Johannesburg - Communications giant BT has added South Africa to its global dedicated digital media network and says it already has an 'anchor tenant', with lots of interest from other broadcasters and post-production companies.
Business manager of BT Global Services in southern Africa, Martin Springer, said being a part of this global network would open up new markets for broadcasters to sell content to: "This could help put South African companies on the map."
It would also enable them to access content produced by other broadcasters more easily, efficiently and cost-effectively than over satellite links or ordering the content on tape.
The network already touches 70 locations in 10 countries.
Springer said in an age where "content is king" and end-users wanted to access their choice of content how and wherever they wanted to view it, BT wanted to enable providers to focus on their core competency - the generation and packaging of this content.
Content that is stored digitally rather than in vast tape libraries could be easily accessed and on sold to generate additional revenue, according to Keith Matthews, business manager for BT Global Services in the Middle East and Africa.
Springer said once a file was digitised, it could by modified and sent out to whatever medium was appropriate for a particular market (be it for television, mobile handsets or over the internet).
Good timing
Digital content over a secure, dedicated network was also better protected from theft or copyright infringement.
The fixed-line, or terrestrial, network would be up and running from about January next year, Springer said.
Its local launch seems well timed, with the opening up of the South African television market to new pay-TV operators, and the move from analogue to digital television.
BT says it does not want to be a broadcaster, nor does it want to replace signal distributors to the end user, like Sentech and satellite.
Rather, says Matthews, it would source the so-called last mile from whichever local providers could provide the necessary capacity. This could include Telkom, Neotel, Vodacom, MTN or any other player with fibre in the ground.
Its focus was on the international distribution leg, and on providing an end-to-end solution in partnership with local last-mile providers. "Its all about facilitating global reach," says Springer.
Springer says its solution is not just about the infrastructure - it is differentiated by being a media-specific digital network, which is scalable in capacity (in other words, it can be increased or decreased with a software change, not the installation of new infrastructure), has no latency or jitter (delays or broken signals) and can give priority to the necessary traffic, such as live, breaking news feeds.
BT currently gets its international capacity to and from Africa by being a SAT-3/SAFE consortium member, but Matthews said it would also tap into the host of other undersea cables that are being laid, such as the EASSy cable, in which it is also a consortium member.
As these cables get up and running from the middle of next year, the cost of bandwidth to the continent should reduce significantly, Springer said.
SA is the first destination in Africa that BT has extended its global media network to, but it aid Nigeria was a market of interest and a possible next destination.
- Fin24.com