Below, you can see how Octoshape has solved various problems for some of our current customers. Whether you want your 24/7-signal or major live event broadcast to a global audience, or want a signal sent half-way around the globe without the need for a costly satellite link, Octoshape is the way to go.
The Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) is an annual song contest that has been broadcast every year since 1956, making it one of the longest-running television programs in the world. Not only is it broadcast in all of the participating countries throughout Europe, but the immensely popular event is also aired in countries such as Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand, and the United States, reaching a global audience of more than 100 million.
Due to the massive worldwide interest for the ESC, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) decided to broadcast the event live on the Internet, so that people from around the world could tune in - even if the ESC was not broadcast in their home country. The EBU tested and employed various solutions over the years, but found the soaring costs a major hurdle.
However, in 2006, the EBU turned to Octoshape who gladly accepted the challenge. ESC-TV (a channel entirely dedicated to ESC-coverage) was exclusively available via Octoshape, and broadcast from March until May. The channel covered the draw, semi-finals and the much anticipated final in Athens and the high-quality stream was watched by more than 74 000 viewers!
The EBU was delighted with the quality of the Octoshape solution; with no buffering or dropouts, no busy servers, and a much higher image quality, the 2006 webcast proved that the Octoshape solutions is a viable alternative to traditional broadcasting.
In fact, the EBU found the event so successful that Octoshape is now the preferred streaming partner for EBU live events. Since then, Octoshape has powered webcasts from the Prix Europa award ceremony, the Junior ESC 2006, and in May 2007, the ESC '07 broadcast from Helsinki, Finland, for which more than 100 000 viewers tuned in using Octoshape. Next year, the ESC ‘08 is expected to break this record yet again.
Many users have never experienced a streaming solution that can match the quality of traditional broadcasting before they try Octoshape. After these events, Octoshape’s inboxes were flooded with messages full of praise from excited users.
The German international broadcaster, Deutsche Welle (DW), provides wide coverage of worldwide news and events in culture, music, and politics. DW reaches its worldwide audience by television, radio, and websites in English, German, Spanish, Arabic, and more than 30 other languages.
Its main television channel, DW-TV, is closely followed by Germans traveling or living abroad, or by people with an interest in Germany. Giving viewers access to the live content from anywhere in the world posed unique challenges to the distribution method and costs.
With Octoshape, viewers from all over the world can watch DW-TV with a high-quality, rock-steady, 600 kbit/s feed from Octoshape: An excellent solution that satisfies users and saves money for Deutsche Welle.
GamesTV - a Chinese television channel in the SiTV network - covers various aspects of the computer gaming world and reaches an audience of 10 million people in China. Whenever possible, the station will cover major gaming events such as conventions and tournaments. With Octoshape, GamesTV can easily get live feeds from events anywhere in the world - without the need for a costly satellite feed.
In July 2007, one of the biggest gaming tournaments of the year - The Electronic Sports World Cup 2007 - took place in Paris, France. Naturally, GamesTV was eager to cover this much anticipated event, but getting a television feed half-way around the globe via satellite is a costly and time-consuming affair.
Enter Octoshape. Rather than waste time and money, GamesTV turned to Octoshape for help. In Paris, an encoder was outputting a 2 mbit/s (near-HD) signal of the event coverage that was produced on-site. Using the unique features of the Octoshape solution, this signal was transported half-way around the world to the GamesTV production studio in Shanghai, China. Here, the signal was reprocessed and mixed like any other television signal to add audio and video of the Chinese GamesTV commentators, who were also located in Shanghai.
The Octoshape powered signal was so stable that the final production was broadcast to the Chinese GamesTV viewers on their regular television sets, all unaware that they were actually watching an Internet stream. In other words, a live television feed across the globe with no need for a satellite link.
An Octoshape solution is an inexpensive way to get a stable signal from A to B. With the same technology that ensures rock-steady streaming for Octoshape end users, source signals from on-site productions can be transported via the Internet at little or no cost compared to expensive and inflexible satellite feeds. With Octoshape, broadcasters can get signals from anywhere that has an Internet connection, enabling inexpensive broadcasts from a range of events in sports, music, and entertainment.