Imagine Communications has secured the contract to transition the playout facilities at Jordan Media City (JMC) in Amman, Jordan, from SD to HD. The first phase of the expansion will allow JMC to add six new ART HD channels to support its growing roster of international clients.
JMC was established 15 years ago as the first private media city in the Middle East, providing state-of-the-art technology and experienced staff for regional and international clients. Today, more than 400 channels are broadcast from the facility, which links directly to Arabsat, Nilesat, Yahsat and AsiaSat satellite platforms covering the different regions. The expansion will help JMC to answer increasing demand for HD-quality programming in the region.
At the heart of the JMC installation will be Imagine Communications' Nexio servers. The Nexio AMP, a UHD-ready platform, delivers exceptional reliability, flexibility and format transparency while providing HD-SDI ingest, preview and playout. Nexio Farad centralized online storage will enabletrue shared access for fast on-SAN editing for Apple Final Cut Pro editors. The Farad storage network's intrinsic mirroring functionality provides resiliency, ensuring high availability of the platform.
Along with the new storage network, Imagine Communications is supplying its Platinum VX digital video router, as well as its monitoring, conversion, synchronization and test and measurement solutions. The JMC system will also incorporate Imagine Communications' Nexio IconLogo high-definition channel branding system to provide downstream branding for the new channels. The Imagine Communications solution is easily scalable and designed to accommodate additional expansion in the future.
""As our business grows, we are looking to provide the highest quality services to our clients while simplifying our workflows to remain operationally efficient,"" said Faris Abdullah, CTO at JMC. ""We have worked with Imagine Communications for more than 10 years, and we know the company has reliable products and excellent support in the region. They will deliver what they promise, and will ensure we get on air on schedule.""
Paul Wallis, sales director for the Middle East and Africa at Imagine Communications, commented: ""Over the course of our longstanding relationship we have seen JMC grow into a world-class facility, now ranked in the top 20 globally. We are proud to be playing a critical role in the next phase of JMC's continued maturation. Crucial to the success of this latest installation is the continued investment by Imagine Communications in a strong design and support group on the ground in the Middle East, which understands the real issues of the customer and can react quickly.""
The ART channels are scheduled to go on air in spring 2016.
