KUALA LUMPUR – The Football Malaysia Limited Liability Partnership (FMLLP), owners of the Malaysian Football League (MFL), have signed up Ideal Systems for three years of live production of the Malaysian Football League (MFL) for leading OTT operator iflix.

 

Owned by the 24-member clubs of the Malaysia Football League, FMLLP commenced live production with Ideal in February 2018 and will continue to November 2020. FMLLP has five Malaysian football entities under its jurisdiction, including Liga Super, Liga Premier, Piala Malaysia, Piala FA and the Sumbangsih cups.

 

The deal will see Ideal Systems provide live production services including encoding and transmission of live matches from venues, IP-based broadcast grade multi-camera production, distribution of matches to various third parties such as Media Prima, RTM and TM UnifiTV, encoding of all matches to the iflix platform, operating the technical and monitoring facility for all matches, live ingest, editing , asset management and publishing facilities and provide a remote production facility for live commentary, graphics and ad insertions.

 

The partnership also covers the Malaysia Cup Knockout Competition, which will now be known as the Unifi Malaysia Cup, a total of about 100 matches a year.

 

iflix is a top tier subscription video-on-demand OTT service provider. From its headquarters in Kuala Lumpur, it serves as a digital hosting and distribution platform offering premium OTT services to more than 6.5 million subscribers in 25 countries across Asia, Middle East and Africa.

 

iflix has collaborated with FMLLP and Ideal Systems to live stream every Liga Super, Piala Malaysia, and Marquee Piala FA matches exclusively for football fans in Malaysia on the new channel Football Malaysia on iflix.

 

Ideal uses cutting-edge IP technology for its Ideal-Live services, facilitating major performance benefits and cost efficacies for FMLLP and iflix. Its new IP production platform incorporates graphics, timers, slow-motion, instant replay, and commentary utilising IT and IP based solutions.

 

The usage of these new IP technologies streamlines production workflows by allowing the use of smaller and quick setup multi-camera production teams, together with new unmanned broadcast grade remote camera systems covering the entire field and backhauling from the stadiums across Malaysia.

 

With the latest Dejero IP, encoders are able to transmit by bonding 4G cellular, public internet and satellite over IP to contribute signals to any location worldwide.

 

“With this technology we are able to transmit any match from venue to any distribution point around the world either to any on premise broadcaster or directly to a cloud-based service or a CDN if desired. This allows FMLLP to quickly scale and provides the flexibility to distribute rights and carriage around the world,” said Fintan McKiernan, CEO of Ideal Systems in Southeast Asia.

 

Dez Corkhill, Director of Content for FMLLP, commented: “We chose Ideal Systems because they offered practical solutions to our specific requirements and were not afraid to suggest and implement innovative technologies to bring football closer to the viewer. We keep throwing new challenges their way, and IDEAL have managed each new situation by creating innovative, near ingenious, solutions, as well as being reliable and consistent in the regular must-have deliverables.”

 

“They’ve been with us every step of the way. From the start, IDEAL were able to cope with very quick turn-around issues and have been integral in all aspects of what we are trying to create: From the cameras on and off the pitch, to the picture on the mobile device, they have offered a strong blend of production values, deep technology understanding, and practical solutions,” Corkhill added.

 

With 14 offices across Asia, Ideal Systems is a leading broadcast and media systems integrator in the region. Ideal is a multinational organisation providing innovative media, design and AV solutions and consultancy to sectors including broadcasting, media, telecoms, corporate and government. Provided services range from systems and business consultancy, software and systems design, systems deployment and support, building of media facilities to live broadcast services.