The Africa Channel chooses Globecast for management, playout and distribution

Globecast, the global solutions provider for media, has been chosen by The Africa Channel to provide media management, playout and distribution services for its channel across the US from its Culver City, CA, Media Centre. US-based, The Africa Channel is currently distributed on major US cable platforms.

The Africa Channel is taking advantage of Globecast’s Media Centre in Culver City, and the company’s Media Factory cloud-based media processing platform, to build and playout its channel. The Africa Channel provides edited content, which is then ingested before Globecast carries out quality control (QC) and ad-insertion.

The Africa Channel is also benefiting from Globecast’s ability to streamline its previous distribution model and therefore save costs. Globecast has replaced the two former satellite feeds – one SD and one HD – with a single HD feed. The company also managed the sourcing and deployment of the new receivers and worked with cable affiliates who require a SD variant to install new transcoders, allowing them to convert the HD signal to SD before delivery to their viewers.

Ricardo Springer, VP of operations & post-production at The Africa Channel, said: “Globecast has really understood our requirements, and delivered a solution that meets our need to operate efficiently, but continue to serve all our affiliates, whether they transmit in SD and HD. It was also important to have a partner with a combination of technical expertise and local knowledge on the ground.”

Eddie Ferraro, managing director, The Americas, at Globecast, said: “We’re very pleased to be working with The Africa Channel. Our LA location and new facility helped position us to win the business. We were also able to clearly demonstrate that we are extremely flexible, have a willingness to listen to their needs, and respond in a timely manner, which ultimately led to a large savings for them in OPEX. We are also poised to help grow the service in parallel with The Africa Channel’s business objectives, whether this means expanded traditional international satellite coverage, or new second screen distribution solutions such as OTT.”