Sky Italia Deploys Imagine

Sky Italia has deployed Imagine Communications' Magellan SDN Orchestrator, enabling the broadcaster to integrate and manage a fully redundant distribution system for both ASI and IP transport streams across broadcast routers and commercial IP switches, all within a common SDN infrastructure.

Sky Italia is the leading pay-TV provider in Italy featuring operations centres in Milan and Rome, where individual feeds and multiplexed ASI streams are transported within each centre as well as between the two locations.
The solution includes Imagine's Platinum™ IP3 routers and Sky Italia's 10GbE network switches, with the entire workflow managed by the Magellan SDN Orchestrator. The Platinum IP3 routers will be deployed in fully redundant 1+1 configurations at each centre, handling both ASI as well as baseband signals. These routers are matched with commercially available IP switches, also in 1+1 redundant configurations, that switch the IP-encapsulated ASI streams.
The Magellan SDN Orchestrator provides a layer of control for the Platinum routers and the IP switches, allowing operators to utilise familiar hardware and software control panels to accommodate both signal types.
"Sky Italia remains at the forefront of innovations in broadcast and we have been seeking a managed transition to an all-IP infrastructure that minimizes disruption and preserves our workflow processes," said Massimo Bertolotti, Head of Innovation & Multimedia distribution at Sky Italia. "After discussions at NAB, it became clear that Imagine Communications is leading the industry in creating solutions that enable this transition. Their Magellan SDN Orchestrator allows us to work simultaneously in both IP and ASI realms by providing the ability to switch transport streams with complete operational transparency, facilitating our path forward to IP."
"Broadcasters are eager to benefit from the rapidly declining costs and expanding capabilities of commercial IT/IP equipment, but they want to transition with as little risk and disruption as possible," said Charlie Vogt, CEO of Imagine Communications. "We are developing the products, solutions and services that will help our customers seamlessly migrate from 'here to there,' and the Magellan SDN Orchestrator is a great example of innovations that we are creating to enable this transition. This announcement is just one more indication of our commitment to IP and software-defined, virtualised networks, and we are very pleased to work with Sky Italia in this cutting edge deployment."
Magellan SDN Orchestrator enables media companies to provide high-quality video processing via baseband/SDI/ASI signalling using familiar controls, while also managing on-ramps and off-ramps for this signalling over IP using the orchestrator's software control layer.

www.imaginecommunications.com

(IT/JP)