In a recent deal, M-Net is putting in the latest Avid ISIS technology for its SuperSport production facilities. The deployment is expected to be completed by early December and then go on air after staff training is completed.
Spescom Media IT is providing the equipment, installation and training for this extensive project, which will initially handle the SuperSport channel's production and then be extended to cover storage and post-production for other M-Net and MultiChoice channels.
M-Net needs no introduction as the country's leading provider of subscription TV services. The company has a long-standing relationship with Spescom Media IT, a specialist supplier of advanced TV equipment and systems, which has previously had great success in deploying solutions for flagship programming, such as Big Brother and Survivor South Africa.
"To maintain the high quality of its productions, M-Net has chosen the Avid technology we supply as the best way forward," says Sean du Toit, general manager of Spescom Media IT. "Apart from the solution's vast capacity for handling live feeds and editing, it is also very cost-effective and locally supported by our expert staff.
"The new technology has exceptional scalability and it is ready for use with the high-definition TV (HDTV) transmissions which will be introduced to meet international standards for the 2010 World Cup soccer event in South Africa.
"The Avid Unity ISIS system is an advanced media network and when combined with Interplay, the world's first non-linear workflow engine, the result is a very efficient, easily managed workflow. This is the first deployment of this combination in the country.
"There are multiple AirSpeed recording devices and some 26 editing systems involved, which allow exceptionally fast handling of enormous amounts of content. Playout is achieved with a combination of AirSpeeds, for quick turnaround and Media Stream Servers for scheduled playout.
"With M-Net's focus on quality programming, this technology gives them great capacity to expand successfully into the future."
Johan Chandler is head of production services at M-Net.
"The demands from our SuperSport channel have grown dramatically over the last year," he says. "The new Avid solution gives us true scalability to meet both present and future needs.
"Apart from that, we are getting ready in advance for the HDTV transmissions planned for the future and the migration of our whole system to a tapeless environment which will enable us to manage, edit and store all our content on digital servers and never have to resort to tape storage.
"One large challenge is the training of our staff for the new system, but Spescom Media IT have provided excellent support for that critical part of the overall project," concludes Chandler.
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