Open Broadcast Systems and MSTV partner to innovate with Starlink, 5G and cloud technologies

Open Broadcast Systems and MSTV have announced a partnership to develop new products and solutions around IP technologies, such as Starlink, 5G and cloud distribution. The partnership is a result of a need for MSTV to find a flexible way to contribute and distribute high-quality sports content, at very short notice, to and from anywhere in the world.

MSTV is a full-scale multi-camera live sports TV production company, providing global coverage of a wide range of sports events. The nature of MSTV’s broadcasts means its crews can be asked to produce a sporting event with only a few days’ notice, anywhere in the world. In addition, it often needs to deliver to many platforms such as web, satellite or BT Tower at the same time.

The short timescales involved mean traditional fibre or satellite vehicles are not an option. In order to address these challenges, MSTV has looked to new technologies such as cloud distribution, bonded 5G and Starlink to contribute and distribute its sporting content.

As broadcasters of these sporting events may be located anywhere in the world, MSTV needed a vendor-neutral solution for encoding and transporting broadcast-quality transport streams to web, satellite uplink facilities or broadcasters directly.

As a result, MSTV partnered with Open Broadcast Systems to develop a solution for transporting high-quality contribution video from anywhere in the world, and, using the cloud, subsequently processing this video into appropriate delivery formats.

Krunoslav Petric, head of operations, MSTV, commented: “We have found that existing walled-garden cellular bonding solutions lack the flexibility and quality for high-quality sports transmissions. Open Broadcast Systems has helped us create a much more flexible workflow that will meet the demanding needs of our clients.”

Kieran Kunhya, founder and CEO of Open Broadcast Systems, added: “MSTV is in a new country every week, and the level of iteration on its broadcasts is incredible. Every week there is a new improvement to the workflow to meet the needs of broadcasters. I have been astounded by MSTV’s speed of innovation.”

This partnership will pave the way for further innovation to jointly develop products for flexible and scalable broadcast contribution.