Swiss broadcaster La Télé has chosen Digigram’s Aqord *Link video encoder/transcoder to stream coverage of parliamentary sessions from the Press Centre at the Federal Palace in Bern directly to the main La Télé studio in Lausanne, to the TeleTicino studio in Lugano, and soon to Canal 9 in Sierre.

The Aqord *Link system gives these publicly funded regional broadcasters a cost-effective means of covering parliamentary sessions and, meeting their obligations as members of the Telesuisse association.

‘Digigram’s Aqord *Link gives our coverage excellent picture quality with no dropped frames, and it is very robust in its operation,’ says François Vittoz, technical head at La Télé. ‘The ease of use that the Aqord ensures through its predefined profiles, as well as its interoperability with equipment from other vendors, were key to our purchase decision. The company’s technology provided exactly the solution we required, and Digigram was able to meet the very short project deadlines we had for setting up the infrastructure.’

Aqord *Link units installed at Bern and at the headends of each receiving broadcaster encode and decode live streams from the Swiss Parliament, and their built-in recording capacity allows for scheduling flexibility. Through this, La Télé, TeleTicino and the regional broadcasters are able to use the direct feed from Bern to provide coverage to all parts of the country.

Digigram has optimised Aqord *Link for content contribution of live events to the studio; contribution from studio to studio or studio to transmitter; or delivery to a content distribution network. Encompassing the functions of a broadcast-quality encoder, decoder, and transcoder, Aqord *Link operates at video data rates from 0.5 to 20Mb/s with input/output to IP stream, internal hard drive, and SDI. Three Gigabit Ethernet RTP-UDP/IP ports transmit and receive streams in either unicast or multicast, enabling flexibility for broadcasters, telcos, and contribution operators.

‘It was important to deliver a solution for the Swiss Parliament that allowed for flexibility and easy scaling when more broadcasters require a feed from Bern,’ says Digigram Video Product Manager, Laurent Gros. ‘Despite a very accelerated timescale, we have been able to provide a tailored system built around Aqord *Link that will allow transmission of parliamentary proceedings to any of the regional broadcasters as and when required.’

More: www.digigram.com