www.amagi.

com

CASE STUDY

Cloud brings cheer to

Horse & Country TV
Learn how Horse & Country TV created new
revenue opportunities and expanded subscriber base
through a radical, technologically superior and reliable
broadcast solution.

About
Horse &
Country
TV

Horse & Country (H&C) is a UK-based TV channel targeting audiences for equestrian
sports and country lifestyle. H&C TV had a lean internal operations team to manage
ingest, programming and scheduling. Playout operations were outsourced. H&C wanted
to expand rapidly in international markets. Localized feeds to individual countries were
seen as a clear avenue to enhance subscription and advertising revenues.
Business Requirements

Flexibility to deliver an existing feed, or create a new feed to each new territory
Reliable delivery and playout of channels
Cost-effective playout solution
Shorter lead time and lesser effort needed to start new feeds
Consistent workflow to start and manage each feed (Minimal work-addition
to internal teams to manage additional feeds)

Technical Requirements

Ability to ingest multiple original video formats

Ability to accept daily schedules from existing scheduling too
Ability to integrate with existing Ad network partners for automatic Ad ingestion
Ability to display secondary graphics from dynamic playlist information
Support subtitle burn-in and audio-track selection based on the region
Support for all standard video output formats and hardware interfaces
24 x 7 x 365 playout management and monitoring
Simple to adopt workflow for internal operations team
SD playout in immediate term and seamless transition to HD in future
System-wide redundancy
Comprehensive support model encompassing initial installation,
maintenance and operational issue resolution with headends

Amagi
Solution

Amagi implemented its edge playout platform CLOUDPORT to address H&Cs unique
requirements. CLOUDPORT is a turn-key channel distribution and playout infrastructure
encompassing a playout management suite for the broadcast station, a cloud-enabled
distribution infrastructure and remote playout servers for the headends.
For each H&C feed, Amagi became the holistic partner for initial system integration,
Installation and training and on-going operations support. The deployment timeline for
each feed was four weeks or less.
System Integration
Amagi customized its platform to accept existing daily log format of H&C
Amagi created a simplified cloud-centric workflow for operations
management with vendors like VSI Media for subtitles
Amagi customized its platform to integrate with existing industry
standard workflows of Ad-providers (e.g., Adstream and IMD)
Installation
Installation and setup of content preparation servers at H&C Cwmbran
(done for first feed)
Setup and configuration of the playout management suite on the cloud
Installation and setup of playout servers at the headends
Configuration of channel monitoring suite
Training
Training H&C team to use the Amagi playout management suite
and content preparation servers

Outcome

H&C TV today operates all its feeds on the CLOUDPORT channel playout platform (H&C
UK, H&C Sweden and H&C Benelux). The first two feeds went live in September and
October 2013 and the third feed went live in June, 2014. All its three feeds have been
delivered and played out at 100% service levels.
We have been running the Sweden and Benelux feeds for more than eight months now.
We have got 100% delivery against SLA on distribution and playout on both feeds. I am
extremely pleased with having chosen Amagi CLOUDPORT for H&C.
John Wallace, Broadcast Consultant, H&C.
We have now moved all H&C feeds to the CLOUDPORT channel playout platform. Amagi
has been there at every step throughout this transition, and my operations team has
approached the launch of each new feed with increasing enthusiasm.
Heather Killen, Chairman and CEO, H&C TV
As a team, we feel we are in greater control of our feeds run on the Amagi platform. We
are able to clearly plan our work and address bottlenecks for providing content for each
specific feed.
Nic Howell, Channel Editor, H&C TV
Co-ordination for managing daily logs with our playout services provider has never been
so simple for my team.
Lisa Cullis, Senior Scheduler, H&C TV

About Amagi
Amagi is the worlds largest platform for delivering targeted TV
content and advertising anywhere across the globe. Every month,
Amagi delivers and plays out more than one million advertising
seconds and thousands of hours of content for many leading
broadcasters. Amagis patented core technology delivers new
market access, content localization, and advertising revenue
streams for broadcasters at a fraction of the cost when compared
to existing traditional satellite and fiber based delivery models.

E-Mail Contact

cloudandme@amagi.com