Comprehensive integrated workflow solutions allow Qatari broadcaster to add new channels quickly and efficiently

Imagine Communications, a market leader of media software and video infrastructure solutions serving the global broadcast, multichannel video programming distributor and enterprise markets, is delivering a major expansion and upgrade to the master control room and playout operations of broadcaster Al Rayyan, based in Doha, Qatar. Al Rayyan selected solutions spanning Imagine Communications’ end-to-end media, playout and networking portfolios for this project to achieve the broadcaster’s goal of enabling the rapid implementation of new channels in the future.

Al Rayyan Satellite Channel is operated by the leading Qatari broadcaster Al Rayyan Media and Marketing, wholly owned by the state of Qatar. Alongside its existing general offerings, Al Rayyan is planning a programme of expansion, including the launch of multiple new channels. To accomplish this, the broadcaster turned to trusted technology partner Imagine Communications for a major upgrade of its master control facilities from ingest to playout.

“We find that there are key advantages to utilising one technology vendor to deliver turnkey broadcast solutions, and as a supplier of reliable and robust solutions to Al Rayyan since 2009, Imagine Communications was the natural choice,” said Tony Jabbour, Director of Engineering at Al Rayyan.  “We know that when we deal with Imagine Communications, we will get a rapid response from their extended regional support team that includes specialists across playout, automation, networking and traffic and planning workflows.”

Jabbour continued, “For this project, Imagine Communications carefully listened to our needs to understand our objectives for this major expansion.  They demonstrated an entire end-to-end workflow — spanning their complete integrated product portfolio — at their company’s Dubai Training Academy and demo facility.  We are fortunate to have such a technically astute team working with us, and we are excited about Imagine Communications’ future product roadmap, which will help to underpin our continuing growth.”

The best-in-class solutions delivered in the project included Imagine Communications integrated media traffic, planning and scheduling software; ADC™ playout automation; and Selenio 6800+™ modular infrastructure products. The project also augments Al Rayyan’s current content playout capacity by adding six new Nexio AMP® video servers and an expansion of its scalable, high-performance, online storage Nexio Farad™ platforms. The new technology adds to a comprehensive end-to-end Imagine Communications broadcast management and playout solution already implemented by Al Rayyan. Imagine Communications’ professional services offerings are an integral part of the project including consultancy, design, implementation and on-site training.

In a parallel activity to this project, Imagine Communications also enabled an immediate expansion for Al Rayyan, placing a new channel on-air within two weeks of the order using the Versio™ platform.  Versio is the latest generation of integrated playout solution that integrates essential ingest/playout components leveraging award-winning Imagine Communications technology — automation, branding, graphics and video server — into a single 1RU platform.

“Broadcasters are faced with a new set of challenges today — they need to be agile to seize opportunities as they arise, and they need to make the most productive use of rapidly developing technologies,” said Mathias Eckert, Vice President, Europe, Middle East and Africa, at Imagine Communications. “Working closely with customers such as Al Rayyan, we can take an integrated approach to the whole broadcast management and playout chain, delivering expansion projects like these very effectively and accelerating the customer’s time-to-market.”

The major expansion and upgrade at Al Rayyan will go live in September 2014.

To learn more about Imagine Communications’ market-leading, end-to-end solutions, please visit www.imaginecommunications.com.

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About Imagine Communications

Imagine Communications empowers the media and entertainment industry through transformative innovation. Broadcasters, networks, video service providers and enterprises around the world rely on our optimized, futureproof, multiscreen video and revenue enablement solutions every day to support their mission-critical operations. Today, nearly half of the world’s video channels traverse our products, and our software solutions drive close to a third of global ad revenue. Through continuous innovation, we are delivering the most advanced IP, cloud-enabled, software-defined network and workflow solutions in the industry. Visit www.imaginecommunications.com for more information, and follow us on Twitter @imagine_comms.