MANAGEMENT
October 2017
Ivan Schnider
(left), head of
marketing and
communications,
Nagra; and
Simon Trudelle,
senior director,
product
marketing,
Nagra,
highlighted
the company’s
new OpenTV
Signature Edition
offering at
IBC2017.
Nagra empowers pay-TV
operators to maximise their
content value
Nagra, a Kudelski Group company, has
launched OpenTV Signature Edition, a turn-
key, cloud-based and multi-tenant solution
for pay-TV operators.
Powered by the OpenTV Suite and
the Nagra Insight data analytics platform,
OpenTV Signature Edition is a cost-effective,
fast time-to-market and fully-featured eco-
system that pay-TV operators can deploy to
maximise content value and monetisation
while improving deployment, operational
and consumer experiences.
One key feature of the OpenTV Signature
Edition is Ion, described by Nagra as the
“world’s first multi-journey user interface”.
Offering functionalities such as universal
search, voice search and a recommendation
tool, as well as access to multiple apps, Ion
was created to bring consumers the type
of navigation that best suits their personal
styles.
Whether a consumer favours the tradi-
tional electronic programme guide (EPG)
journey to content, or a more modern navi-
gation approach that today’s viewers have
come to expect, Ion delivers a simple, unified
and effective set of features that consumers
can enjoy across a broad range of devices,
including tablets, smartphones or third-party
streaming devices such as Amazon Fire TV
or Google Chromecast.
Content search can be achieved through
keyboard, voice or smartphone. Recom-
mendations are either delivered traditionally
through deeper analytics or innovatively
with simple search mechanisms that lead
customers to content they may not have
otherwise thought of. The EPG also brings
a new level of additional features, such as
personalised content channels, linearised
subscription video-on-demand (SVoD) and
video-on-demand (VoD) channels.
The Operator Management UI gives the
pay-TV operator full control over the entire
system to energise monetisation of the con-
tent and service catalogue by utilising both
built-in and external analytics. This approach
allows instant valorisation of content and
popular services that may be trending, and
on-the-fly promotion on the new Ion user
interface through the push-updating feature.
A 4K/Ultra HD (UHD) set-top box by
SmarDTV, another Kudelski company, com-
pletes the ecosystem for the OpenTV Sig-
nature Edition. It gives the pay-TV operator
a fully managed device for the best experi-
ence in popular SVoD apps, such as Netflix
and YouTube, with guaranteed quality of
service and quality of experience no matter
the changes and updates demanded by the
app provider, according to Nagra. The Ion
experience can also be updated to continu-
ally provide users with a fresh and engaging
experience, the company added.
Rohde & Schwarz
paves the way for IP
migration
With a vision to offer an IP-based future
that builds on a strong SDI heritage, Rohde
& Schwarz (R&S) developed R&S Venice —
an ingest and playout system that enables
broadcasters to deliver content by merging
SDI and video-over-IP technologies.
To reinforce broadcasters’ migration to
IP-based production, R&S has designed R&S
Venice to support “transfer-while” and “edit-
while” ingest post-processing workflows. The
system also manages ingests and playouts
resolutions ranging from SD to 4K/Ultra HD
(UHD), while advanced transform functional-
ity allows compatibility with major formats
and codecs.
Commenting on the development of
4K/UHD in Asia, Eric Li, regional manager,
business development, Asia-Pacific, R&S,
said: “Although some 4K/UHD content is
available over the top, this offering is not
restricted to be only offered by over-the-top
(OTT) services.
“The satellite industry is ready to support
the delivery of 4K/UHD content. For instance,
AsiaSat, Measat and SES have all launched
4K/UHD channels on their satellites. Hence,
broadcasters have to understand that there
are several delivery options to enable them
to deliver 4K/UHD content, which in return
Rohde & Schwarz (R&S) has developed R&S
Venice - an ingest, live production and channel
playout platform that bridges hybrid SDI and IP
operations.
will enhance the viewing experience for
their viewers.”
And in a 4K/UHD ecosystem, Li highlight-
ed that the inclusion of high dynamic range
(HDR) with 4K/UHD “will improve the overall
display resolution”. To support premium
content distribution, R&S developed the R&S
AVHE100 system solution for encoding and
multiplexing. Featuring the high-efficiency
video coding (HEVC)/H.265 video codec, the
R&S AVHE100 is able to deliver content for
OTT and broadcast applications while sup-
porting HDR video transmission.
In May this year, R&S subsidiary GMIT
also acquired Saarbruecken-based com-
pany Motama, whose RelayCaster protocol
is a solution designed for live contribution
over Internet. Equipped with the ability to
contribute and distribute live content, Relay-
Caster can minimise packet loss issues, ac-
cording to R&S, thus enhancing the quality of
service