Broomfield, Colorado – Alticast announced on February 26 that its Alticast Media Cloud Platform has enabled Korean Telecom (KT) SkyLife (SkyLife), a South Korean satellite television broadcaster, to launch its “SkyLife on Demand” (SOD) service, the world’s first large-scale deployment of a Cloud-based personal video recorder (PVR) service.
SkyLife’s olleh TV SkyLife service — which combines direct-to-home (DTH) television programming with KT’s video on demand (VOD) services — was launched in August 2009 and today offers multiscreen TV Everywhere services for channels, HD programming and VOD titles. Now SkyLife is enhancing their TV service with its SOD service, enabling each subscriber to record many channels simultaneously using Cloud storage.
“Our new Cloud-based SOD service is the most recent example of our commitment to providing subscribers the very latest broadband video and data services delivered with the outstanding quality and reliability they have come to expect from our services,” said Ji-Woong Kim, leader of SkyLife’s new business development team. “To deploy this new service, we turned to our trusted partner Alticast, which supported our initial launch of interactive TV and is following it up with the software solutions and expertise we need for this important new project.”
“SkyLife continues to make advances in TV Everywhere technology with its state-of-the-art Cloud-based PVR service,” said Thomas Jung, Alticast’s Chief Marketing Officer. “In addition to SkyLife, major cable operators, telecom carriers, satellite providers and other service providers worldwide are in various stages of exploring Cloud-based PVR services to leverage the inherent advantages of virtual storage. The success of SkyLife’s SOD service validates both the concept of Cloud-based PVRs and the capabilities of our Alticast Media Cloud Platform.”
At the heart of SkyLife’s SOD service is the Alticast Media Cloud Platform, which is comprised of four major components: a Cloud content ingest/delivery system, a Cloud service system, a Cloud media storage system and a Cloud streaming system. Each component is optional and inter-operable with any existing pieces of a service provider’s Cloud-based PVR system. SkyLife is also using the Alticast AltiProtect DRM solution to ensure content protection by encrypting content when it is recorded.
Complementing its SOD service, SkyLife already offers an existing catch-up service, which utilises local USB storage to optimise network bandwidth. When content rights do not allow for programmes to be stored in the Cloud, they are instead recorded at the customer premise using USB storage. Subscribers locate recorded content via the STB UI and then seamlessly play the programs regardless of location. Cloud-stored content allows viewing flexibility as these videos can be played back on approved mobile devices.
