and streamlined file-based workflow possible, and the processing power and flexibility of the MediaGrid will support that goal," said Geoff Stedman, Omneon senior vice president of products and markets. "Omneon has a long association with News Corp. through our partnership with Sky Italia's UK sister company, BSkyB where Spectrum media servers have been in operation for a number of years and are central to its HD service provision. As HD becomes more prevalent in Italy and throughout Europe, we look forward to extending these mutually beneficial relationships."
About Omneon
Omneon is a leading provider of flexible media server and active storage systems that optimize workflow productivity and on-air reliability for the production, distribution, and management of digital media. Omneon is a pioneer in the use of advanced IT technologies and open systems for broadcast applications, producing a modular and expandable video server architecture in the Omneon Spectrum. The company's MediaGrid active storage system delivers centralized content storage that is scalable in capacity, bandwidth, and media-processing power. The company has an extensive global presence with customers in 45 countries on six continents. Omneon is on the Web at www.Omneon.com.
About Sky Italia
SKY Italia is the Italian pay-TV owned by News Corporation Limited. Launched in 2003 it has grown so rapidly as to achieve 4.560.000 subscribers, as of June 30, 2008. SKY currently offers more than 170 thematic and pay per view channels , with a rich offer of cinema, sport, news, entertainment and programs for children. SKY can be received by satellite and by IPTV, through the broadbands of Fastweb, Alice Home TV Telecom Italia, Wind's Infostrada TV. Moreover SKY distributes channels suitably studied for mobile TV systems, in partner with Vodafone, H3G and Tim. For more information, please visit the website: www.sky.it.
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