Sky Deutschland Selects Avid MediaCentral Platform for Unified Content Delivery

Avid® (Nasdaq: AVID) today announced that Sky Deutschland, the pay-TV market leader in Germany and Austria, has significantly expanded its investment in the MediaCentral® Platform. Now, with the most open and integrated platform comprising solutions from the Avid Media, Storage and Artist Suites, Sky’s news and sports production teams are empowered with the most comprehensive individual products at every stage of the workflow to create, collaborate, distribute, optimize and monetize its content.

Recognizing the need to update its infrastructure to meet the demands of today’s fast-turnaround, high-quality content-driven environment, Sky needed a future-proofed workflow flexible enough to take advantage of and monetize new and emerging technologies such as Ultra High Definition (UHD).

“Our goal is providing customers the very best TV experience, delivering highly engaging content,” said Kevin Hughes, director of broadcast engineering at Sky Deutschland. “Investment in the MediaCentral Platform provides us with a more scalable, secure and flexible production and delivery environment, future-proofing us to meet the next wave of broadcast industry demands and significantly increasing our efficiency.”

By investing in Avid NEXIS™ software-defined storage platform connected to Avid Media Composer®, Sky is able to quickly and easily acquire, edit, and deliver content in any resolution—including 2K and Ultra HD.

Facilitating collaboration and enabling producers and editors in remote locations and the newsroom to connect more efficiently was another key driver for Sky. Using Avid MediaCentral | UX, the cloud-based web front end to MediaCentral, Sky editors have the freedom to write scripts, view and edit video, record voiceovers, add and preview graphics, search across multiple systems simultaneously, send stories straight to air, and publish to social media platforms or the website, from anywhere, significantly boosting productivity and efficiency.

Prior to adopting MediaCentral, Sky’s audio team operated in a silo. Investment in seven Pro Tools® | S6 modular control surfaces networked and running on the same platform as the news and editing rooms enables the broadcaster to place creativity at the center of its audio workflow, allowing mixers to work more efficiently and fluidly.

“With a catalog of premium sporting content to deliver, including the German Bundesliga, the English Premier League and the UEFA Champions League, Sky Deutschland’s investment in the MediaCentral Platform places the best individual tools at every step of the workflow enabling it to create, distribute and monetize content,” said Jeff Rosica, ‎Senior Vice President, Chief Sales & Marketing Officer at Avid. “Now, with a unified approach to optimize production, Sky’s delivery of this compelling content empowers the broadcaster to engage with and motivate increasingly sophisticated audiences.”

Sky’s investment includes a five-year support contract with Avid Global Services and software upgrades for Avid’s Interplay® Production Asset Management with Avid Interplay Capture and Interplay Archive modules, Avid AirSpeed®, Avid iNEWS®, Avid Pro Tools® and Avid Media Composer® with Avid NewsCutter.