Nilesat chooses Cisco Media, Satellite, and Broadcast Solution

At Cairo ICT 2012, Cisco and Nilesat, the leading satellite operator in the MENA region, announced that Nilesat has successfully installed Cisco Digital Media Network solutions for its contribution network. 

Cisco’s end-to-end Media, Satellite, and Broadcast Video Solution provides all the important features Nilesat will need in the digital headend, including acquisition; video encoders & transcoders; video processors; encryption and management.  Using the Cisco Lifecycle Services approach, Cisco and its partners provided a broad portfolio of services that addressed all aspects of planning, deploying, operating, and optimizing Nilesat’s video network. Cisco ROSA Video Service Management system will also provide a complete solution for end-to-end management. It will monitor, manage, and control equipment and services throughout the Nilesat network. 

Currently the new Digital Contribution System between Nilesat headend and ERTU (Egyptian Radio & Television Union) site is carrying 32 government TV channels and hosts 40 radio stations to be broadcasted over Nilesat’s Satellites, also Cisco video solutions at Nilesat headend (Nilesat DVB Center) is processing more than 150 TV & Radio channels.

Cisco’s Nilesat installation is built around three of its  latest encoding solutions:

Cisco D9036 Modular Encoding Platform which provides multi-resolution, multi-format encoding for all applications requiring high levels of video quality.

Cisco DCM Series 9900 Digital Content Manager MPEG Processors the next generation of intelligent headend processing equipment combination of compactness and flexibility leads to a cost effective solution.

The Cisco ASR 1002-Fixed Router which comes in a 2-rack unit (RU) form factor and  is an ideal solution for a large branch office, for WAN aggregation, or as a managed high-speed customer premises equipment (CPE) device to support enhanced features such as security, deep packet inspection, and firewall.

As the number of advanced applications continues to expand in the Nilesat network, managing and monitoring the network and its performance increases in importance. Cisco ROSA Video Service Management system will reduce complexity, increase uptime and also help to decrease operating expenses.

Media production, contribution and distribution solutions are also integral to the Cisco Media, Satellite, and Broadcast solution. They provide the foundation for an end-to-end digital workflow that dynamically moves media through each stage in the media delivery process.

With Cisco media production solutions Nilesat will not only be able to  easily extend content to any business unit, partner, or customer device, anywhere in the world it will also be able to reduce costs by consolidating and virtualizing media applications and infrastructures. The delivery of new content will also be accelerated.

Cisco media production solutions will also enable Nilesat to adopt the concept of the medianet: an intelligent network of networks that is optimized end-to-end for dynamic media experiences. This will help to deliver a single, scalable IP architecture that extends from the point of content ingest through every aspect of editing and production, across video contribution and distribution networks, all the way to the customer screen. A Medianet will transform the customer experience by delivering more content, mobility, personalization, and control.

Cisco media contribution solutions will provide editing and modifying content for regions and sponsors, add special graphic treatments and transport content, error-free, to dispersed facilities

In a sporting event, for example, video feeds may originate from a stadium and be edited and enhanced at an onsite editing facility. They are then transported to a national or global broadcast center for distribution.

Cisco’s Media distribution solutions will allow Nilesat to serve hundreds of operator head-ends and affiliate locations thereby meeting requirements for diverse video formats, quality levels, and compression standards. Also, with media distribution solutions Nilesat can deliver finished content and advertising to consumers in new ways. 

Mr. Salah Hamza, Chief Technology Officer and acting chairman, Nilesat: “Nilesat chose Cisco’s Media, Satellite, and Broadcast Video Solution because satellite communications in Egypt are revolving rapidly and we know how important it is to invest in the latest state-of-the-art solutions in enable us to take our customer offering to the next level.  The Cisco solution will enable us to do this cost-effectively whilst also delivering the highest possible quality service.” 

Olaf Krahmer, president and general manager, Cisco, Egypt: “Based on Nilesat’s business need Cisco introduced a platform that completely moved away from the traditional next generation direct-to-home platforms and as a result we were able to successfully deploy a smart solution offering high performance and availability system whilst reducing the capital and operational expenditure  for Nilesat overall. Following this successful deployment, Cisco is now working very closely with Nilesat to introduce other new technologies that will help enhance their customer offering in the Middle East region and even further.”