The project has been enabled with the support of Imagine Communications, a provider of video infrastructure, advertising management and workflow solutions serving the media networks, broadcast stations, online and communication service providers.

OSN needed to upgrade its existing Dubai-based server network - which has been in place for several years and is largely dedicated to its sports channels - to meet rising demand for HDTV content. The new network needed to be able to ingest 12 simultaneous streams and support a minimum of six playout streams at the same time. Completed in January 2015, the implementation of the new servers has already enabled OSN to convert its two remaining SD sports channels to HD.

Already a user of Nexio servers from Imagine Communications, OSN's solution was based on the latest generation Nexio AMP generation 7 servers, attached to a mirrored Nexio Farad SAN, providing 48 TBytes of storage and 9Gb/s bandwidth. To provide for intensive post-production activity on the sports programming, both Imagine Communications Velocity ESX editors and Adobe Premiere Pro software accesses the content on the SAN for editing in place, ensuring edited packages are instantly available for transmission. Also supplied are H.264 browse encode/transcode services and proxy workflows using a rules-based application that automatically determines which high-resolution clips need to be transcoded.

"During the RFP and selection process, local system architects at Imagine Communications in Dubai were able to demonstrate that the Nexio AMP7 and the Farad SAN would support our requirements both now and in the future," explained OSN CTO Mark Billinge. "We were confident from what we had seen. The system allows us to look forward and plan for ever more coverage, exceeding the expectations of our audience."