BCE broadcasts 7 Hungarian language channels for RTL Group
CLT-UFA, a subsidiary of RTL Group S.A., selected BCE for the broadcasting of its seven Hungarian language cable channels. BCEcreated a state-of-the-art multi-site playout platform through a partnership with Luminis.
BCE and Luminis worked jointlyon the integration of a multi-playout platform with direct connection to RTL Group’s operations in Luxembourg and Hungary, since the channels are broadcast from Luxembourg, where the final editing and playout takes place, while local productionsare often initially produced in Hungary. Dedicated to the customer channels, the control room in Luxembourg manages ten feeds for seven channels: Three channels are broadcast in both HD and SD and four channels are broadcast in SD only.
“This innovative control room system is a breakthrough in playout services. It gives the possibility to future customers to juggle between our services and their employees and to benefit from BCE’s stable and secured technical environment while accessing the platform from multiple locations.” Comments Tun Van Rijswijck, COO at BCE. “Working with Luminis was a great experience during the integration and our day-to-day work with the company is very promising.”
BCE and RTL Group’s activities inLuxembourg and Hungary are connected thanks to BCE’s telecom network, with a direct fiber link. The Hungarian content is sent to BCE and RTL Group in Luxembourg using Movie2Me (BCE’s high speed content distribution system) point-to-point technology and they broadcast the edited and packaged content following the playlist back through the same line.
Thanks to this fiber link between Hungary and Luxembourg, BCE and Luminis created a broadcasting platform which can be completely virtualized for operators in Budapestand Luxembourg.
The solution was built around a solution from Grass Valley and integrated in less than three months in Luxembourg.
“This cooperation between BCE and Luminis opens new opportunities to provide our customers the unique combination of high-end technical background paired with affordable operational costs.” says GáborVarsányi, CEO at Luminis.”We successfully bridged the geographical gap between Luxembourg and Budapest to enable local playlist editing and control at BCE while providing preparation services and technical supervision remotely from Hungary resultingin significant savings for the RTL cable channels. ”
Based in Luxembourg, Broadcasting Center Europe (BCE) is a European leader in technical services for the media market. Having its roots in broadcasting, the company holds several playout control rooms and is also able to configure new platforms directly connected to our teleport, transmitters and telecom network.
Luminis is an independent broadcast technical service provider located in Budapest, Hungary. With a track record of 9 years of successful cooperation with RTL Group as a playout outsourcing partner, the company became one of the most experienced providers in the Central European Region operating over a dozen of TV channels in Hungary and the neighboring countries. From 1st of January 2016, Luminis will continue its broadcast technology services under the brand “Pontis Media Services”.
