ALTITUDE STREAM TV, BY ENCOMPASS, SUPPORTS DAZN’S RAPID CHANNEL EXPANSION IN THE LIVE SPORTS ARENA
Altitude Stream TV is a globally deployed, cloud-native service that takes the pain out of aggregating, encoding and packaging content for streaming and OTT platforms.
Since launching in 2015, DAZN has become more than an OTT platform for watching sports; it is an interactive sports entertainment platform. DAZN is a leading disruptor in the industry, changing the way the world consumes sports – combining live events and linear channels with betting and gaming, e-commerce and ticketing, news and analysis all in one place and on one device. Encompass, a managed service provider, offers unrivalled access to live sports around the world with its vast connectivity that feeds DAZN’s OTT video pipeline directly from Altitude Media Cloud.
Challenges
Fans increasingly demand the ability to consume and engage with a wide variety of sports content worldwide. Therefore, DAZN needs the ability to quickly add multiple 24/7 channels to their platform without disrupting infrastructure developments. This requires aggregating content from different regions globally and meeting strict technical, quality and launch criteria. These combined complexities have the potential to distract from DAZN’s core proposition of providing a first-class user experience while scaling the business.
Solutions
Altitude Stream TV onboards channels, conforms to platform specifications and delivers to tier 1 CDNs, enabling DAZN to rapidly spin up new services. Encompass’ global reach offers seamless aggregation of premium content at the highest quality from satellite, cable and playout centres directly into Altitude Media Cloud.
Powerful ABR encoding, JIT packaging and encryption are deployed securely in geo-redundant cloud regions. Within Altitude, Encompass encodes signals to multi-bitrate ABR ladders (including 1080p 59.94) and packages content to meet the formats required for all devices, such as HLS, MPEGDASH and Microsoft Smooth Streaming (MSS). Security is vital. DAZN entrusts Encompass with their most valuable asset – their content. All streams are encrypted with Fairplay, Widevine or PlayReady via CPIX protocol. Encompass supports DAZN’s multi-CDN strategy by peering directly from Altitude Media Cloud and deploying intelligent manifest manipulation. This ensures viewers are connected to the perfect stream, providing the optimum user experience. Encompass has recently deployed ad replacement and variable DVR window features for NFL Network, part of DAZN’s NFL Game Pass service.
Globally Recognized Brands
Dazn and encompass are united in their commitment to providing an unparallelld customer experience
Results
Fans increasingly demand the ability to consume and engage with a wide variety of sports content worldwide. Therefore, DAZN needs the ability to quickly add multiple 24/7 channels to their platform without disrupting infrastructure developments. This requires aggregating content from different regions globally and meeting strict technical, quality and launch criteria. These combined complexities have the potential to distract from DAZN’s core proposition of providing a first-class user experience while scaling the business.
“We have a partnership built on many years of trust, and Encompass has become a dynamic extension of DAZN. Beyond the agile and resilient nature of Altitude Stream TV, we rely on Encompass’ managed services to provide superior monitoring, business continuity and contribution, giving us the confidence to focus on being the world’s leading sports entertainment platform.”
Richard Bartlam Broadcast & Production Operations, DAZN
