TSL Completes Infrastructure Expansion For Orbit Showtime Network In Dubai

TSL Middle East has handed over a major broadcast infrastructure expansion project for Orbit Showtime Network (OSN) in Dubai.
Following a merger with Showtime Arabia in 2010, pay TV provider OSN moved key parts of its operation from Bahrain to Dubai, which included all broadcast operations.
The existing broadcast IT and storage infrastructure in Dubai required a substantial increase in production and channel play-out capacity as well as new requirements for HD and other associated media workflows.
OSN selected TSL to provide a long-term storage platform and network infrastructure that would grow with their needs. OSN and TSL engineers worked in parallel to define a detailed migration strategy that would incorporate OSN's choice of production server with its long term network configuration requirements.
TSL prebuilt racks and wiring looms at its Maidenhead, UK factory, which enabled highly detailed, complex switch configuration and testing to be carried out before installation. Once on site, crucial parts of the migration took place during off peak hours to minimise disruption to OSN's workflow. The final step was to network OSN's clustered storage solution to a new core switch to enable the entire workflow to take advantage of contiguous, high performance, high availability storage.
The entire project was delivered in less than ten weeks to track with OSN's aggressive relocation schedule.
According to TSL Middle East Business Development Manager Andrew Davis: "This project is typical of the plans that many large broadcasters have to deploy file-based workflows. The key to such a successful migration is to understand that many legacy IT and storage infrastructure cannot cope with the high demands that the increased throughput of file-based workflows will place on them. Experience in making that transition is crucial and best left to those who are in step with the latest file-based workflow technologies and practices."
(KMcA)