TV18 Broadcast India upgrades news fleet with over 100 LiveU HEVC units

TV18 Broadcast, one of India’s most popular television broadcasting networks, has signed a multi-year lease agreement for more than 100 units of LiveU’s flagship LU600 HEVC solution. The units are already stationed in various locations in over 20 Indian states to support TV18’s entire network of channels, including CNBC-TV18, CNBC Awaaz, CNBC Bazaar, CNN-News18, News18 India, New18 UP/Uttarakhand, New18 Bihar/Jharkhand, News18 Bangla, News18 Odia, News18 MP/Chhattisgarh, News18 Rajasthan, News18 Punjab/Haryana/HP, News18 Gujarati, News18 Assam/NE, News18 Kannada, News18 Tamilnadu, News18 Kerala, News18 Urdu and News18 Lokmat.

The TV18 group chose the reliability of LiveU’s IP bonding technology to stay ahead in its newsgathering operations, upgrading its entire fleet of portable backpack solutions to HEVC. The deal was overseen by LiveU’s local partner, Lamhas, which provides 24/7 service and support throughout India.

S Venkatraman, VP of teleport and newsgathering of TV18 said, “we operate the biggest news network in the country and have robust newsgathering systems. We have been using LiveU units for field newsgathering for the last six years. Exploring and identifying innovative solutions for capturing and transmission live video feeds have always been our focus.

“With HEVC being the industry standard for video compression, the transition from H.264 to H.265 was a logical step, coupled with the reliability offered by LiveU’s hardware-based encoding, even in low bandwidth regions. Having the latest technology at our disposal will give us an edge in the newsgathering process as well benefit us in the long run. We deployed LU600 units in the recently concluded General Election coverage in India and were satisfied with the field performance.

“TV18 continuously works on network synergy to enhance our broadcast and digital operations across the country. Our collaboration with CNN provides us with the edge in obtaining visuals of international stories at the earliest possible time. We are actively working with LiveU’s Matrix platform for the sharing of live visuals between our broadcast centres,” continued Venkatraman. “We will be working closely with LiveU in our expansion process.”