Corona Energy, which is a leader in commercial gas supply, has equipped its new call centre in Watford, Hertfordshire, with an Intevi Digital Television (idt) IPTV solution.
The company wanted to be able to broadcast a mixture of terrestrial TV (DVB-T/T2) and Sky channels with personalised staff messaging throughout the new building. The original plan was to install basic co-ax cabling to each screen to keep costs to a minimum. However, the company found that using internal network cabling allowed for a cheaper and trouble-free installation with only a CAT5 cable necessary. It also meant that future expansion of additional TVs would be straightforward requiring only a CAT5 connection, a TV and an idt receiver.
Consisting of six standalone products, Intevi’s idt solution allows businesses to centrally control any number of live TV channels, overlay specific video zones with unique branding and broadcast simultaneously to an unlimited number of screens using standard network cabling. Administrators can plug their TV aerial into an idt Ministreamer, use the quick setup process, then scan for multiplexes and select channels to broadcast as multicast IP. An idt receiver then converts the incoming IP signals back to traditional HDMI video for high definition digital viewing. The ‘brains’ of the entire IPTV system is a centralised management and content distribution software engine that controls what TV channels and messaging is seen at each end point. It also provides playback looping, scheduling and day-parting support as well as usage tracking statistics.
Idt’s ability to combine IPTV with branded messaging in multiple content windows is a key product benefit. The receiver’s in-built graphical layer allows an administrator to overlay and customise dynamic content with transparent images, logos, real-time promotions, scrolling text messages, RSS and Twitter feeds, breaking news, weather and more. These can then be triggered independently from a separate paging application or via a web connection or iPad app. This is said to be a key feature for any business that wants to share pre-defined corporate messaging or alerts for staff such as fire alarm instructions, sandwich van arrival, administration or IT helpdesk updates. The solution also includes emergency broadcast video stream support so that, when active, it will interrupt each screen on the network. What’s more, by adding a camera to the multicast network, the feed can be broadcast as an internal TV channel to viewers located anywhere in the building on large format screens, TV’s, PC’s and laptops.
“The ability to centrally control TV channels and for us to post staff communication alerts and welcome messages to visitors in reception is a huge benefit over traditional co-ax TV systems,” said Nasaar Hussain, IT manager at Corona Energy. “Using our standard network cabling makes managing the system and adding future screens a much easier process for us. Being able to brand the TV channels also gives a much better corporate feel than just full screen video.”
