Telstra Broadcast Services (TBS) expanded its presence in the United States with the launch of a new Broadcast Operations Center (BOC) at the PSSI International Teleport in Pittsburgh.
The BOC – part of an expanded partnership with PSSI Global Services – enables Telstra Broadcast Services to add U.S.-based managed services including operations, monitoring, bookings and technical services to its overall Telstra Global Media Network (GMN) offerings and complements Telstra’s existing broadcast operations facilities in London, Hong Kong and Sydney.
“There is immense global demand for North American content, and the new BOC allows Telstra Broadcast Services to offer North American content providers superior technology and access to international audiences in Europe, Asia and Australia,” said Adam Day, Head of Enterprise, Technology and Broadcast Sales, Telstra.
“The ability to provide our North American customers with a local operational presence and 24/7 master control room capabilities will provide them a world-class experience and is key to managing their content delivery to Europe and Asia Pacific,” continued Day. “We believe our partnership with PSSI will reap benefits for content creators and content consumers on a global scale.”
The new BOC supports Telstra’s ongoing work to seamlessly deliver content worldwide, and the partnership enables opportunities for high-profile broadcast programming, including major sporting and entertainment events, to reach new audiences and expand viewership into more international markets.
The BOC supports live and recorded broadcast transmissions of news, sports and entertainment content, as well as digital broadcasting and IP video delivery and features a 24/7 facility with a master control room (MCR) for monitoring, bookings, trouble-shooting and delivering connections to major broadcast customers and global teleports.
PSSI’s experience in live event management and transmission, and familiarity with the U.S. sports and entertainment market makes PSSI an ideal fit to support Telstra’s delivery of content originating and terminating in North America. The additional services handled through the PSSI facility will help ensure smooth operations during events with PSSI also handling frame rate conversions, encoding, decoding and uplink/downlinks of U.S. content.
“This initiative represents a significant expansion of the work we’ve been doing together for years,” said Jason Land, Vice President, Strategic Television at PSSI. “Our event-based approach is the foundation for adding another layer of support and reliability to Telstra’s broadcast business, while allowing PSSI to leverage the global GMN network as an ‘in-house’ solution for our customers.”
Telstra Broadcast Services Continues Growth Trajectory
The new PSSI partnership is part of increased focus by Telstra to help deliver 24/7 programming to millions on a global scale. Known for its ability to supply live content to production hubs via a low-latency global infrastructure, Telstra enables significant business benefits and greater efficiencies by providing scalable bandwidth at speed, a high-quality network delivery, the simplification and aggregation of multiple tech and a choice of compression options.
Telstra Broadcast Services recently acquired MediaCloud, which will provide TBS with a suite of significant software-defined and cloud-based capabilities (including Managed Streaming, Internet Delivery, Media Management and Content Orchestration and Playout), media cloud delivery experts and a London Master Control Room that is equipped with the capability to support major global companies and events. Telstra Broadcast Services Pty Limited (TBS) will broadcast some of the world’s biggest events to more parts of the globe and play a key role in delivering 24/7 programming to millions of people with the acquisition of the business and assets of MediaCloud Pty Ltd. (MediaCloud).
The acquisition of MediaCloud will provide TBS with a suite of significant software-defined and cloud-based capabilities, media cloud delivery experts and a London Master Control Room, that is equipped with the capability to support major global companies and events.
The addition of MediaCloud capabilities to TBS’s Professional Media portfolio will enable it to offer:
- Managed Streaming - a complete as-a-service offering that enables broadcasters to specify, launch and monitor over-the-top services with minimal resources while maintaining broadcast-grade SLAs.
- Internet Delivery – the ability to deliver high-quality video content and live broadcast streams including HD, SD and Ultra HD (4k) to any registered destination point, across the public internet. It is expected that this internet delivery capability will form a new entry-level tier of services, the Telstra Internet Delivery Network, available to broadcasters and media companies wishing to use TBS’s global networks but not requiring the premium service level agreements offered by its current solutions.
- Media Management and Content Orchestration – a fully managed, or platform-as-a-service offering, providing media asset management, content orchestration of complex media workflows and localization. This will also include the ability to import, manage and preview video, audio and subtitle assets, along with various transmission schedules.
- Playout – a fully managed 24/7 service for the creation of broadcast-grade linear and complex television channels.
As part of the acquisition, Australian free-to-air TV channel SBS has renewed its playout contract for MediaCloud services for seven years. This means everything from SBS News to the latest primetime show will be assembled and played out via TBS.
Darren Farnham, SBS Acting Chief Technology Officer said, "We’re pleased to have extended our agreement for MediaCloud services with the backing of Telstra, and to continue delivering SBS’s unique content to audiences on their device of choice."
Head of Telstra Broadcast Services Andreas Eriksson said that the addition of the MediaCloud platform will provide broadcasters with incredible flexibility to manage their content offerings through virtual environments.
“The global media industry is expanding to cloud-enabled and software-defined capabilities. Adding these leading new capabilities alongside TBS’s existing global fiber and satellite networks sets us up to meet the evolving needs of the broadcast market as well as expand our value proposition to our global client base by providing a world-class broadcast operation in London.
“The new capabilities will help broadcasters deploy new services and channels to respond to special events, programming opportunities and new markets in these changing times,” Mr. Eriksson said.
