The TV experience has changed dramatically in the past decade. You can now view your favorite shows anytime and anywhere on a smartphone, tablet, PC and of course television. This delivery system is responsible for content providers to adopt and deploy innovative technologies for ensuring their customers can access their content without any disruptions. For Sky, which serves 21 million customers across the U.K., Ireland, Germany, Austria and Italy, the number of users requesting on-demand premium video content has led the company to enter into a partnership with Nokia and its Velocix (News - Alert) Content Delivery Network (CDN) platform to improve high-speed video and data services.
A content delivery network is a system of distributed servers designed to deliver content to a user based on geographic locations for the purposes of efficiency and speed. So if a CDN server is close to the user geographically, the content will arrive much faster without being affected from large surges in traffic outside of this particular region. Initially designed to improve the delivery of B2B interactions, the technology has now moved to accelerate all types of content including video.
"Using Nokia (News - Alert)'s Velocix CDN, we have greater traffic visibility in the network, allowing us to regain control of managing the network capacity. Deploying the solution deep in the network also ensures we can manage delivery more effectively to improve performance and the customer experience. The introduction of Velocix CDN to support growth of our video on demand services was seamless," said Mohamed Hammady, UK Chief Technology Officer, Sky.
The Nokia Velocix Media Delivery Platform allows service providers to build their own content delivery network so they can capitalize on customer demand, create custom solutions and introduce products to market faster for rich digital media on any screen by leveraging network intelligence and subscriber data.
Velocix can leverage existing fixed and wireless broadband connections to deliver high volumes of on-demand and linear video traffic in a manner that is scalable and cost effective. According to Nokia, service providers will be able to have a system in place that can deliver a more personalized, dynamic and equitable video service experience to the different touch points available today. They will be able to accomplish this by creating their own CDN using the features in the Velocix Enhanced Video Experience (EVE) release.
Additionally, Sky and other providers will be able to compete with over-the-top (OTT) services by introducing new products and services to market faster to generate revenue at price points that are much cheaper, which according to the company will make it hard for OTTs to keep up.
Velocix will lower the transport cost of video by using intelligent, hierarchical content replication based on dynamic demand patterns while minimizing storage, transit and network resources with embedded video processing functions. Nokia says this will assure the quality of experience for end-users and allow providers to deliver personalized video services with experience management at the user level.
As part of this partnership with sky Velocix CDN will be deployed across the Sky UK network and Nokia will continue to serve the Sky on Demand services content which has been live since the end of 2015.
Edited by Stefania Viscusi