Al Jazeera Media Network recently moved to its new UK studio in The Shard in London, and is once again using Teracue IPTV solutions to distribute TV channels. This marks the fifth installation at the Al Jazeera Media Network using the IPTV solutions provided by Teracue.
DVB-to-IP gateways from the DMM-Series are used for signal ingest of more than 60 TV and radio channels. The DMM-Series receive DVB signals coming via satellite, cable or terrestrial and convert them to IP streams. Using the common interface, which is standard on all DMM modules, decryption of encrypted signals is also possible. SDI feeds coming from the studios are encoded directly at the CAR using Teracue’s ENC-300-HDSDI HD Encoder, and distributed to the IPTV network.
Decoding of the IPTV streams is done using Amino IPTV set-top boxes (STBs) with Teracue software installed, meaning it is possible to monitor and control all STBs from a central management system. The heart of monitoring and remote control of the STBs is the Element Manager software. The STBs can be controlled separately or combined in groups using single commands or presets. If a main management system or automation is to be used, the Element Manager will work as an interface to connect the IPTV solution to the main control system. API’s for the most renowned control/automation systems are available.
Additionally, the StreamView series of multiviewers provide a mosaic view to screens. StreamView is able to decode several streams simultaneously and display these streams in different layouts. StreamView can also be controlled from a central location, and it is possible to switch dedicated streams to full screen and select audio to be routed to the speaker or mute it.
To provide IPTV functionality to the employees, XPlayer software is used. Specially designed for streaming applications, XPlayer can be used as standalone player or embedded to websites as an ActiveX element.
