Mediaset, the largest commercial broadcaster in Italy, has collaborated with tech partners and renewed its workflow.Using an advertisement-based business model, Mediaset runs 13 FTA channels (free-to-air, a.k.a. no subscription needed), and an on-demand streaming platform called Mediaset Infinity.Mediaset is known for its early adoption of—and skilful capitalization on—new technologies. Mediaset has spent considerable effort on developing their OTT headend (in other words, the part of the video streaming workflow that begins with the reception of the live video feed). This crucial OTT headend piece in the streaming tech workflow takes care of the encoding, the packaging, and the distributing of the video, and, during it all, the monitoring of the process.Video Progetti, Unified Streaming’s software reseller in Italy since 2022, has optimized Mediaset’s workflow and taken its OTT headend to the next level.
ChallengeMediaset engaged the services of Video Progetti to implement its first, fully cloud-based OTT headend system. The main goal was to achieve the highest quality, and top-tier operational flexibility and reliability. But Mediaset’s acquisition of Champions League broadcasting rights raised the stakes.With elite football on its slate, Mediaset needed to raise the quality of the service even higher. And they wanted to add the capability of delivering native 1080p/50fps video (1920×1080 pixels/50 frames per second) to a wider variety of end-user devices.
They also needed to future-proof their workflow and meet Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) IP2110 infrastructure compatibility requirements. Solution
A team comprising Mediaset personnel and Video Progetti’s technical designers set to work.Video Progetti proposed a solution: integrate the best brands currently available in the market in their respective fields of expertise. With this “best-in-breed” approach, Video Progetti intended for the workflow to stay independent and modular, and free from vendor lock-in.The companies’ products that made the cut, filling all positions and fitting all requirements, were all-stars.Packetizing the streams in the format required by the end device, while exploiting a just-in-time approach? Unified Origin from Unified Streaming.
Unified Origin handles DRM (digital rights management) and encryption, vital for delivering Mediaset’s platform’s services to its multitudes of viewers.To provide maximum resilience for the workflow, Unified Origin was also set up with full redundancy (guarding against any disruption, guaranteeing continuity of service): double encoder, double Unified Origin. Unified Origin supports a variety of DRM protocols, equipping the Mediaset and Video Progetti solution with additional flexibility and future-proofing.
Results
Not only is the new OTT service live and performing seamlessly; it has exceeded all expectations and targets outlined by Mediaset, too.
Sales Director of Video Progetti Francesco Struzzi said, “The collaboration with Unified Streaming on the Mediaset OTT project was optimal. Unified supported the project in a very professional way, and helped with the integration of Unified Origin in a complex workflow with Elemental encoders. We are very happy with the end result and look forward to collaborating with Unified Streaming in new projects.”Streaming Solutions Architect at Unified Streaming Giacomo Benelli said, “Working with Video Progetti, and helping achieve such a clear victory in the Mediaset OTT project, was fantastic. We were able to provide tech support and best practices to leverage Origin capabilities for efficient delivery of restart-live URLs. Also, working alongside Video Progetti, we ensured that Mediaset received a bespoke DASH manifest manipulation to support the live restart logic of some players.”
To read the full case study, visit https://www.unified-streaming.com/cases/mediaset-optimal-collaboration.
