Skyline Communications, a global supplier of end-to-end digital transformation software solutions for the ICT media and broadband industry, has teamed up with Arqiva, the UK’s communications infrastructure and media services company, and Irdeto, a leading name in digital platform security and a managed services provider via its Irdeto Managed Services business unit. In collaboration they will provide SuperSport – the South African-based, Pan-African group of television channels – with professional full self-service and ad hoc automated satellite contribution services.
Arqiva was already delivering a qualitative service to Irdeto that enabled end-user SuperSport to make ad hoc bookings for satellite downlinks that were manually provisioned and fully customised according to SuperSport’s requirements. However, as qualitative as the service was, the process was very labour intensive and time consuming; SuperSport had to call Arqiva in case there was a service request to be deployed and set up, which was then manually executed by Arqiva per individual request. That is why Arqiva turned to Skyline, its long-standing technology partner for monitoring and orchestration, to automate the entire process as part of its overall digital transformation programme.
“As we’re dedicated to providing our customers with the best possible service, we decided to make an investment in a future-proof solution and, as such, deliver a more efficient and flexible digital experience to them,” commented Keith Frost, director of engineering at Arqiva. “That’s why we chose Skyline’s DataMiner because we’re continuously looking for ways to enhance our services. It’s a commitment to our customers, to stay ahead of new developments in the market. And these days, you just cannot do that without having heavily automated processes and without evolving towards a much more data-driven operation.”
“Irdeto is the world leader in digital platform security and also provides occasional-use sports feed contribution services to SuperSport, utilising the Arqiva contribution/distribution infrastructure and the provision of fiber networks between the United Kingdom and South Africa. Irdeto requested a more automated self-service solution from Arqiva who, in partnership with Skyline, provided an optimal solution,” added Melt Loubser, senior vice-president at Irdeto Managed Services. “Irdeto is really happy with this innovative solution that is provided by Arqiva and DataMiner. It enables our customer SuperSport to seamlessly switch sporting feeds and add content via the Irdeto contribution system to South Africa, for further distribution on the MultiChoice pay-TV platforms in Africa.”
Arqiva’s new solution is based on the game-changing DataMiner Service & Resource Management (SRM) suite, which enables far-reaching automation and powerful service orchestration. Moreover, it lowers operational expenses and maximises the utilisation of system network resources. With the new and fully automated procedure in place, SuperSport can manage and control their own needs via the user-friendly Booking Manager interface, through which they can easily schedule the services they require.
Such bookings are processed fully automatically, as DataMiner SRM has full awareness of the availability and capabilities of all system resources, at any given point in time. DataMiner SRM also automatically builds and deploys the required services at the time they are needed. In addition, during the service delivery, DataMiner fully automatically provides the Arqiva operations team with an intuitive service-centric view on the status of that service for as long as it is running. In other words, it provides accelerated service design, delivery and assurance during the entire service lifecycle.
“The DataMiner SRM suite is really quite unique in the broadcast and media industry. It interoperates with any technology, and there’s no limitation when it comes to services and workflows,” added Andy Fairhall, Sales Manager at Skyline Communications. “You see, at Skyline, we constantly keep the focus on innovation, as to prepare and, what’s more, always keep our customers ready for the future, whatever may come. Arqiva has the same mindset, which immediately explains why they went for DataMiner. And we’re really glad they did, because it’s always an honour to work with such a leading and forward- looking company. It’s true that nowadays you cannot run a successful operation anymore without investing in far-reaching automation, which more and more organisations all over the world realise. And that’s why more and more organisations go for DataMiner and its ground-breaking SRM solution, as it gives them a unique value proposition and a powerful technology to make their digital transformation ambitions a reality.”