Arqiva wins IMG Singapore playout contract

Sports producer and distributor IMG has signed up Arqiva to provide playout services for two live sports channels in Singapore.

The deal, which also includes live sports presentation and remote editing functionality, will see playout managed remotely from Arqiva’s Chalfont Grove site in the UK.

Access to systems will be provided to IMG’s seven-strong Singapore-based production team via HTML5 web interfaces.

Also included in the deal is Occasional Use (OU) support for sporting events throughout 2018, including A-League Football and National Rugby League in Australia, and US Major Soccer League.

The length of the contract was not disclosed.

Discussing the agreement, Chris Guinness, the senior vice president of media at IMG, said: “We are confident that Arqiva’s strong and reliable track record, and its understanding of and support for our business growth goals in Asia, will form the foundation for a successful partnership delivering longer-term playout and OU capacity within this key market.”

Key technical functionalities of the system being provided include:

• Ingest of live and file-based material, and simultaneous creation of proxy media during ingest
• Remote browsing of all content held within Arqiva’s Chalfont-based systems
• Open-file working to allow editing to commence within a few seconds of recording
• Segmentation and edit tools to allow removal of ad breaks, profanity, etc.
• Rapid turnaround integration with dynamic updates and automation system
• Occasional use satellite capacity for live events coverage

Chris Walder, senior vice president, Asia Pacific at Arqiva, added: “By facilitating day-to-day access to both the Arqiva support team and its broadcasting peers, we hope to foster a collaborative environment in which IMG can thrive and work with us to make this venture a success.”