Leading broadcast and multiscreen systems integrator Visual Unity has signed a new, two year contract with Czech TV to supply the technical services needed to operate its on-line and mobile service, iVysilani.
Czech TV has won a number of awards for its internet and mobile activities, including the prestigious 2011 Kristalova Lupa Award.
“Online consumption of Czech TV content has grown enormously in past years. Ivysilani.cz is a unique platform with more than 2592 days of video,” Pavlina Kvapilova, Executive Director of Czech Television´s New Media Division. “Enhancing our streaming infrastructure towards the highest quality, stability and user comfort which is available is a key factor for us to be able to serve this interest and react on changing lifestyle habits of our public.”
The new contract, which was awarded through a public tender process, will run until December 2014. Visual Unity’s vuMedia™ integrated content management and delivery platform is already used by iVysilani for content delivery, live streaming and Video on Demand services. Under the terms of the new contract Visual Unity will deliver various enhancements to the platform and supply additional back-end encoding, streaming, transcoding and media management services.
“Visual Unity has extensive experience of designing, delivering and integrating turnkey TV systems, broadcast-IT convergent and multiscreen solutions,” says Tomas Petru, President of Visual Unity. “In recent years we have undertaken a variety of successful projects for Czech TV, including the design and build of an eight-camera High Definition Outside Broadcast vehicle and the enhancement of the broadcaster’s online and mobile services, enabling it to deliver unprecedented coverage of the recent Olympic Games in London.”
The new contract will see Visual Unity increasing Czech TV’s live streaming capacity from 60Gbps to 88Gbps in 2013 and 110Gbps in 2014, to support the broadcaster’s 12 live streaming channels.
Czech TV has also asked the company to increase storage capacity for its Video on Demand archive – a service Visual Unity has been providing since 2005. The broadcaster currently has a capacity of more than 70TByte and this will be expanded to over 160TB by the end of 2014.
“To implement the terms of this new contract we have developed a number of new features for our vuMedia Content Delivery Platform that will, of course, be available to all our customers,” Tomas Petru adds.
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About Visual Unity
Visual Unity is an international Systems Integrator bridging the gap between linear broadcast, IT and IPTV to help clients reach and engage audiences on any screen. Since 1991, the team has been designing and delivering turnkey broadcast and complex multiscreen solutions worldwide – from HD Outside Broadcast vehicles and major playout facilities to live internet streaming and Video on Demand services.
Visual Unity’s award-winning vuMediaTM platform helps broadcasters and content owners control how their brand and assets are managed and monetized in the multiscreen environment. Highly scalable and flexible, vuMediaTM delivers a cutting-edge live viewing experience on the web or any mobile or connected device, comprehensive VoD services, social network integration and secure robust content distribution – all of which can be deployed into existing workflows and business processes.
Visual Unity is based in Prague, London, Cologne, Moscow, Bratislava, Belgrade, Nairobi and Dubai. For further information, please visit www.visualunity.com
