Caton Technology, a pioneer in next-generation IP network transport solutions, has implemented the first stage of a new contribution network for Eleven Sports in Taiwan, which operates two television channels and online sports streaming in Taiwan.

The service is the national rights holder for many of the premium global sports brands, including NBA and MLB from the USA, and the English Premier League. Traditionally, each of these sports bodies provided their own distribution circuits from their bases to the Eleven Sports Taiwan broadcast centre in Taipei, using different service providers over satellite or leased lines.

Keen to take control of its incoming content, the broadcaster decided to search for an alternative solution that could deliver a high-quality and reliable signal that was also cost-effective. Caton put forward a proof-of-concept demonstration of its CatonNet Video Platform (CVP), a turnkey, door-to-door delivery transport built on widespread interconnectivity and the Caton Transport Protocols (CTP) for high performance and stability.

“The demonstration showed that CVP delivered a very stable service, with latency significantly better than previous systems,” said Allen Hou, Programming Manager of Eleven Sports. “It also fixed problems that we had experienced, like audio synchronization, delays and phase errors. All in all, it gave us the improved quality and better delivery speed we were looking for in a premium service, consistently and without issues.”

As a result of the success of the NBA contribution service, Caton was awarded a five-year contract to deliver live Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) coverage from Japan to Taiwan, using CVP, CTP and Caton’s Network Monitoring System (NMS). With ultra-low latency, it allows Eleven Sports Taiwan to deliver high-value content faster than ever before.

Gerald Wong, Senior Vice President, Global Operations of Caton Technology added “With points of presence in more than 60 countries worldwide, CVP can provide a comprehensive service to link any event to any broadcaster around the world. And, as well as guaranteeing quality, we also provide a cost-effective service: Eleven Sports in Taiwan will be saving as much as 50% on its contribution circuit costs thanks to CVP.”

The service is now being rolled out across all of the broadcaster’s activities in Taiwan, which started with NBA coverage in mid-February 2022.