BSkyB Taps Actus View for Network Monitoring

BSkyB has expanded the transmission-monitoring systems at its broadcast centre and main satellite uplink to improve management of the quality of its broadcasts. The broadcaster installed Actus View this year and has extended this to monitor a total of 72 channels, including the Sky Sports services and ESPN.

Based on an enterprise Actus 4 IT platform, View can be enlarged to cope with a user’s growing needs. The system is able to handle material ingest for multiple channels, multiformat conversion, detection and analysis of programmes, and playout capability for redistribution. All these functions are connected to an integrated database.

The Sky Actus installation is based at its earth station at Chilworth in Hampshire, UK. Operators at its broadcast centre in west London have full access to all monitoring and control features.

“Customers can implement Actus as an individual system and monitor activity for a specific channel or transmission, or deploy it as a distributed architecture with all channels and transmissions fully monitored by the enterprise platform,” says Sima Levy, chief executive of Actus Digital. “This is the case with BSkyB, where users monitoring the 72 channels are located in London, with the core system deployed in Chilworth. This type of flexibility enables sharing of information and resources across the entire operation regardless of location.”