Swiss OTT player taps Elemental to deliver live linear TV

AMSTERDAM -- Swiss over-the-top TV provider Wilmaa is using Elemental Technologies' Elemental Live systems to stream 82 live linear television channels, including 8 HD channels, Elemental Thursday announced at the International Broadcasting Convention.

The OTT company is delivering video 24/7 to viewers across a range of devices, with plans to scale its Elemental Live deployment to support several hundred channels in the future for its TV service.

Accessible via Web browser and Android and iPhone smartphones as well as tablet devices, Wilmaa enables viewers in Switzerland to watch TV from national and international broadcasters online, using a model similar to Hulu's.

The service also makes several advanced personalized viewing options, such as DVR and catch-up TV, available to subscribers for a monthly fee.

Wilmaa also is planning to launch its own branded OTT set-top box this fall.

Kolja Wehleit, CEO of Wilmaa Digital World AG, said the service gives viewers access to a wide array of popular live broadcast content on any device and also serves broadcasters, helping them to "efficiently and rapidly grow their audiences."

"The encoding density, picture quality and software flexibility available with Elemental systems is vital to our ability to delight viewers and broadcasters alike," said Wehleit, who will head up the team developing the STB this year.

To make monetizing the platform more efficient, Elemental partnered with Swiss company Sàrl, an ad insertion platform. The company also provides digital ad insertion and system integration for cable and IPTV-operators in order to design, install and manage the operational parts of the headend, including the Elemental encoding platform.

In Wilmaa's deployment, Elemental Live systems receive 24/7 broadcast satellite feeds via IP-based UDP input, then process HD and standard-definition single program transport streams (SPTS) into adaptive bitrate RTMP outputs. Elemental Conductor manages Elemental Live systems in a redundant configuration, providing a central management console for all 82 channels to ensure high service availability. Finally, video streams are delivered via a CDN to end-user devices.

Elemental is demonstrating its full suite of video processing solutions at the IBC2013 Conference and exhibition September 13-17 in Hall 4, Stand 4.B75 of the Amsterdam RAI.

Show coverage: IBCLive 2013

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